A report in the
Railway Gazette confirms that the merger of Wabtec Corp and GE Transportation was completed on 25 February, with Wabtec president and CEO Raymond Betler describing the transaction as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring together nearly four centuries of collective experience to create a technologically advanced leader with a highly complementary set of capabilities.”
General Electric announced in November 2017 that it was looking to dispose of its Transportation business, and a merger agreement with Wabtec was announced in May 2018.
The US Department of Justice closed its review of the merger last month.
Under the deal, GE sold a portion of GE Transportation assets to Wabtec and spun off a portion of GE Transportation to GE shareholders as Transportation Systems Holdings Inc, which then merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of Wabtec.
Wabtec (
www.wabtec.com) shareholders own 50.8% of the combined business (on a ‘fully diluted’ basis) and GE shareholders 24.3%, while GE owns common stock and non-voting convertible preferred stock representing a 24.9% ‘economic interest’.
GE chairman (
www.getransportation.com) and CEO H Lawrence Culp Jr said the transaction was “good for GE shareholders, who gain equity in an organisation at the forefront of rail innovation; for GE, as we work to reduce leverage and strengthen our balance sheet; and for Wabtec, which now has a stronger and more diversified business mix to serve its customers.”
Wabtec said the combination of its rail products with GE Transportation’s rail, mining, marine, stationary power and
drilling technology would create a leading supplier of equipment and after-market services, accelerate industry automation, expand the range of monitoring and repair services offered, and drive increased value for shareholders.
The combined business will be on the Fortune 500 list of the biggest US companies by revenue.
It has 27,000 employees, an order backlog of more than $23 billion and expected revenues of more than $8 billion for 2019.