Baker Hughes, a GE company BHGE will separate from parent company General Electric Company GE, which is planning to lower exposure in the volatile energy sector.
Over the next two to three years, General Electric will likely sell its 62.5% stake in Baker Hughes to strengthen its balance sheet and simplify operations. In July 2017, General Electric had acquired Baker Hughes and merged the affiliate with its oil and gas equipment and services businesses.
However, investors didn’t cheer the acquisition as following its closure, share prices of both the companies plunged. Baker Hughes has lost 39.2% since the acquisition, underperforming the 5.3% collective decline of the stocks belonging to the industry, while General Electric slipped 49.1%.
Although crude prices have made a massive comeback, Baker Hughes scattered international operations could not benefit from the surge in commodity prices. Also, demand for drill bits and refinery valves of Baker Hughes will likely be blunt in the long term since the energy market is expected to be hurt by limited operational possibilities in prime oil plays and political disturbances, Bloomberg added.
All those uncertainties might have convinced General Electric to offload Baker Hughes stake. Sonny Randhawa of Seaport Global Securities LLC announced that the entire interest of General Electric in Baker Hughes will not be sold through corporate buyout but will involve a number of share divestments. Randhawa added that Halliburton Company HAL and Schlumberger Limited SLB might be potential buyers but they will not get the approvals from the regulators.
Baker Hughes is a leading oilfield service player. Currently, the stock carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), implying that it will perform in line with the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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