Huge engine order for GE
 
Fairfield-based General Electric Co. announced $7 billion in new orders for aircraft engines and maintenance services, an amount that could grow if Etihad Airways exercises options for additional aircraft.
The United Arab Emirates carrier placed orders for engines to power 55 aircraft it has on order from Airbus and Boeing Co., including models from the Engine Alliance joint venture GE Aviation has with the Pratt & Whitney division of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. Etihad has indicated it could order up to 35 additional aircraft.
Cincinnati-based GE Aviation disclosed the deals in mid-June at the Paris Air Show.
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GE is not expected to benefit from an initial $18.5 billion in federal guarantees to help four companies build nuclear power plants in the United States.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing the guarantees to NRG Energy Inc., Scana Corp. and Southern Co., which plan to use reactor technology from Toshiba Corp.; and UniStar Nuclear Energy LLC, which is using a design from Areva NP Inc.
Companies have applied for some $122 billion in government backing to build reactors in the United States, which has not had a new nuclear plant open since the 1970s.
In 1997, GE became the first company to obtain certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the newest generation of nuclear reactors. Since then, GE has seven of its new Advanced Boiling Water Reactors in service or under construction abroad, and four more are in the planning stages.
GE sells nuclear reactors through a Wilmington, N.C.-based joint venture with Hitachi Ltd.
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Despite ongoing downsizing, Norwalk-based GE Capital remains by far the largest equipment finance and leasing company in the United States, according to The Monitor, a trade publication of Xander Media Group.
GE Capital had equipment loans and leases totaling $184 billion last year, more than quadruple the portfolio of Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corp., the No. 2 player.