GE to build back-office facility in Cincinnati

(Reuters) - General Electric Co will build a new facility to house its back-office functions in the Cincinnati area, the U.S. conglomerate said on Thursday, as it seeks to simplify its operations and cut costs. GE is centralizing areas such as IT and finance around the world to lower costs and standardize such back-office functions. Aside from the Ohio location, GE is operating such "shared services" centers in Budapest, Hungary; Monterrey, Mexico; Pudong, China; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. GE has set a target of reducing sales, general and administrative costs from 15.9 percent of industrial revenue last year to about 12 percent by 2016. The new Ohio facility is expected to employ 1,400 people. GE plans to break ground on it this summer and to have it fully operational by 2017. The facility will add to GE's presence in the Cincinnati area, which houses the headquarters for the company's aviation division. (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)