ALO Alstom

By Inti Landauro

PARIS--Alstom SA (ALO.FR) Chief Executive Patrick Kron said Thursday that he expects the company's sales of trains and rolling stock to keep growing through the remainder of its fiscal year at around 3%, excluding the impact of currency swings and recent asset sales and acquisitions.

The maker of TGV high-speed trains said its sales over the first nine months of its fiscal year, which ends March 31, rose 8% to 4.92 billion euros ($5.36 billion) thanks to new deliveries of locomotives and rolling stock in France and tramways in Algeria. When stripping the effects of currency swings and recent acquisitions, sales increased 3% during the period.

Sales over the quarter ending Dec. 31 were almost unchanged at EUR1.61 billion.

Alstom booked new orders worth EUR6.26 billion during the period, down from EUR8.02 billion, though last year it recorded a EUR4 billion contract with the South African railway operator.

The engineering firm sold most of its power equipment making unit to GE in September for a nominal price of EUR12.4 billion, retaining a minority stake in part of the business worth EUR2.4 billion. Alstom used part of the proceeds to acquire GE's train-signaling business for EUR700 million.

The sale has demonstrated how Alstom has struggled to compete with larger rivals and has been forced out of the competitive market for power turbines, focusing instead on the train unit.

Alstom is in the process of handing EUR3.2 billion back to shareholders from the asset sale to GE through a share buyback.

Following the buyback, the new, leaner, Alstom will be able to start afresh with no debt and could buy assets in the train manufacturing industry if relevant opportunities arise. Over the past few weeks, Alstom has taken a series of large orders for trains in India and Belgium among others.

-Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 14, 2016 02:15 ET (07:15 GMT)

Alstom (EU:ALO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Alstom (EU:ALO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024