MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

French energy 'jewel' Alstom taken over by General Electric

CEO Patrick Kron called it a win-win-win situation, good for Alstom employees as well as GE and the French state.

The board of directors of French power-to-rail group Alstom unanimously approved US conglomerate General Electric's 12.35 billion Euro bid to acquire its energy business.

 “The board of directors unanimously decided to issue a favorable opinion of GE's offer” and will begin consultations with personnel, a statement said.

The statement came a day after the French government stepped firmly into the battle over its industrial jewel Alstom, saying it favored General Electric's bid over a rival joint offer from Germany's Siemens and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

GE boss Jeff Immelt hailed the deal, saying it was “good for France, GE and Alstom” while adding that it would not be finalized before next year.

His counterpart at Alstom, Patrick Kron called it a win-win-win situation, good for Alstom employees as well as GE and the French state.

The plan “seems to respond fully to the government's preoccupations of the government on energy and transport,” he said in comments published Sunday in the weekly Journal du Dimanche.

Kron added that he would see the GE transition was successfully “on the rails” before bowing out and letting a new team take charge at Alstom.

The French government announced a surprise caveat on Friday that it would take a 20% controlling stake to preserve French strategic interests in its industrial jewel, which it plans to do by purchasing two-thirds of the shares owned by another French group, Bouygues.

Discussions on the price were ongoing between the government and Bouygues on Saturday night after a long day of negotiations.

The French government had wanted to buy the shares at the current price, which stood at 28 Euros per share on Friday, according to the latest listing of Alstom on the Paris Bourse. But Bouygues was asking for 35 Euros per share.

Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg sought to reassure the French public on Saturday, saying the deal would cost taxpayers “zero Euros”.

Montebourg said the money for the purchase would be raised from the sale of government-owned shares in other companies such as Safran and Airbus.

Even if the deal between the government and Bouygues is finalised, Alstom said it would still need to put the GE bid to employee representatives, and gain regulatory approval related to foreign investment rules.

The future of Alstom has been at the centre of a transatlantic tug of war for several months after President Francois Hollande's Socialist government objected to the US giant buying the jewel of French engineering, and encouraged the rival offer by Siemens and Mitsubishi.

The German and Japanese firms improved and simplified their linked offer on Friday, increasing their valuation of Alstom's energy division to 14.6 billion Euros, less than a day after GE had made several changes to make its bid more attractive.

GE sweetened its proposal by offering a government veto over sensitive nuclear energy technology and promising to strengthen Alstom's transportation business, which makes the French TGV trains.

The beleaguered Alstom, which feels that its energy businesses -- which range from wind power to turbines for nuclear reactors -- are not large enough to compete globally, originally approached GE.