3-D Printing Sector Ideas

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>>> GE’s $1.4 billion push into 3-D printing sends sole ETF to record high


By Ciara Linnane and Ryan Vlastelica

Sept 7, 2016




GE is buying two European 3-D metal printing companies

GE CEO Jeff Immelt is making a big bet on 3-D printing.



http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ges-14-billion-push-into-3-d-printing-sends-sole-etf-to-record-high-2016-09-06?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts



News that General Electric Co. is buying two European 3-D metal printing companies sent the only exchange-traded fund dedicated to that industry to a record Tuesday, marking its biggest one-day gain since it was launched in July.

Ark Invest’s 3D Printing ETF PRNT, -2.37% rose 5.5% to an all-time high of $22.29. Since its inception, the ETF has gained more than 10%, while over the past month, according to FactSet data, the $5.3 million fund has seen inflows of $2.1 million.

GE GE, +1.27% said earlier that it is launching dual tender offers to buy Sweden’s Arcam AB ARCM, +1.51% and Germany’s SLM Solutions Group AG AM3D, +0.33% for a combined $1.4 billion. Those moves are aimed at pushing the company into 3-D printing as a way to make aircraft components and other parts.

Read: HP looks to make its mark in 3-D printing

Both Arcam and SLM Solutions number among the Ark fund’s top 10 holdings. SLM makes up 5.3% of the fund’s portfolio, while Arcam constitutes 4.3%.


“We’ve long thought of 3-D printing as a highly undervalued and underappreciated sector,” said Cathie Wood, chief executive of Ark Invest. “We’ve seen research indicating that 3-D printing could be a $20 billion industry by 2020; we think it could be double that or even more as it becomes a bigger part of the industrial or prototyping process. Today GE is corroborating our research.”

Read: 3-D printing is poised for breakout 2016

Additive manufacturing, the industry term for 3-D printing, “is a key part of GE’s evolution into a digital industrial company,” GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said in a statement. “We are poised to not only benefit from this movement as a customer, but spearhead it as a leading supplier.”

3-D printing involves using digital designs and modeling software with laser technology to create parts. Parts made that way are usually lighter and more durable than traditionally manufactured parts because they need less welding and machining. But much of the promise of the market is the extra design possibilities for engineers.

GE is expecting to see 3-D printing grow into a $1 billion business by 2020. The company has invested about $1.5 billion in 3-D technology since 2010, allowing it to develop applications across six of its businesses, create new applications across the company and earn 346 patents in powder metals.

In July, GE Aviation launched the LEAP jet engine, which included its first 3-D–printed component, fuel-nozzle interiors that could not have been made using traditional methods. The engine has become the best-selling engine made by GE’s joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines of France. The company, called CFM International, currently has orders for more than 11,0000 LEAP engines, with up to 20 fuel nozzles per engine.

Arcam, based near Gothenburg in western Sweden, invented the electron beam melting machine for metal-based 3-D printing and produces advanced metal powders, according to GE. The company has 285 employees and generated $68 million of revenue in 2015 with customers in the aerospace and health-care industries.

SLM Solutions Group, based in Lubeck, in northern Germany, makes laser machines for metal-based 3-D printing, with customers in the aerospace, energy, health-care and car industries.


That company has 260 employees and had revenue of $74 million in 2014.

GE is planning to keep the headquarters and main operating facilities of each company and to retain their employees and management teams. They will work with GE’s research center in Niskayuna, N.Y., as well as the 3-D team in Pittsburgh

Shares of other 3-D companies also rose Tuesday, with 3D Systems Corp. DDD, -5.51% up 7% and Stratasys Ltd. SSYS, -6.49% gaining 6%. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.08% was up 0.02

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