US industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE) Co is in advanced talks to buy the global power division of struggling French engineering group Alstom SA for about US$13 billion, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Sources said a deal was backed by Alstom’s main shareholder, French conglomerate Bouygues with 29 percent, and could be announced in the coming days after an Alstom board meeting on Friday afternoon. The board was due to meet again today to discuss the transaction, French daily Le Figaro said.
“Talks are going ahead swiftly, the deal’s structure is defined and everything is almost ready,” one of the sources said. “It would be a very big asset sale, enclosing the entire energy business.”
Alstom chief executive Patrick Kron confirmed to union representatives there were talks about an “industrial deal,” but did not name GE.
Alstom, Bouygues and GE declined to comment.
A deal to sell Alstom’s power assets, which account for about 70 percent of total group revenue, would effectively break up the engineering group and leave Alstom as a pure transport business, already known for its high-speed TGV trains.
However, it could be less politically sensitive than a full takeover offer for the company, talk of which caused Alstom shares to soar on Thursday.
“By separating Alstom Transport, which may remain an independent French company and national champion, resistance could stay muted,” Berenberg’s William Mackie wrote in a note.
The French government weighed into the issue anyway on Friday. French Minister for Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg promised to protect the national interest and to study “other solutions and scenarios” for Alstom, one of France’s top private-sector employers.
The French government has a history of blocking takeovers by foreign companies. Last year, Yahoo Inc abandoned its plan to acquire a majority stake in online video Web site Dailymotion, owned by France-Telecom Orange, because of objections by the French government. In the energy sector, the government in 2006 brokered a deal to merge Gaz de France and Suez to block a bid for Suez by Italy’s Enel SpA.
GE has had its acquisition desires squelched by European regulators before. In 2001, the European Commission blocked GE’s US$42 billion purchase of rival diversified manufacturer Honeywell International Inc.
Analysts have speculated that a potential Alstom deal could allow GE to wring out a lot of cost savings, including through job cuts. Yet they said GE might not be able to fully realize the potential savings because the company will have to moderate any cuts to satisfy French authorities.
The trading of Alstom shares was suspended on Friday pending a statement from the company. The shares closed up 10.9 percent on Thursday after Bloomberg reported GE was in talks about a US$13 billion full takeover bid for Alstom.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS