GE Restructures Wabtec Spinoff in Deal That Will Net It $3.4B in Cash
General Electric Co. (GE) - Get General Electric Company Report shares rose 4.3% by the close of trading Friday after the company announced that it was restructuring the planned spinoff of its transportation division.
GE announced last May that it will merge its transportation unit, which manufactures freight locomotives and has been under GE control for a century, with rival Wabtec Corp. (WAB) - Get Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation Report in a deal valued at $11 billion.
The revised deal will give a majority stake in the new company to Wabtec shareholders (50.8%) while GE shareholders get 24.3% and GE gets 24.9% of the new company. Under the original deal, 49.9% of the company went to Wabtec shareholders with 40.2% going to GE shareholders and 9.9% going to GE.
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Wabtec shares closed down 3.5% on Friday.
This new structure turns GE's side of the deal into a taxable dividend for the company and its shareholders. GE will receive about $3.4 billion in cash as part of the restructured deal and the company said that it could use the money to pay down some of its $100 billion debt, which would benefit bondholders.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of February, the companies said.
