France Says It Could Increase Alstom Stake
February 08 2016 - 4:22PM
Dow Jones News
By Nick Kostov
PARIS--France said Monday an agreement with conglomerate
Bouygues SA had gone into effect, giving the state voting rights
equivalent to 20% of Alstom's share capital.
The Bouygues pact was reached in 2014 when General Electric Co.
struck a deal to acquire Alstom's energy assets for 12.4 billion
euros.
The state's voting rights come via an agreement with Bouygues to
borrow its votes for a period of 20 months.
"The state has a series of options allowing it to acquire, if it
wishes, the shares currently loaned by Bouygues," the French
economy ministry said. It added that the government will be
represented by two administrators on Alstom's board.
The share-purchase agreement--hashed out during marathon
negotiations in 2014--removed the final hurdle from GE's pursuit of
Alstom's core assets. It was conditional on the deal completing,
which happened in November.
The French government had been reluctant to let the industrial
jewel fall into U.S. hands and potentially threaten French jobs,
warning at the time that it wouldn't sign off on GE's acquisition
until it had bought most of Bouygues's Alstom stake.
Write to Nick Kostov at nick.kostov@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 08, 2016 16:07 ET (21:07 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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