Baker Hughes, a GE company (Bhge) announced Tuesday General Electric and its GE Oil & Gas US Holdings I, GE Holdings (US), and GE Oil & Gas US Holdings IV units have begun a secondary offering of 105 million shares of Bhge Class A common stock.
The offering’s underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15.75 million shares of Class A common from the selling stockholders, Kallanish Energy learns.
Bhge is not offering any shares of Class A common and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares in the offering.
Upon completion of the offering, GE and its affiliates will cease to hold more than 50% of the voting power of all classes of BHGE’s voting stock.
Among other things, this will reduce the number of individuals who GE is entitled to designate to Bhge’s board from five to one. GE has informed the company John G. Rice will remain on the Bhge board as its designee, while Jamie S. Miller and James J. Mulva will resign from the board.
Lorenzo Simonelli and W. Geoffrey Beattie are expected to continue to serve on the Bhge board, but not as GE designees.
The oilfield services firm also announced it’s repurchasing from GE and one or more GE affiliates $250 million of Bhge Class B common, together with an equal number of associated membership interests of Baker Hughes, a GE company, LLC.
J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the offering. BofA Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and Evercore ISI are serving as joint book-running managers for the offering.
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