Power and aerospace giant GE has made a $45 billion share swap offer for Honeywell, the diverse engineering, controls and manufacturing conglom- erate. Under the terms of the deal, each Honeywell share will be worth 1.055 GE shares. In addition, GE will acquire an option for almost 20 per cent of Honeywell stock and will assume some $5 billion in debt. The move follows Honeywell’s disappointing results in the wake of its $14.8 billion merger with Allied Signal in 1999 and puts the brakes on an attempt by rivals United Technologies (UTC) to acquire Honeywell. The move will boost GE’s industrial systems, aerospace, power engineering and plastics and polymers businesses. Honeywell is to hold a special shareholder meeting on 10 January to approve the merger.
