NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — General Electric Co.'s debt ratings outlook and those of its GE Capital finance arm were changed to negative from stable by Standard & Poor's, reflecting concern earnings could deteriorate further than previously thought.

The AAA ratings on both entities, the highest available, were left intact, Standard & Poor's said in a statement yesterday. The ratings firm said there is at least a one-in-three possibility of a downgrade in the next two years. GE fell $1.43, or 8.2 percent, to $15.96 by the close of trading in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

GE chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt said December 16 that the company's industrial businesses, which includes NBC-Universal, will rise no more than five percent next year. That's less than a range of 10 percent to 15 percent given in September. Profit at GE Capital, the finance arm, will decline to $5 billion in 2009 from about $9 billion excluding restructuring expenses, he repeated.

GE Capital's "earnings deterioration in 2009 and 2010 could be greater than we previously assumed", the S&P analysts wrote. "The outlook revision reflects the continuing risks posed by GECC's reliance on confidence-sensitive wholesale funding, despite the benefits of temporary US government support programmes and of management's ongoing efforts."

Immelt outlined a plan to use capital to support the AAA rating and the $1.24 a share annual dividend, which the company has committed to paying in 2009, the same level as in 2008.

"If we successfully execute on our plan, S&P will reconsider its outlook," Russell Wilkerson, spokesman for Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, said in an interview. "We're confident in our plan."