FINAL TRANSCRIPT Conference Call Transcript GE - Q1 2010 General Electric Earnings Webcast Event Date/Time: Apr 16, 2010 / 12:30PM GMT "Results are preliminary and unaudited. This document contains “forward-looking statements”- that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “see,” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, particular uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements include: the severity and duration of current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; the impact of U.S. and foreign government programs to restore liquidity and stimulate national and global economies; the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets on the availability and cost of General Electric Capital Corporation’s (GECC) funding and on our ability to reduce GECC’s asset levels as planned; the impact of conditions in the housing market and unemployment rates on the level of commercial and consumer credit defaults; our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so; the soundness of other financial institutions with which GECC does business; the adequacy of our cash flow and earnings and other conditions which may affect our ability to maintain our quarterly dividend at the current level; the level of demand and financial performance of the major industries we serve, including, without limitation, air and rail transportation, energy generation, network television, real estate and healthcare; the impact of regulation and regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks, including the impact of proposed financial services regulation; strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions and our success in integrating acquired businesses; and numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business and competitive nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.” “This document may also contain non-GAAP financial information. Management uses this information in its internal analysis of results and believes that this information may be informative to investors in gauging the quality of our financial performance, identifying trends in our results and providing meaningful period-to-period comparisons. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures presented in this document, see the accompanying supplemental information posted to the investor relations section of our website at www.ge.com .” “Effective January 1, 2010, we reorganized our segments. We have reclassified prior-period amounts to conform to the current-period’s presentation.” “In this document, “GE” refers to the Industrial businesses of the Company including GECS on an equity basis. “GE (ex. GECS)” and/or “Industrial” refer to GE excluding Financial Services.” Conference call transcript provided by Thomson Reuters. GE assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors, misstatements or omissions made by Thomson Reuters in the transcription process. 1 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us © 2010 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. FINAL TRANSCRIPT Apr 16, 2010 / 12:30PM GMT, GE - Q1 2010 General Electric Earnings Webcast CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS Trevor Schauenberg General Electric Company - VP Corporate Investor Communications Jeff Immelt General Electric Company - Chairman, CEO Keith Sherin General Electric Company - Vice Chairman, CFO CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS Chris Glynn Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst Scott Davis Morgan Stanley - Analyst Steven Winoker Sanford Bernstein - Analyst Jeff Sprague Vertical Research Partners - Analyst Steve Tusa JPMorgan - Analyst John Inch BoA-ML - Analyst Bob Cornell Barclays Capital - Analyst Terry Darling Goldman Sachs - Analyst PRESENTATION Operator Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the General Electric first-quarter 2010 earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. My name is Noelia and I will be your conference coordinator today. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the program over to your host for today's conference, Trevor Schauenberg, Vice President of Investor Communications. Please proceed. Trevor Schauenberg - General Electric Company - VP Corporate Investor Communications Thank you, Noelia. Good morning and welcome, everyone. We are pleased to host today's first-quarter 2010 earnings webcast. Regarding the materials for this webcast, we issued the press release this morning, and the presentation slides are available via the webcast. The slides are also available for download and printing on our website at www.GE.com/investor. We will have time for Q&A at the end. As always, elements of this presentation are forward-looking and are based on our best view of the world and our businesses as we see them today. Those elements can change as the world changes. Please interpret them in that light. 2 FINAL TRANSCRIPT Apr 16, 2010 / 12:30PM GMT, GE - Q1 2010 General Electric Earnings Webcast For today's webcast we have our Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, and our Vice Chairman and CFO Keith Sherin. Now I would like to turn it over to our Chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt. Jeff Immelt - General Electric Company - Chairman, CEO Great, Trevor. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. On the overview page, look, we think this was a good quarter. Our environment continues to improve. We saw some encouraging signs in places like revenue passenger miles and losses declining in GE Capital. The business model is performing. We've got better margins and strong cash flow. And really most metrics in GE Capital improved in the quarter; Keith will go through that. The losses, delinquencies, and non-earning assets all declined. We think the 2010 framework remains achievable, really with upside potential, based on how we are doing at GE Capital. We see earnings growth for the balance of 2010. And we might do more restructuring and financial asset sales to position us for the future. We continue to invest in research and development and restructuring, and we really think this quarter is a pretty good testament to our ability to grow earnings and dividends in 2011 and beyond. So we feel really good about how we finished the quarter and where we are positioned. We reviewed the next page several times vis-a-vis GE Capital and some of the critical metrics around Safe & Secure. Our long-term debt funding is in great shape. We have funded about $8 billion year-to-date. The funding costs are low, and we feel very, very good about how we are positioned here. Our commercial paper is on track. Leverage particularly -- and Keith will go through the impact of FAS 167 -- is declining. Our capital structure is very strong. And the lower rate really just updates our goals on ending that investment. It factors in the impact of FASB 167, the impact of the GE Capital corporate, some of the FX pluses and minuses that change over time. If you put in those factors, we stand at $516 billion today. We reduced $22 billion in the last quarter. And we're on track, I think, for a number that we used to talk about as being $400 billion -- of about $440 billion as we go through this, these changes. So we're on track. We are actually ahead of plan there. You know, it boils down to about $20 billion or $25 billion reduction per year; and we feel like that is in great shape and we're making good progress towards those goals. We had $17.1 billion in orders. The backlog is stable. Equipment is heading towards easier comps. Service really would have been flat except for a couple of one-time orders in Transportation last year. We've got a strong pipeline of commitments. A lot of our new orders are coming from outside the United States, a strong pipeline of commitments. There is a $1.2 billion Iraq order that has moved through their process. It's a solid commitment that will turn into an order in the second quarter. So that gives you a sense of some of the backlog that we've got on orders going forward. Like I said, a lot of the orders are coming from outside the United States right now. The Tech Infra macro environment is improving, and we feel really good about the backlog, the visibility, and our position as we go through the remainder and balance of the year. Margins were healthy in the quarter. We had expanding margins ex the Olympics. This gives you a sense of the dynamics. Energy, Healthcare, Home & Business Solutions had good expansion. Our service margins across the Company expanded by 250 basis points. And NBC, because of the Olympics, was a drag on margins overall. A lot of that is driven by a positive value gap. We are holding price in backlog. We are seeing positive new order pricing on the index and still getting deflation. And we think the value gap will continue into the future. And then restructuring benefits continue to pay off. We saw about $500 million based on a lot of the work we have been doing in the last few years.