Product Code Database
Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional and urban trains along with trams.
The company and its name (originally spelled Alsthom) was formed by a merger between the electric engineering division of Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (Als) and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (thom) in 1928. Significant acquisitions later included the Constructions Électriques de France (1932), shipbuilder Chantiers de l'Atlantique (1976), and parts of ACEC (late 1980s).
A merger with parts of the British General Electric Company formed GEC Alsthom in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, the company expanded its holdings in the rail sector, acquiring German rolling stock manufacturer Linke-Hofmann-Busch and Italian rail signaling specialist Sasib Railways. In 1998, GEC Alsthom was listed on the Euronext Paris and, later that year, it was rebranded Alstom. At the time, the company was manufacturing railway rolling stock, power generation equipment and ships.
In 2003, the company required a €3.2 billion bailout from the French government. As a result, Alstom was compelled to dispose of several of its divisions, including shipbuilding and electrical transmission to Areva, in order to comply with European Union rules on state aid. In 2004, Alstom remained in financial difficulties, having incurred massive unexpected costs (€4 billion) arising from a design flaw inherited from the acquisition of ABB's turbine business, in addition to losses in other business sectors.
In 2014, General Electric (GE) announced that it reached a deal to purchase Alstom's power and power grid divisions for US$17 billion (€12.4 billion). The deal came under heavy scrutiny from French regulators who saw the business as a strategically important domestic industry. To secure approval, GE agreed to form joint ventures with French companies in power generation and transmission, Alstom's heavy gas turbine business was sold to Ansaldo Energia, and GE agreed to sell Alstom's rail signalling business. The deal was finalised in November 2015; since then, Alstom has been operating solely in the rail sector.
In an attempt to grow its rail business, in late-2017, Alstom announced a proposed merger with Siemens Mobility. However, in February 2019, the European Commission prohibited the merger. Subsequently, in February 2020, the company signed a letter of agreement to purchase the transportation division of the financially struggling Bombardier Inc. The purchase was finalized in January 2021.
In 1969, Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE) became the majority shareholder of Alsthom. In 1976, Alsthom merged with Chantiers de l'Atlantique, becoming Alsthom Atlantique. Thus, the business expanded into marine. The next year, it constructed the first 1300 MW generator set for the Paluel Nuclear Power Plant, setting a world record with an output of 1500 MW.
In 1978, Alsthom delivered its first TGV to SNCF. The TGV went on to break world rail speed records in 1981 (at ) and in 1990 (at ). It also set the world endurance record for high-speed train lines in 2001, travelling the from Calais to Marseille in 3 hours and 29 minutes. In 1986, Alsthom Belfort received an order from EDF for the largest gas turbine in the world (212 MW).
In 1988–89, the holding company, CGEE Alsthom, acquired ACEC Énergie (hydroturbines and electrical equipment for the nuclear industry) and ACEC Automatisme (automation) from the dissolution of the Belgian electrical engineering company Ateliers de Constructions Electriques de Charleroi. Alsthom acquired 100% of ACEC's transport division and renamed it ACEC Transport.Sources:
During the early-1990s, GEC Alsthom was the principal manufacturer of the British Rail Class 373, a variant of their TGV family specially designed for traversing the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France. Although collectively operated by Eurostar, the type was ordered by three different railway companies: 16 by SNCF, four by NMBS/SNCB, and 18 by British Rail, of which seven were shortened North of London sets. The first Class 373 set was completed at GEC Alstom's Belfort facility during 1992.
In 1994, GEC Alsthom acquired a 51% shareholding in Linke-Hofmann-Busch from Salzgitter AG.World Update Railway Age August 1994 page 88 In 1995, the company acquired the remaining shares in the steam turbine manufacturer MAN Energie. In early 1998, GEC Alsthom acquired the electrical contractor Cegelec, renaming it Alstom Power Conversion.
In 1998, GEC Alsthom bought Italian firm SASIB's rail signalling subsidiary Sasib Railways, which included the former General Railway Signal (USA).
In June 1998, GEC Alsthom was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange; both GEC and Alcatel-Lucent elected to sell off part of their stakes (23.6% each). Around this time, the company was officially renamed Alstom.GEC Alsthom drops the 'h' The Railway Magazine issue 1167 July 1998 page 55
In 2000, Alstom sold its diesel engine businesses (Ruston, Paxman, and Mirrlees Blackstone) to MAN SE. It also acquired a 51% stake in Italian rail manufacturer Fiat Ferroviaria, a world leader in tilting technology. In April 2003, Alstom sold its industrial turbine business to Siemens for €1.1 billion.
