GE HealthCare has a strong position—and a heavy debt load

GE HealthCare starts independent life with a strong position in big medical equipment markets and plans to jump-start growth through acquisitions and technology innovations. But it also carries a heavy debt load and some excess costs that need to be cut.

Spun off by longtime parent General Electric this month, Chicago’s newest public company joins a local roster of health care giants that includes Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie and Baxter International. Some 1,000 of GE HealthCare's 51,000 worldwide employees are in Illinois, with several hundred at a downtown headquarters.

“This has been a real hub for us,” says Brian Montgomery, GE HealthCare’s chief strategy officer. “We’re . . . looking forward to life here as a standalone, publicly traded company.”

GE HealthCare sells imaging machines, ultrasound equipment, patient monitoring products and diagnostic agents to hospitals and other health care providers. Sales rose 4% to $18.3 billion last year.

Read the entire story at our sister publication Crain's Chicago Business