Siemens AG and Alstom SA agreed to merge their rail businesses in a deal that brings together former arch-rivals from Germany and France to create a European transportation giant aimed at countering competition from China.
Siemens will transfer its business making train and transit cars and signaling equipment to Alstom in exchange for a 50 percent stake in the enlarged company, according to a joint statement.
The renamed Siemens Alstom, with sales of about 15.3 billion euros (US$18 billion), will remain based in the Paris area. Alstom chief executive officer Henri Poupart-Lafarge will keep his position and the chairman will be named by Siemens.
“We need to strengthen our ability to compete,” Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser said in a video about the tie up, which the companies call a merger of equals. “A dominant player in Asia has changed global market dynamics.”
The combination will give the German company control of an icon of French industry that developed the high-speed TGV trains.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s government backed the deal after receiving assurances on jobs, and it comes just days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel was re-elected on a platform of closer European ties.
Capping years of speculation in the industry about the need for consolidation, the tie up could mirror the emergence of European planemaker Airbus in the 1970s that went on to become the biggest competitor to Boeing Co.
Shareholders in Alstom will receive two special dividends, one of 4 euros a share and the other of up to 4 euros a share. One is to compensate them for giving up control of the company, and the other to be paid from the proceeds of Alstom’s put options for joint ventures it has with General Electric Co.
The companies expect annual synergies of 470 million euros and Alstom will have to pay a 140 million euro break-up fee if it decides to cancel the transaction. They are aiming to close the deal by the end of next year.
The new entity will have an order backlog of 61.2 billion euros.
Alstom shares have surged 29 percent this year, giving the company a market value of 7.4 billion euros. Siemens, which also makes products including power-generation and health-care equipment, is down 0.2 percent for a value of 99.1 billion euros.
The new company will remain listed on the Paris stock exchange, while Siemens’s mobility solutions business will have headquarters in Berlin, and rolling stock in the Paris area.
Siemens Mobility head Jochen Eickholt is to assume an “important responsibility” in the merged company, the companies said.
Siemens Alstom, which will have about 62,000 employees, will become the second-largest maker of rail cars and locomotives after China’s CRRC Corp Ltd (中國中車).
Years of bitter rivalry between the European firms created animosity in the past so a deal between them was unexpected until last week, when Bloomberg reported talks.
These came alongside Siemen’s negotiations to join forces with Canadian competitor Bombardier Inc through two joint ventures.
The tie up between the European rivals will effectively leave Bombardier out in the cold, and represent a new hurdle for its turnaround plans.
It was Siemens that approached Alstom about combining, with talks starting months ago, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.
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