By 2003, Alstom was facing a financial crisis caused by a mix of poor sales and over $5 billion of debt liabilities. It reportedly had the potential to force the company's liquidation. These heavy debts were largely due to a $4 billion charge over a design flaw in a turbine developed by ABB, acquired by Alstom in 2000, as well as the collapse of customer Renaissance Cruises amid a general downturn in the marine market. Alstom's share price had dropped by 90% over two years. The European Commission objected to a €3.2 billion rescue plan involving the French state; European Union competition law bans most state aid without EC permission. This was obtained, but required Alstom to sell several of its subsidiaries, including its shipbuilding and electrical transmission assets.
In 2004, the French state took a 21% stake in Alstom for €772 million and Alstom received an EU-approved bailout worth in total €2.5 billion. The company sold its electrical transmission and distribution ("grid") activities to Areva, the diesel locomotive manufacturer Meinfesa to Vossloh, and Alstom Power Rentals to APR LLC. Six years later, Alstom re-acquired the electric power transmission division of Areva.
In 2005, the former Metro-Cammell rail vehicle works in Washwood Heath closed.Alstom withdraws from train assembly in British International Railway Journal July 2003 page 4 In the same year, Alstom sold its Australian subsidiary, Alstom Transport Australia and New Zealand, to United Group, which became part of the latter's UGL Rail division. United to acquire rail business Alstom Sydney Morning Herald 2 June 2005 Alstom would restart its manufacturing operations in Australia by the early 2010s.
In 2006, Alstom sold its Marine Division to the Norwegian group STX Europe, with a commitment to retain 25% of the shares until 2010; it also sold Alstom Power Conversion, which became Converteam, in a leveraged buy-out deal funded by Barclays Private Equity France SAS.
In June 2006, Bouygues acquired the French government's 21% holding in Alstom for €2 billion. Later that year, Bouygues elected to increase its shareholding in the firm to 24%.
In 2007, the TGV POS set the world speed record for rail vehicles of . In March, Alstom acquired Power Systems Manufacturing LLC (Florida, USA) a manufacturer of gas turbine components from Calpine Corporation for $242 million. In June, Alstom acquired the Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Ecotècnia, renamed as Alstom Ecotècnia (since 2010 Alstom Wind). The company also adopted a new graphic chart (logo, corporate identity) using "alstom" as its trading name, reserving "Alstom SA" for legal documents.
In 2009, Alstom acquired a 25% stake in the locomotive manufacturer Transmashholding.Alstom acquires 25% stake in Transmashholding International Railway Journal April 2010 page 17 Six years later, Alstom decided to increase its shareholding in Transmashholding to 33% at a reported cost of €54 million. As a consequence of an alignment agreement between Transmashholding and another entity, LocoTech-Service, Alstom's stake in the former decreased to 20% in August 2018.
In 2011, Alstom and the Iraqi government signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the construction of a new high-speed rail line between Baghdad and Basra.
In 2012, Alstom opened construction of factories at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, Canada (passenger rail vehicles). After a consortium of Alstom (Alstom Wind), EDF, and DONG Energy was awarded three major French offshore wind farm contracts, the company initiated construction of factories at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (turbine blades in association with LM Power, also wind turbine towers) and Saint-Nazaire (Nacelles and generators).Sources:
Also in 2012, the company formed a joint venture with RusHydro to manufacture hydropower equipment for small and medium power hydropower plants (up to about 100 MW).
Late in 2012, to further the development of its tidal energy business, Alstom acquired Tidal Generation Ltd from Rolls-Royce, however this was later sold to General Electric in 2015 as part of the sale of Alstom's energy business.
In November 2013, Alstom announced it planned to raise €1 to €2 billion through sale of some non-core assets, plus the possible sale of a stake in Alstom Transport, and cut 1,300 jobs. In 2014, Alstom sold its steam auxiliary components activities (air preheaters and gas-gas heaters for thermal power, other industrial heat transfer equipment, and grinding mills) to Triton Partners for €730 million.
In November 2014 Alstom was awarded a $429.4 million contract to modernise 85 trains for the Mexico City Metro system. Mexico City awards $430 million train contract to Alstom . Reuters, 17 November 2014
On April 13, 2013, Alstom senior executive Frédéric Pierucci was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. He was accused of willful blindness of his company's suspected corruption and was imprisoned in a high security facility for 14 months and denied release on bail until the week of Alstom's acquisition by the US conglomerate General Electric. In late 2014, Alstom was fined $772 million by the DOJ, and admitted guilt under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to bribes paid to obtain contracts in various countries.
In mid-2014, Alstom Network UK was charged by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in relation to corruption offences alleged to have been committed when obtaining transportation contracts in India, Poland and Tunisia, covered under sections 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and Criminal Law Act 1977. Further charges were brought in late 2014 by the SFO in relation to corrupt practices used to obtain energy contracts in Lithuania. Additional charges relating to contracts for the Budapest Metro in Hungary were added in April 2015. In December 2018, three executives of Alstom were found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt following an investigation by the SFO into allegations of several politicians and officials being offered in return for securing contracts.
