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Show Messrs. Jones & Littlefield, assisted by W. D. Dance and J. S. Parker, Vice Chairmen of the Board General Electric Company, answer questions from the Financial Analysts. December 16, 1976, Hotel Pierre R. H. Jones, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer, General Electric Company, following the presentations. E. W. Littlefield, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer, Utah International Inc., chats with analyst.2 AN EXECUTIVE SPEECH REPRINT GENERAL ELECTRIC The General Electric - Utah International Merger Reginald H. Jones. . . a whole new area of opportunity . . . Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be with you again to discuss the outlook for General Electric. It was just a year ago yesterday that General Electric and Utah International announced their intention to merge and, as you know, that announcement immediately brought into play all sorts of legal limitations on our communications with the investment community during the period of negotiations. We are now no longer in registration because, as you know, yesterday the share owners of both Companies approved the merger proposal. So at long last we are free of those restraints and can talk with you about the heightened prospects for General Electric. The merger with Utah is of course the most important single piece of news today, but this meeting provides an opportunity to bring you up to date on General Electric's progress toward the fulfillment of its long-term strategic objectives. UTAH MERGER First, about the merger with Utah. Most of you are familiar with the terms of the merger. It will be a pooling-of-interests arrangement by which Utah International will become a wholly- owned subsidiary of General Electric through a tax-free exchange of 1.3 shares of General Electric Common Stock for each share of Utah Common Stock. General Electric has approximately 185 million shares outstanding and Utah has approximately 31.5 mil-lion. Since it will take additional shares of General Electric stock to effectuate the merger, our share owners yesterday also voted to increase the number of authorized shares of GE stock by 41,500,000 shares principally for this purpose. Ed Littlefield, the Chairman of Utah International, is here to tell you in detail about his Company and its prospects. But before he speaks, I would like to summarize the key factors that made General Electric welcome the opportunity to merge with Utah. BENEFITS TO GENERAL ELECTRIC First, this merger will bring General Electric into a whole new 3 |
