FRANCE STEPS IN TO SALVAGE ALSTOM

FRENCH engineering giant Alstom will be part-nationalised after Paris waded into a bitter takeover battle.

Siemens, Mitsubishi and General Electric have been engaged in a month-long tussle for the group that employs 6,500 in the UK. But in a stunning turn of events yesterday French economy minister Arnaud Montebourg said the nation’s socialist government would team up with GE to take the company into part-state control.

In exchange for GE being allowed to buy Alstom’s energy division, which makes turbines, the French government will take a 20pc stake in the company. If GE does not agree to the terms, the deal will be blocked, he said. The Alstom board has until Monday to approve the deal.

The shock decision yesterday came only hours after Siemens and Mitsubishi hiked their offer for the company to £11.6bn, which included £6.6bn of cash.

Because it is considered a key industry in France – the company’s transport division makes the TGV train ( pictured) – the government can block a takeover, even though it does not hold any shares in Alstom.