By Inti Landauro
PARIS--French engineering firm Alstom SA (ALO.FR) on Monday said
fiscal first-quarter revenue from its train business rose 8%,
boosted by deliveries of suburban trains in France and regional
trains in Italy and Germany, as well as on the maintenance of
high-speed trains in the U.K.
The maker of TGV high-speed trains said its revenue in the April
to June period rose to 1.6 billion euros ($1.73 billion) from
EUR1.49 billion in the same period a year earlier. An analyst at
Societe Generale expected sales worth EUR1.57 billion in the
period.
Alstom, which is in the process of selling most of its power
equipment manufacturing business to larger rival General Electric
(GE), only reported financial data on its railway rolling stock
activity.
Chief Executive Patrick Kron said the on-going asset sale to GE
is "moving ahead" without providing further information.
Alstom maintained its medium-term guidance for 5% sales growth,
excluding the effects of potential acquisitions. The company aims
to lift its operating margin to between 5% and 7%.
During the first quarter, Alstom booked new orders worth EUR2
billion, mainly on contracts in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Hong
Kong. Orders were way below the EUR4.8 billion reported in the same
period last year when Alstom booked a record EUR4 billion order for
trains in South Africa.
Still, new orders were 23% above market expectations, UBS said
Monday. The amount was 3% above UBS's expectations. UBS said it
doesn't expect the figures will have a significant impact on the
share price as investors' attention is still focused on the GE
transaction and Alstom has released no new information on that.
-Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com
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