With the split of General Electric, corporate America is losing an industrial conglomerate, but Greater Cincinnati appears poised to add a new Fortune 500 company.
On Tuesday, GE announced it would chop itself into three stand-alone companies: aviation, healthcare and energy – with the later two being spun off in 2023 and 2024 respectively. That leaves GE Aviation, based in Cincinnati suburb Evendale, as the remaining unit.
"Following these transactions, GE will be an aviation-focused company shaping the future of flight," the company said Tuesday.
General Electric did not immediately discuss where the three companies will be headquartered.
"(It's) too early to say," GE Aviation Nick Hurm told The Enquirer.
Nearly a quarter of the aviation unit's 40,000 employees, work in Southwest Ohio, more than 7,000 in Greater Cincinnati alone and 9,000 including Dayton.
GE Aviation is responsible for making the region an aerospace hub: besides its local workers, it feeds a network of 150 smaller companies in the industry, many of them contractors.
GE CEO Larry Culp said he would serve as non-executive chairman of the GE healthcare company upon its spin-off, but remain CEO of GE, then "lead the GE aviation-focused company going forward."
The company said the split gives the three resulting businesses stronger focus and better financial flexibility.
John Slattery continues as CEO of Aviation, the company said. In a statement, Slattery said the future looked bright for a company focused on aviation.
"I am grateful for the commitment and dedication of my colleagues all across GE Aviation...It is because of all of you that we can look ahead to this new chapter with such enthusiasm and optimism," Slattery said.
Though hammered during the 2020 COVID-19 recession and aviation industry slowdown, GE Aviation in recent years has been both the largest, most profitable and fastest-growing unit of the troubled Boston-based conglomerate.
With $22 billion in 2020 revenues, GE Aviation would be the region's third-largest Fortune 500 company, behind supermarket titan Kroger and consumer products giant Procter & Gamble.
Greater Cincinnati is home to seven Fortune 500 companies in the most recent list: Kroger, P&G, regional bank Fifth Third, insurers Western & Southern Financial Group, American Financial Group, Cincinnati Financial and Cintas, a uniform renter and business supplier.
Historically, Greater Cincinnati has been a hub for a diverse mix of major corporations, but in recent years merger-and-acquisition mania and other restructuring has cut down the roster of heavy-hitters.
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