Sky burial

8 March 2021 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

Merging the aircraft leasing unit with rival AerCap may not erase debt that weighs on the U.S. conglomerate. But it would leave a sleeker GE with more options to raise cash. Boss Larry Culp has to navigate politics, though. And like Baker Hughes, risks to execution loom large.

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General Electric is in talks to merge its aircraft leasing business with Irish rival AerCap, Reuters reported on March 8, citing financial sources. GECAS, the division in discussions, had $35.9 billion of assets at the end of 2020.

Since Chief Executive Larry Culp took over in October 2018, GE has unloaded businesses to streamline the U.S. conglomerate and pay down debt.

It divested a biopharma unit to Culp’s former employer Danaher for $21.4 billion, and has been selling down a stake in oil services company Baker Hughes.

GECAS had $50 million of earnings in 2020, driven by an impairment of $836 million, after tax, in the second quarter of the year.

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