GE Restates Results, Plans to Sell Unit

General Electric Co. restated financial results for several years Friday, boosting earnings by $381 million from 2001 through the first quarter of 2005.

While federal regulators are informally investigating accounting issues related to the restatement, GE said that its revision was sparked by an internal audit.

The diversified industrial, finance and media company also announced plans to sell a business that provides liability insurance for physicians and dentists to a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for $825 million. And it boosted its earnings forecast for the second quarter, while reaffirming its full-year forecast.

GE, based in Fairfield, said that during a regular audit staff review, it concluded that it had improperly accounted for financial instruments used to protect the company’s financial services businesses from changes in interest rates and currency exchange rates.

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