I think this is a good move. A nation of 1biilion and a developing market. If GE doesn't move in and capture the market someone else will.
GE said it doesn't expect the move to result in any job losses in the U.S., where the unit has been based in Waukesha, Wis. The Wisconsin X-ray division has 120 employees. The company also said it is too early to say how many employees it will hire for the unit's new Beijing headquarters.
"As the company grows more global, it's increasingly important for us to become close to our customers," Ms. LeGrand said, adding that she expects 20% to 25% of GE Healthcare's X-ray products to be developed in China during the next three to five years for sale around the world.
As China's market has boomed for a range of products, a small but growing number of companies have moved senior executives to the country or sent them for extended stints. Intel Corp. in May said Sean Maloney, one of its best-known senior executives, would move to China from Silicon Valley to oversee the chip giant's operations here. Bayer AG unit Bayer Healthcare moved its general medicine headquarters from Germany to Beijing in March, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. of the U.S. temporarily moved its headquarters to Shanghai for five weeks starting last month.
GE has long placed high hopes on China, with CEO Jeffrey Immelt in 2008 calling it the company's "second home market." In January, the company finalized a deal with state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China to inject much of GE's civilian avionics business into a 50-50 joint venture based in China.
The U.S. conglomerate has struggled to achieve its growth ambitions in China, though. GE's revenue in the country totaled $5 billion last year, down from $5.3 billion in 2009 and short of the $10 billion the company had targeted for 2010. The company expects its health-care revenue in China to rise 20% annually through 2015, from about $1 billion in 2010. Ms. LeGrand declined to disclose revenue figures for GE Healthcare's X-ray business in China or globally.
GE Healthcare, known largely for its diagnostic equipment such as CT scans and magnetic-resonance-imaging machines, has been increasingly focused on growth in emerging markets such as China, where governments are spending to beef up medical care. In China, where it employs some 700 engineers, it is focusing on developing more affordable products aimed at inland and rural community health clinics.
Last year, GE invested a total of $2 billion in China, $500 million of which was allocated to what it calls customer innovation centers. Ms. LeGrand said most of that chunk was for the X-ray business. GE Healthcare last year launched the Brivo CT, a scaled-down CT scanner for use in China's less-developed primary-care hospitals, and in 2009, it rolled out a lower-cost digital X-ray device called the Linglong for China.
China's central government increased its budget for spending on public health by 16% this year to $26 billion. In March, it allocated 76 billion yuan ($11.78 billion) to improving health-insurance coverage and increased insurance subsidies to 200 yuan a person, up from 120 yuan.
GE Moves X-Ray Leaders to Beijing - WSJ.com