-->GE says plans $50 bln shelf registration
Thursday September 26, 4:47 pm ET


NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - News) plans next month to file with U.S. securities regulators to sell up to $50 billion of securities, Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said on Thursday.

"We anticipate that that will be more than enough for what we need to get all the way through the first half of 2003," Sherin said in a conference call.

GE, whose businesses range from aerospace to light bulbs to the NBC television network, said it has sold about $72 billion of long-term debt this year as part of its push to cut its reliance on commercial paper, which is short-term debt maturing in nine months.

Sherin said the company will likely sell another $13 billion to $18 billion this year, and estimated that the company might need to do $60 billion of financing in 2003, including $30 billion to refinance maturing long-term debt.

The yield margins between bonds of General Electric Capital Corp., GE's finance arm, and similar maturity U.S. Treasuries widened in anticipation of the new issuance, traders said.

GE Capital's 6 percent notes maturing in 2012 yield 5.12 percent, or 1.35 percentage points more than Treasuries, compared with a 5.04 percent yield, or 1.29 percentage points more than Treasuries, on Wednesday.

Its 6.75 percent bonds maturing in 2032 yield 6.17 percent, or 1.44 percentage points more than Treasuries, compared with a 6.08 percent yield, or 1.36 percentage points more than Treasuries, on Wednesday.