Alstom

From Wikicompany

Alstom (formerly GEC-Alsthom) is a large French industrial company whose businesses are:

• Energy generation and distribution
• Train manufacturing (e.g. the TGV and Eurostar)
• Shipsbuilding (e.g. the Queen Mary 2).

In the fiscal year 2001/02 Alstom had annual sales of over €23 billion, and employed more than 118,000 people in over 70 countries.

History

The name of the company derives from the French region of Alsace and the surname of the engineer Elihu Thomson. The company always writes it in capitals, ALSTOM, even though it is not an acronym.

GEC Alsthom

It was formed in 1988 from the heavy engineering interests of Britain's GEC and Compagnie Générale d'Electricité's (CGE) Alsthom division as GEC Alsthom.

In 1991 CGE adopted the name Alcatel Alsthom and in 1998 this became simply Alcatel.

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 euros.

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. Also in 2001 Alcatel sold its 24% stake. The share price fell steeply following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when a number of cruise liner orders failed.

On 12 March 2003, shares dipped 50 per cent in one day, and finished at 1.36 euros. 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.