In February 2020, the United Nations published a database of all business enterprises involved in certain specified activities related to the Israeli settlements. Alstom has been listed on the database in light of its involvement in activities related to "the provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements" and "the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes". On 5 July 2021, Norway's largest pension fund KLP said it would divest from Alstom together with 15 other business entities implicated in the UN report for their links to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
On 29 April, Reuters reported that Alstom's board had accepted a €10 billion bid by GE for its energy division; In a letter from GE executive Jeffrey R. Immelt to President François Hollande published in Les Echos, Immelt gave assurances about continued investment in Alstom's French activities, the security of the civil nuclear sector, and on job commitments made by Alstom Wind, whilst making its wind activities available to investors. On 30 April, Alstom confirmed that an offer for its power and grid divisions (representing an equity value of €12.35 billion, €11.4 billion enterprise value) was under review with key interests including the French state. On 30 April, GE confirmed it had made a $16.9 billion offer, comprising a $13.5 billion value plus $3.4 billion cash. On 5 May, GE offered to buy one-fourth of the shares in Alstom's Indian power and distribution companies – Alstom T&D India and Alstom India – at 261.25 and 382.20 rupees a share (value US$278 million and $111 million respectively) subject to its bid for Alstom SA being successful.
On 5 May 2014, the French government stated it did not back GE's bid, citing concerns on the future of Alstom's rail division as a smaller separate entity, suggesting that GE transfer its own rail division to Alstom; other concerns were over the civil nuclear field's national independence, and French jobs. On 14 May, France issued a decree ( Décret n° 2014-479 du 14 mai 2014.), nicknamed " décret Alstom", extending to power of the state to veto the takeover of "strategic interests" into areas of energy supply, water, transport, telecoms and public health. Both the French employer organisation MEDEF and the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services (Michel Barnier) responded negatively to the decree.
On 16 June, Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) submitted a competing offer for Siemens to acquire Alstom's gas turbine activities for €3.9 billion while MHI would form joint ventures with Alstom, acquiring 40%, 20% and 20% stakes in Alstom's steam and nuclear, electrical grid, and hydroelectric businesses respectively, for €3.1 billion. The proposal included an offer to buy a further 10% stake from shareholder Bouygues and an option to form a rail transport joint venture. On 19 June, GE revised its bid, matching the same price with a lower cash transaction value; it also proposed forming a joint venture of their renewable, electric grid, steam turbine and nuclear power businesses. GE announced a memorandum of understanding between the two firms in the rail sector and the sale of GE's rail signalling unit to Alstom. On 20 June, Siemens and MHI modified their bid, with MHI increasing its stake in Alstom's steam, hydro, and grid businesses to 40% in all three (total €3.9 billion) while Siemens increased its offer by €400 million to €4.3 billion. Subsequently, Economy minister Arnaud Montebourg stated he would block both bids, but the French government backed GE's offer and had given GE more specifications on commitments and guarantees; it also intended to buy two-thirds of Bouygues' shareholding (20%).Sources:
The next day, Alstom's board backed GE's revised bid. On 22 June, the French state agreed terms with Bouygues, buying a 20% stake in Alstom from Bouygues at a 2–5% discount on a minimum value of ≈€35 per share.
Initially, the acquisition was expected to be finalised by early 2015. In early 2015, the EU Competition Commission began examining the deal. Both EU and US competition regulators approved the deal by September 2015, subject to the divestiture of Alstom's large and very large gas turbine (GT26 and GT36 models) manufacturing and service business; and its GE7FA gas turbine aftermarket parts subsidiary business, Power Systems Mfg. LLC (PSM), to another company, Ansaldo Energia.
The sale of Alstom's energy division to GE was finalised on 2 November 2015; the final valuation being €12.4 billion, of which €9.7 billion was transferred to Alstom, the remainder being reinvested in GE/Alstom joint ventures plus other corrections. The acquired businesses were reorganised within GE's existing power generation business ( GE Power & Water) as GE Power. The remainder of Alstom Group, including GE Signalling (acquired via a €700 million deal), refocused on rail transport. Due to the acquisition, GE accrued $17.3bn of goodwill, consisting of Alstom's negative book value of $7.2bn at the time of acquisition and the $10.1bn purchase price. In October 2018, GE wrote-off $23bn from the value of its power industry division, largely attributed to the Alstom purchase.
In September 2015, it was announced that Amtrak would award Alstom a contract for $2.5 billion for the next generation high-speed train sets for the Northeast Corridor. This would result in the creation of 750 jobs across upstate New York with 400 direct manufacturing jobs at Alstom. The order for 28 Avelia Liberty trainsets was officially confirmed in August 2016 by Amtrak. These trainsets are manufactured at Alstom's plant in Hornell, New York.
