Aircraft and train maker Bombardier just announced last week that it will exit its last major aircraft program. Now the Canadians also want to get rid of the railroad business.
Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine / Montreal (dpa) - Among the major train manufacturers, a billion-dollar alliance is emerging out of necessity.
The French manufacturer Alstom talks to its troubled Canadian rival Bombardier about the purchase of its train division, which is based in Berlin and has thousands of employees in Germany. The French confirmed talks with the Canadians.
Bombardier is badly hit financially. Problems in the train business tore the company into the red in 2019. To get some money, the group already got out of the Airbus A220 short and medium-haul jet that was built together with Airbus last week. The Canadians had developed the aircraft under the name Bombardier C-Series for more than $ 6 billion, but had raised themselves financially.
The Bombardier management is currently looking for other ways to pay off the Group's debt mountain. A big step could be the sale of the train business. The "Handelsblatt" had already reported on the project last week, citing industry circles, and quoted a purchase price of seven billion euros. Other media named $ 7 billion.
Alstom made no statements. Negotiations with the Canadians were ongoing and the decision in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine was still pending. The deal under consideration is said to be the purchase of the entire Bombardier Transportation division.
The transaction would also be very important for Germany. The headquarters of the Bombardier train division is in Berlin. Of the 40,650 employees who, according to the company, were most recently active in 60 different countries, around 6500 have permanent employees in Germany, according to trade union figures.
There are also around 1100 temporary workers. The largest locations are Hennigsdorf, Görlitz and Bautzen. Several hundred people are also employed in Mannheim, Kassel and Siegen. Smaller locations also form Braunschweig and Frankfurt.
Alstom had failed only a year ago due to concerns of the European Competition Commission when trying to merge with the train division of Siemens. Siemens and Alstom wanted to merge in the rail sector in order to be better positioned in global competition. The two heavyweights primarily targeted the world's largest train manufacturer from China, CRRC.
The deal now being discussed with Bombardier would create a new large rail technology group with a turnover of around 15 billion euros. So far, companies have been competing in many areas. For example, Alstom builds the well-known French TGV high-speed trains, regional trains, metros and trams, but also offers technical solutions for rail and signal technology.
Bombardier is in business with its Zefiro high-speed trains in China and Italy. Rail and signaling technology, regional trains as well as subways and trams also come from the Canadian-German manufacturer, who also works on Siemens ICE trains.
The newest Intercity trains from Bombardier have recently been in trouble. Deutsche Bahn announced at the end of January that it would not accept 25 units due to technical defects. Obviously there are problems with the train operating system software. There were also production defects with the flagship ICE 4, Siemens also referred to Bombardier in the error.
