General Electric Co. began its annual shareholders meeting at the Prime Osborn Convention Center on Wednesday by showing some television commercials that you’ve probably already seen in recent months.
The commercials feature “Owen,” a young man explaining he’s going to work as a programmer for GE, which confuses friends and family who think of the company as an industrial giant.
The ads are promoting GE’s transition into what it calls the “first digital industrial company,” Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt told shareholders.
“We think this is the transition that every company has to make and GE is in the forefront,” he said.
GE’s transition included the sale of its financial services businesses last year and the acquisition of the power systems division of European company Alstom.
“We’ve really pivoted the portfolio to being one that is fundamentally a high-tech industrial company,” Immelt said.
GE last year opened an advanced manufacturing plant in Jacksonville for its GE Oil & Gas division at Cecil Commerce Center.
The Connecticut-based company moves its annual meeting every year to highlight operations in different cities, which is why GE’s top officials came to Jacksonville this week.
“We do business in Jacksonville because we like it and its people,” Immelt said.
“Our businesses are doing great here.”
Immelt also singled out the largest Jacksonville-based company, CSX Corp., as one that could benefit from GE’s capabilities.
“They need more productivity and they just haven’t been able to generate the amount they want to achieve,” he said.
“In many ways, GE has the applications that can provide that kind of productivity.”
Immelt did not say if GE has been working with CSX and he was not available for questions after the shareholders meeting.
During the meeting, Immelt did hear questions and comments from several shareholders who are angry about a change in GE’s retiree health benefits that went into effect this year.
The company ended its health insurance plan for retirees age 65 and older and replaced it with a reimbursement account so they can purchase health insurance through a private exchange.
Several shareholders, who are either retirees themselves or were speaking on behalf of retirees, said the new policy is more costly and difficult for them.
Immelt was mostly silent after the shareholders spoke, other than to say “we’re doing everything in our power to make the process better.”
During his formal presentation, he said a survey found eight of 10 retirees are satisfied with the new policy.
The only other shareholders to speak up were activists who traveled from Brazil to protest an Alstom hydroelectric project, which they say is harmful to residents and the environment. Immelt said he would look into it.
No shareholders asked questions about the company’s performance.
Immelt said stockholders should be happy because GE’s stock rose 28 percent last year and rose 101 percent from 2011 through 2015.
“It’s easy to be uncertain as an investor today,” he said. “GE remains a good investment.”
Immelt said GE produced organic revenue growth of 3 percent last year and earnings per share rose 19 percent.
“On the metrics we look at, in 2015 the company had a pretty good year and we’re off to a good start in 2016,” he said.
GE is projecting it can grow earnings per share from $1.31 in 2015 to more than $2 by 2018, helped by the Alstom deal. Immelt said no other industrial company is expecting that kind of earnings growth.
“We’re quite unique in that regard,” he said.
“We’re tested,” he said. “GE’s not perfect but we make progress every day.”