GE breaks up energy arm, Krenicki to leave company

July 20 (Reuters) - General Electric Co said on Friday it plans to break its energy business into three standalone units later this year and said John Krenicki, a GE vice chairman who headed the combined business, will be leaving the company at the end of the year.

Krenicki, 50, has spent 29 years with the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company and in 2007 was named a vice chairman, one of GE's highest ranks.

GE will split its energy arm, which had become its largest industrial unit with about $50 billion in projected 2012 revenue, into three separate pieces: GE Power and Water, headed by Steve Bolze; GE Oil and Gas, under Dan Heintzelman, and GE Energy Management, under Dan Jenki. All three will have the title of chief executive of their unit and report to GE CEO Jeff Immelt.

A GE spokeswoman declined to make Krenicki available for an interview.