Alstom

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Alstom
Type Public (Euronext: ALO)
Founded 1928 (Alsthom)
Headquarters Levallois-Perret, France
Key people Patrick Kron, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Industry Manufacturing
Products Equipment and services for power generation and rail transport
Employees 76,000
Website www.alstom.com

Alstom (formerly GEC-Alsthom) (Euronext: ALO) is a large French multinational conglomerate whose businesses are power generation, railway signalling and manufacturing trains (e.g. the TGV, Eurostar, Adelante as well as Citadis trams). According to the company website, in the years 2006/07 Alstom had annual sales of over €14 billion, and employed more than 69,000 people in over 70 countries. Its headquarters are located in Levallois-Perret, near Paris.

Some of the world's largest ships (e.g. Normandie and the Queen Mary 2) were also conceived by Alstom, activity that was sold in 2006.

The current CEO is Patrick Kron, who succeeded Pierre Bilger.

Contents

[edit] Financial information

Alstom has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since June 22, 1998. The Group has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since November 17, 2003, and on the New York Stock Exchange since August 2004. When the markets closed on December 31, 2005, its market capitalization was € 6.7 billion. Market capitalization as of March 9, 2007 was € 13.6 billion.

[edit] History

The name of the company derives from the region of Alsace and the surname of the engineer Elihu Thomson. The th sound in the is therefore hard, as it would be in French anyway.

[edit] Alsthom

It was formed in 1928 from three companies: Société Alsacienne de Construction Mécanique, Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) and Thomson Houston.

The old GEC Alsthom Logo.
The old GEC Alsthom Logo.

[edit] GEC Alsthom

It was formed in 1988 from the heavy engineering interests of Britain's GEC and Compagnie Générale d'Electricité's Alsthom division as GEC Alsthom. In 1991 GEC adopted the name Alcatel Alsthom and in 1998 this became simply Alcatel. In 1989 the company acquired the railway interests of Metro Cammell, and maintained train production at its Birmingham plant until 2005. Today Alstom's heavy rail interests in the UK are limited to various maintenance facilities up and down the railway network.

[edit] Alstom

In December 1997, GEC Alsthom had its initial public offering as Alstom. GEC and Alcatel maintained 24% shares in the new company. Shares were initially at a price roughly equivalent to €32.

In 1998, Alstom acquired railway signaling companies in Italy (Sasib Railways) and the United States (General Railway Signal) from their Italian parent company Sasib.

Between January and February 2001 Marconi plc (the renamed GEC) sold 76.4% of its 24% share. The remaining 5.67% share was sold in June. In 2001, Alcatel also sold its 24% stake. The share price fell steeply following the September 11, 2001 attacks when a number of cruise liner orders failed.

At the same time, a number of problems became apparent in the new generation of gas turbines, GT24 and GT26, Alstom installed around the turn of the century. The financial liability for repairing these problems pushed Alstom into a financial crisis. On March 12, 2003, shares dipped 50 per cent in one day, and finished at €1.36. At this point it was announced that the most profitable division of the company would be sold off: its power transmission interests. In January 2004 these were transferred to Areva. Only through a much needed financial infusion from the French government was Alstom rescued from going into bankruptcy. The 21% of the stake the French government took as the result of rescue was later sold to the French company Bouygues, one of the world's largest construction companies.

In 2003, Alstom purchased Telecite, a passenger information company in Montreal, Quebec in Canada.

In January 2006, the sale of Alstom shipyards to Aker Yards ASA (a part of the Norwegian Aker group) was announced. The transaction was completed on May 5, 2006. A new company consisting of Alstom's shipyards in Saint-Nazaire and Lorient was established under the name of Aker Yards SA. Aker Yards owns 75% of Aker Yards SA, and ALSTOM the remaining 25% until 2010.

In March 2006, the Power Conversion Business, formerly Alstom Power Conversion (APC), was bought by Barclays Private Equity France (BPEF). The Power Conversion Business, which deals in projects and hardware to convert electrical power to mechanical movement, now trades as Converteam.

The U.S. headquarters for Alstom Power is located on Day Hill Road in Windsor, Connecticut at the former location of Combustion Engineering. The Country President is John Crean.

[edit] Products

Alstom's products include:

[edit] Passenger rail vehicles

[edit] Railway signalling equipment

[edit] Shipbuilding — Alstom Marine (Chantiers de l'Atlantique)

[edit] Power business

  • Boiler and Boiler Retrofits
  • Environmental Control Systems (Air pollution control systems, filters etc) for the power industry and various other industries
  • Gas turbines
  • Generators
  • Steam turbines
  • Steam turbine retrofits
  • Turnkey power plants
  • Wind Energy

[edit] Power conversion business

[edit] Rail clients

[edit] Power clients

  • Various electric suppliers, transmission and distribution companies around the world

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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