GE sees growth in 'solid' quarter

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- General Electric's profit rose 14 percent in the third quarter on strong global sales of airplane engines, locomotives and other equipment that have led to a record order backlog.

The Fairfield, Conn.-based industrial, finance and media conglomerate, whose properties range from aircraft engine manufacturing to the NBC television network, reaffirmed its profit outlook for the year.

The company said Friday it earned $5.54 billion, or 54 cents per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30, up from $4.87 billion, or 47 cents a share, a year ago.

GE took a $1.4 billion charge for its planned sale of a Japanese personal loan business and a mortgage business, while realizing a gain of $1.8 billion from the sale of its plastic business.

Earnings from continuing operations were 50 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings per share of 50 cents.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $42.5 billion from $37.8 billion a year earlier.

GE Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Immelt called it a solid quarter' despite "extreme volatility in the financial services market" and some one-time items in its industrial businesses.

"The global markets remain very strong," Immelt said. "We continue to see solid growth everywhere."

GE has benefited from strong demand in China, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Brazil and other countries that are buying fleets of airplanes, building new railroads and expanding their power capacity by buying gas and wind turbines.

While analysts said that global demand for GE products was encouraging, they cited weakness in health care and flat revenue in the industrial business.