GE will split into three units, ending conglomerate for good

General Electric Co. will split into three separate companies in a stunning breakup of the iconic manufacturer founded by Thomas Edison whose sprawling businesses once made it the world’s most valuable company. The shares surged.

GE will spin off its healthcare business in early 2023 and combine its renewable energy, fossil-fuel power and digital units into a single energy-focused entity that will be spun off a year later, the company said Tuesday. The remaining company will consist of GE Aviation, its jet-engine division.

“What we’re doing today is creating three outstanding investmentgrade, global leaders in health care, aviation and energy,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp said in an interview. “GE has led in these markets for a long time and today we’re setting ourselves up for another century of leadership.”

GE shares rose 5.7% to $114.60 at 9:53 a.m. in New York and earlier gained as much as 7.1%, the most intraday since May 27. The Boston-based company said it expects to take a one-time $2 billion charge from separation, transition and operational costs tied to the plan, plus tax costs of less than $500 million.

“The breakup makes strategic sense,” Deane Dray, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. The breakup could generate 20% upside to GE’S current share price, according to his analysis. There will be “attractive value to be unlocked.”

The sweeping plan marks the end of an era in which conglomerates defined much of 20th century corporate America and follows the break-up of several other large, diversified companies as investors favor focus over breadth. Dray, in his analyst note, cited 3M Co., Emerson Electric Co. and Roper Technologies Inc. as candidates for possible separations.

In a call with analysts, Culp called the announcement a “defining moment” for GE.

Culp’s vision is also a rebuke of the strategy championed by Culp’s larger-than-life predecessors, including Jack Welch, who famously built the company into a diversified juggernaut with businesses spanning television, finance, energy and many other unrelated markets. Welch’s successor as CEO and chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, continued to reshape the company over some 16 years starting in 2001, though with notably less success.

One sign of how much GE had fallen by the wayside: 20 years ago, it was the world’s largest company with a market capitalization of $401 billion. Five years ago it was just hanging on in the top 10; and as of Monday there were dozens with bigger market caps in the S&P 500.