General Electric Co.’s share price up, considers selling train-signal business to Alstom to increase bid

According to people with knowledge of the process, General Electric Co. is currently negotiating with France in order to bring more clarity on jobs guarantees, planned investments and nuclear technology access as well. As reported by the people, who asked not to be named, because the talks are still not public the company is trying to refine the details of its 17-billion-dollar offer for the energy business of Alstom SA before the deadline of the bid, which is June 23rd.

As reported by Bloomberg, General Electric Co. made an e-mailed statement yesterday and said that its team “had good, constructive meeting with the French government again. We are making progress and are very confident in our proposal.”

The company has entered a bidding war over Alstoms energy assets with Siemens AG. One of the people close to the negotiations between the companies reported that General Electric Co. has promised to create 1 000 industrial jobs in France as part of the acquisition of the assets.

Siemens AG, which is working in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Hitachi Ltd, already offered 14.2 billion euros ($19.3 billion) for Alstoms energy assets at a presentation in Paris yesterday. The joint offer topped the $17 billion offer, proposed by GE.

According to people with knowledge of these issues, General Electric Co. is currently considering to sell its train-signaling unit to Alstom SA in an attempt to make its bid more attractive. If the sale of its train-signaling business proves out to be successful, this would not only provide General Electric with a headstart over its German and Japanese rivals, but will also help it meet the requirement of the French president Francois Hollande for consolidation of the companys train business.

The people familiar with the matter reported that General Electric is probably going to send the increased offer to Alstom in the upcoming days. According to the people, the U.S. company eventually plans to offer two alternatives to Alstom, including a joint venture and a direct purchase.

General Electric Co. was 0.19% up to close at 26.87 dollars per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of +10.44%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 10 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for General Electric Co have a median target of 28.00, with a high estimate of 32.00 and a low estimate of 27.00. The median estimate represents a +4.21% increase from the last price of 26.87.