Paris (AFP)
The French railway manufacturer Alstom announced on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of its competitor Bombardier Transport, for which it will spend 5.5 billion euros in total.
Alstom will concretely pay 4.4 billion euros to the Canadian group to resume its railway activities, to which are added 1.1 billion that it will have to resume to cover negative cash flow and "other contractual adjustments", specified the group in a statement.
Alstom thus becomes the world number two in the sector behind the Chinese CRRC with a combined turnover of 15.7 billion euros, and 75,000 employees in 70 countries.
Group CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge hailed the creation of "a new global leader focused on sustainable and intelligent mobility".
In its new configuration, the group will have "unrivaled commercial influence in all geographies", thanks to the good complementarity of Alstom and Bombardier Transport, which until now had roughly comparable sizes.
Alstom changes in the operation of reference shareholder, the Caisse des Dépôts et Placement du Québec now holding 17.5% of the capital, while Bouygues has fallen to around 6%.
The group will employ around 11,500 people in France, with estimated sales of 3.2 billion euros - 30% of which will be exported.
The acquisition of Bombardier Transport gives Alstom the largest railway plant in the country, in Crespin (North).
The combination of the two players will be arch-dominant on the French market, where only the German Siemens and the Spanish CAF have so far placed their products.
But Alstom has undertaken to obtain the green light from the European Commission to sell the Reichshoffen plant (Bas-Rhin), as well as the production of the TER Regiolis series produced there.
The group is in negotiations with the Czech Skoda Transportation.
Skoda is also due to take over part of the German plant in Hennigsdorf, near Berlin, and the production line for regional trains for the German and Austrian markets.
© 2021 AFP