General Electric third-quarter profit and revenue beat expectations

General Electric posted better-than-expected third-quarter profit and revenue on Friday thanks to an improvement in its industrial businesses.

The company reported a profit of 25 cents a share, or $2.51bn, down from 35 cents or $3.54bn in the previous year, while revenue nudged down 1% to $31.68bn.

Analysts had expected earnings of 26 cents and revenue of around $28.5bn.

Chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Immelt said: “In a volatile environment, GE performed well this quarter, with industrial profit growth, organic revenue growth, and margins up 100 basis points.

“Our GE Capital exit plan is ahead of plan and we expect GE Capital dividends to the parent of around $3bn for 2015. This week we announced the sale of $30bn of commercial lending businesses, bringing our total signed deals to date to $126bn.”

The company said it expects to launch the Synchrony share exchange next week, which will significantly reduce the amount of GE stock outstanding.

GE shares were down 1.5% at $27.62 in pre-market trading.