GE expects credit conditions to improve by 2010

PARIS (Reuters) - General Electric expects credit conditions to improve by 2010, but it may be too early to say the economy has bottomed out, Vice Chairman John Rice said at the Paris Air Show on Wednesday.

"I would say the environment continues to be difficult. People talk about green shoots and stabilization -- I don't know that we've seen enough yet to say that we've bottomed out, although certainly we expect that to happen," Rice said.

The next 12-18 months will include challenges, depending on the business, Rice said.

"Until the financial systems start to work again it will be difficult to say that we've hit the bottom and started to come back," he said.

Rice was speaking after GE unit GE Aviation -- the world's largest maker of jet engines -- and Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala signed an aviation maintenance partnership deal that will see the engine manufacturer supply support and services while Mubadala builds a maintenance network for GEnx engines.

GE and Mubadala did not give any financial details of the deal, which was signed at the air show and forms part of a broader partnership the two groups agreed last year.

The groups are analyzing the market and looking at how revenue will be split between them in the next few months, Mubadala's aerospace associate director, Homaid Al Shemmari, said.

Aircraft maintenance company SR Technics, an affiliate of Mubadala, will also benefit from the deal, he said.

GE's Rice said he would not limit the areas where the company would consider future collaboration with Mubadala.