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发表于 15-10-2007 02:31 AM
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GE的新闻。
Taking its time
Magazine: Malaysian Business
Issue: June 1, 2007
By: Yvonne Chong
Page: 36 & 37
General Electric International, Inc (GE) has for years been eyeing a bigger slice of the local financial services pie, one of the largest in the region. Despite its hunger for more of the lucrative sector as soon as possible, it remains patient as it hunts for a suitable target to bring into the trajectory of its fast-growing global financial services business.
Earlier this year, GE had attempted to acquire a chunk of EON Capital Bhd. Recent talk is that it is now targeting to acquire up to 25% of RCE Capital Bhd. GE President for Southeast Asia Stuart Dean, however, dismisses the talk as ‘mere speculation’.
‘There was no discussion,’ maintains Dean, who is also the GE country manager for Malaysia.
Is GE talking to anyone else? ‘We are almost always talking to the investment banks,’ Dean says, declining to reveal or hint on any names.
‘No hints. Not with the RCE experience. Even when no one from GE said anything, as soon as there was a rumour, people jumped on it,’ he quips. He was referring to recent news reports which quoted unnamed sources as saying that GE Capital was in talks to acquire a stake in RCE Capital, a listed investment holding company.
With regards to EON Capital, Dean says there has been no ongoing discussion.
The hunt continues for another financial services outfit to buy into.
‘Building our own from scratch will take two to three years to reach profitability. We would prefer to buy into an existing profitable financial services institution where we can add value, and improve their current operations by bringing in our global best practices and our technology,’ he says.
As of now, GE is not in a hurry to make any acquisition, as it is ‘more of a value buyer than a premium buyer’.
‘We have no deadline to make a purchase. We are committed to the market. This is one of the largest financial services market in Southeast Asia so it is important we be here, but we want to do it the right way. We don’t want to overpay and right now, valuations are pretty high in Malaysia as they are in most places. In our more recent deals – in Cambodia and Turkey – the valuations had not been super high. Certainly, over time, we will do something in the Malaysian market, just the time is impossible to predict,’ Dean says.
The prospect of GE Commercial Finance is brighter than GE Consumer Finance (GE Money) in Malaysia at the moment, as the former has many product lines, says Dean.
‘We are looking at areas such as non-performing loans (NPLs) and commercial real estate – our primary targets in Malaysia in Financial Services. Financial services currently accounts for about 5% of our total revenue in Malaysia. There is a good likelihood we will have some transactions this year,’ he adds.
GE aims to grow its financial services business in Malaysia to be on par with the global business. GE Money, which spans over more than 50 countries, generated some US$ 22 billion last year, out of US$ 160 billion in total revenue. It is among GE’s fastest – growing businesses and its most global, with more than two-thirds of the revenue coming from outside the United States. GE Commercial Finance, meanwhile, generated US$ 24 billion last year, slightly more than GE Money.
Emerging markets such as Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region are vital to GE. Nearly 60% of GE’s growth will come from emerging markets in the next decade, compared to 20% in the past 10 years.
‘We are redirecting company resources to develop deep roots in these countries and take advantage of the emerging middle-classes and help sell stuff that will support their lifestyle and ambitions,’ Dean says.
Deans says that GE is targeting to grow 15%-20% annually in Malaysia, depending on the overall growth rate of the nation. Globally, GE tries to grow 2x-3x the GDP growth rate of the countries it operates in and Malaysia is growing at around 5.5%. The company has been growing by about 20% in the last three years in Malaysia as well as in Southeast Asia.
‘Most of it would be organic growth but I hope some of it would also be inorganic, primarily in the financial services business,’ he says.
Among GE’s businesses expected to grow is its transport business, primarily the aircraft engine business. The growth would be fuelled by AirAsia Bhd’s continued uptake of GE engines into its fleet and optimism that Malaysia Airlines would update its fleet with GE engines over the next few years once it has restructured. The increased uptake would also result in the expansion of GE Engine Services Malaysia (GEESM), a GE-Malaysia Airlines aircraft repair and overhaul facility. The facility caters to the servicing requirements of more than 35 airlines throughout Asia, and about half of the business comes from outside Malaysia.
Dean sees GE’s oil and gas business as having ‘a lot of scope to grow, with Petronas as its primary customer in Malaysia; not only in new projects but also developing in country service capabilities’. He believes the market is also ripe for creative for creative solutions in treatment and recycling of water for industrial use in order to reduce the strain on traditional water sources.
‘Healthcare is another area for growth. Malaysia regards healthcare as a priority and is in the process of building some 13 hospitals in the country. Also there are plans for a healthcare area in the Iskandar Development Region. The government is spending money on healthcare for the people and this area is our strong suit – both in diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT,’ he adds.
When asked about the challenges in operating in this part of the world, Dean says hiring the best talent for future leadership, and making the right initial investments are the most challenging tasks.
‘You need to invest into a country to really start to develop deep roots there. I’m always amazed at how creative people can get when they are challenged to make that locally incorporated entity survive and be successful,’ he says, nothing that local incorporation of businesses has resulted in their penetration and success levels growing by multiple times.
‘We don’t have the same results in businesses we have not made such an investment (setting up a local company). That’s why it is so important that we make some headway in financial services.’ Dean adds.
GE is committed to clean technology and has in May 2005 launched ‘ecomagination’, a solid business strategy to increase its revenue by providing solutions for customers that will improve their operating performance and environmental impact. Under ecomagination, GE has pledged to double its investment in clean R&D, expanding the budget from US$700 million in 2005 to US$1.5 billion in 2010. It has also set an ambitious target of growing its revenues from ecomagination products to US$ 20 billion by 2010.
GE has invested in a lot of renewable technologies, including cleaner energy sources such as wind turbines, solar and cleaner coal power generation. It boasts of having the world’s most energy-efficient and least polluting aircraft engine, and the most efficient Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle System (IGCC).
According to Dean, very few of the ecomagination-certified products are used in Malaysia, but many of the technologies that exist in the eco-products are driven in the entire product line.
‘The aircraft engines that we sell in Malaysia are among the most energy efficient,’ he says.
Dean notes that Malaysia is currently ‘blessed with an oversupply of electricity-generation capacity’ but at some point of time, it would have to build new power plants.
‘At that point, I think the clean-coal technology will be of much interest to Malaysia. We are building some prototype plants in the United States, which will hopefully get us along the learning curve and get them to be more competitive against the traditional pulverised coal plants,’ he says.
GE also sees opportunity to market its Jeanbacher Coal Mine Methane – Landfill Gas – Biogas Power Generation in Malaysia.
‘We have also converted locomotive engines for stationary power applications and they are being certified to run on palm oil,’ he adds.
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