By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOUISVILLE - General Electric Co. could eventually see as much as $60 billion in revenues from GE Aircraft Engines' selection as one of two engine suppliers for Boeing's new 7E7 jetliner, chairman Jeff Immelt told shareholders Wednesday.

Immelt's forecast for the GENX engine impact over what he described as "coming decades'' is more than twice as much as GE indicated previously. The forecast presumably includes the impact of future spares and service work.

Immelt, 48, a Finneytown native and son of a retired GEAE manager, cited the Evendale-developed GENX engine as an example of GE's scope and ability to respond to adversity.

He said GEAE, which employs 7,000 in Greater Cincinnati, was severely affected by the slump in commercial aviation after 9-11. But the company used the downturn to improve its relationship with customers and grow its market share, he said.

"Six hundred million people fly GE-powered aircraft and half the U.S. military is powered by GE,'' Immelt said.

Some 750 shareholders attended the 21/2-hour annual meeting in the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville.

Immelt, who spent three years in Louisville as head of GE's appliance service business 15 years ago, told shareholders, "Your company is well positioned for double-digit growth and high returns.''

He cited GE's more than $30 billion in acquisitions last year, including United Kingdom's Amersham Plc, a medical imaging company, and Vivendi Universal's media assets, as examples of how GE is moving to higher-growth businesses.

GE is one of several companies, including IBM and General Motors, that have come under scrutiny recently for outsourcing or outsourcing plans.

Immelt defended GE's moves to globalize its business.

"We sell in every corner of the world,'' he said, noting that half the company's $134 billion revenues come from outside the United States.

By next year, he said, the company will have $5 billion in sales in China alone.

About 150,000 of GE's total 310,000 employees are outside the United States - up from about 60,000 outside the country a decade ago. Immelt said the 160,000-person workforce that GE has in the United States has remained stable for the last decade.

"They are highly valuable jobs and they support millions more,'' Immelt said.

An IUE-CWA Pension Fund shareholder proposal asking the GE board to evaluate the impact on the company's reputation of sourcing jobs overseas received only 7.7 percent affirmative votes.

But protesters outside the meeting criticized GE's outsourcing of work.

Bob Davis, a Louisville worker at GE for 36 years before he retired in 1989, said moving jobs overseas has reduced the number workers who made refrigerators, air conditioners and other appliances in Louisville by thousands. Davis and other retirees also protested what they said were small pension increases.

"We're out here trying to get more money for retirees," he said.

All of the other 14 shareholder proposals on Wednesday's meeting proxy were rejected.

A proposal to limit the number of outside boards that GE directors serve on received 23 percent affirmative, the higher percentage among shareholder proposals.

Another proposal, from a California doctor, to explore the sale of the company, received the smallest affirmative vote, 2.2 percent.

Shares in GE closed at $30.02, down 53 cents.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com