General Electric is re-evaluating plans for an IPO for its health-care unit following the sale of its biopharma business, CEO Larry Culp told CNBC on Monday.
An IPO for GE Healthcare this year is now in doubt, Culp said. Earlier reports incorrectly suggested the plans were off the table. Culp said GE is looking at the full spectrum of options for GE Healthcare, now that it will be without its biopharmaceutical business.
“We are focused on completing the carve out [of the biopharma business] — which is 15 percent of the $20 billion health-care segment — and focused on managing the remaining core business,” the GE chairman and CEO told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan.
“An IPO [for GE Healthcare] in 2019 looks unlikely at this point,” Culp added.
GE filed confidential paperwork for an IPO of GE Healthcare in December.
The unit is a dominant player in hospital and lab equipment, generating roughly $19 billion in revenue and $3.4 billion in profit last year. It accounted for 15.8 percent of the conglomerate’s total sales and 43.2 percent of its operating profit in 2017.
The company has previously said spinning out the health unit made sense because it would allow the company to double down on its core industrial and energy businesses.
“IPO of health care was Plan A, but we got lots of inbound calls about this business and this is clearly a superior path,” Culp told CNBC’s David Faber.
Additionally, according to Bloomberg, GE is still exploring options for its imaging business.
– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.
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