Nabil Habayeb, president and chief executive of the US conglomerate, says: "We will continue to seek to find the right joint venture partners in the Middle East and Africa."

He adds: "There is a lot more we could do to develop our presence in the region. We see huge potential for us in Africa and the Middle East to build on existing partnerships and establish new ones."

GE recently launched a $8bn commercial finance company in the UAE with Mubadala, the first in a number of joint investment initiatives between the two (MEED 22:07:08).

Habayeb added that the commercial finance company would initially be managed by GE, and then an independent joint venture company with representatives from both GE and Mubadala.