In March 2016, a joint venture of Alstom and Gibela began construction of a new train building factory in Dunnotar, outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. Initial orders for the factory included 580 X'Trapolis Mega passenger trains for Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa under a €4 billion contract that was awarded in 2013.
In September 2016, Alstom announced it was to cease locomotive manufacturing at its Belfort (France) site by 2018 due to low orders; remaining production activity was to be transferred to its facility of Alstom DDF in Reichshoffen, Alsace. However, during October 2016, the French state placed an order of about €650 million for 15 TGV Euroduplex trains; an order for 20 locomotives; plus an order for 30 intercity trains to be built at Reichshoffen. Together, these orders were sufficient to prevent the Belfort plant's closure in the short to medium term.
In June 2017, Alstom opened the largest train modernisation facility in the UK at Halebank on the outskirts of Liverpool. Initial work involved the repainting of the Class 390 Pendolinos.
On 12 November 2024, Alstom announced on their official website that the first of 35 fully automated Metropolis trains has been delivered to Taiwan. The four-car stainless-steel train can carry up to 700 passengers, including 108 seated, with speeds up to 100 km/h.
The proposed merger was viewed by some as a measure to counter the rise of rival China rail business CRRC; it reportedly received support from many figures within both the French and German governments. The transaction, which was originally due to close by the end of 2018, was met with opposition by French trade union officials who voiced their concerns that such a merger would have the potential for job losses. On 17 July 2018, Alstom shareholders overwhelmingly approved the proposed merger with Siemens. On 6 February 2019, the planned merger between the two companies was vetoed by the European Commission. In response to this ruling, Alstom's Chief Executive Officer Henri Poupart-Lafarge stated that he viewed the decision to block the merger was a result of "ideological prejudices".
In July 2020, it was announced that the European Union competition authorities had approved the purchase. To finish the deal, Alstom had to sell the Alstom DDF factory based in France, a regional train division, a Bombardier facility in Germany, and a Bombardier trains division. The company also had to provide guarantees and pass on some of Bombardier's assets.
Notable products includes series production of the TGV high-speed trains with over 650 trainsets sold over 25 years, as well as the London Underground 1995 Stock, London Underground 1996 Stock, British Rail Class 390 and AGV.
Since a merger with General Railway Signal in 1998, Alstom has been manufacturing railway signaling equipment at a former GRS factory located in a suburb near Rochester, New York. After the merger with GE signaling the manufacturing was transferred to Missouri, and GRS factory kept engineering the GRS legacy products.
Since 2002, Alstom has manufactured the Pendolino tilting train, following the acquisition of Fiat Ferroviaria.
The company also produces Alstom Citadis trams; in 2007, over 1,100 Citadis trams were in use by 28 cities including Luas, Algiers tramway, Barcelona, Melbourne, Rotterdam and Paris.
Between 2007 and 2010, the company produced 1,002 R160A New York City subway cars at its manufacturing plant in Hornell, New York, while the body shells were built at their Lapa plant, in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2013, Alstom was awarded the contract to supply 168 coaches to Chennai Metro at a cost of . The company also owns the tender for supplying coaches to Kochi Metro. In September 2015, it was announced in Hornell, New York, by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) that Amtrak will be awarding Alstom a contract for $2.45 billion for the next-generation high-speed train sets for the Northeast Corridor. This would result in the creation of 750 jobs across upstate New York with 400 direct manufacturing jobs at Alstom. The new trainsets will be able to reach speeds up to 186 mph and feature Tilting train The 28 new train sets are scheduled to enter service by 2023.
Next-generation under development by Alstom are the Avelia family: ETR 675, Avelia Horizon and Avelia Liberty.
Ottawa LRT cars Alstom Citadis Spirit are manufactured in Hornell, but assembly completed in Ottawa, Ontario, and Brampton, Ontario.
Locomotives
Power Systems also provided services such as product retrofitting for nuclear and fossil steam turbines and refurbishment of existing power plants. It performed maintenance and servicing under long-term agreements for its own turbines, as well as those manufactured by GE and Siemens.
In Russia, the company serviced nuclear equipment under a joint agreement with Atomenergomash and provided technology transfer for a project of floating nuclear power plants. In Brazil, Alstom, together with Bardella, ran a joint venture called Indústria Metalúrgica e Mecânica da Amazônia to build hydroelectric power plants throughout the Amazon and Latin American regions. In India, Alstom had a joint venture with Bharat Forge to manage power production from start to finish.
In 2015, the entire power sector was taken over by General Electric.
In 2015, the grid division was taken over by General Electric and renamed as GE Grid Solutions.
|
|
