General Electric Co. (GE.N) has the leadership and resources to pull out of its tailspin and won’t become a problem for lenders or the credit market, Morgan Stanley (MS.N) Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said.
“The market over-worries,” Gorman said in a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday. “GE is a fantastic institution. They have tremendous ability to restructure.”
Shares of the manufacturing company have tumbled 56 per cent this year, partly on concern its financing arm, GE Capital, will need a large capital infusion and on speculation the performance of its power unit will continue to deteriorate. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned of a potential “tail risk” at the financing unit in slashing its price target on the shares to US$9 from US$12 last week.
GE CEO Larry Culp is raising cash amid mounting pressure to reduce debt, with the company’s shares near a nine-year low and the cost of insuring its bonds against default jumping. GE fell 2.6 per cent to US$7.64 at 1:37 p.m. in New York.
“Larry Culp is doing a great job,” Gorman said. “He’s been thrown into an incredibly tumultuous situation. I have a lot of empathy, I’ve walked a few miles in those shoes myself.”
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