India, Dividend, Oklahoma Wind Farm, Electric Vehicle Charging, and China Growth

GE Official: India Should Incentivize Manufacturing
India's tax regime often favors importing finished products rather than components and raw materials, and the Indian government needs to offer new incentives to stimulate homegrown manufacturing, a senior Indian official at General Electric Co. said Monday.
V. Raja, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare South Asia, said in an interview that the import tariff on finished goods that GE brings into India typically runs at about 10%. Because of the way the tariff structure works, the duty on the import of components or raw materials necessary for local manufacturing often amount to more than 10%.

GE's board of directors authorise USD0.10 quarterly dividend
The board of directors of General Electric Company on Friday authorised a regular quarterly dividend of USD0.10 per outstanding share of its common stock.
The dividend pay out will be made on 26 April 2010 to shareowners of record at the close of business on 1 March 2010. The ex-dividend date is 25 February 2010. 

GE to invest $65 mln in Oklahoma windfarm
GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of the General Electric Co. said Tuesday it will provide $65 million to fund construction of a wind farm near Woodward, Okla. The wind farm will be developed by CPV Renewable Energy Co., an affiliate of Competitive Power Venture Inc. The project is scheduled to be completed by year's end and will produce enough energy to power about 45,000 homes. In addition to the initial funding, GE will provide an option for $100 million more in partnership equity upon commencement of commercial operations. The total cost of the wind farm is projected to be $319 million, and will also be financed with a $212 million loan from The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Union Bank.

GE Links With Juice for Smart Electric Vehicle Charging
General Electric plans to get into smart charging for electric vehicles in a big way this year, and it’s partnering with 2-year-old Juice Technologies to do it. This morning the companies announced a joint development agreement to create charging devices that will integrate with GE’s smart meters and Juice’s Plug Smart intelligent charging system, helping drivers to juice up their batteries when power grid demands and electricity rates are lower (see our list of 10 Electric Car Smart Charging Players to Watch). According to today’s release, “initial” chargers under the agreement will roll out in the U.S. in the second quarter of this year, “with full-scale production ramping up throughout the year.” Down the road, GE and Juice are targeting global distribution.

According to Thomas Hurkmans, co-founder and chief financial officer for Juice, whose products carry the brand Plug Smart, today’s deal is exclusive. “Every time GE builds a smart charging system for electric vehicles,” he said, “it will be with us.” GE has agreed to work with Juice and finance the development and manufacturing of EV charging systems, which will be co-branded and “sold through multiple channels,” including GE’s network.

GE’s Rice Says China Isn’t Slowing; 750 Hires Planned
General Electric Co., the world’s biggest maker of jet engines and locomotives, said its businesses in China aren’t slowing down and the company will add about 750 salespeople in the country this year and more in 2011.

“Someday, the market in China is going to look like the market in the U.S., and we’ve got to be equipped with the resources to serve the market in the same way,” Vice Chairman John Rice, who oversees GE’s Technology Infrastructure segment, said today at the Barclays Capital Industrial Select Conference in Miami. “We think it’s critical to our success there.”
GE, which gets more than half of its sales outside the U.S., considers the benefits of operating in China outweighing the risks, such as intellectual property rules that aren’t ideal, Rice said. GE last year announced joint ventures to develop high-speed rail and avionics in the country that will create hundreds and preserve thousands of U.S. jobs, he said.