Alstom shareholders gave the green light Thursday to the acquisition of Canadian Bombardier Transport, scheduled for the first quarter of 2021. During an extraordinary general meeting by videoconference, they almost unanimously validated this transaction which should result in birth of the world number two in rail.
Its price was revised downwards in September, to 5.3 billion euros.
Read also: The European champion Alstom-Bombardier soon on the rails
"
It is not a question of changing strategy, but of accelerating it
", underlined the CEO of Alstom Henri Poupart-Lafarge at the opening of the general meeting.
"
We will have a critical size in each of the important countries across all the continents
".
That is to say something to approach the Chinese CRRC, by far the world number one in the sector.
Alstom must carry out a capital increase of two billion euros to proceed with the purchase by the end of the first half of 2021, with preferential subscription rights for shareholders.
Alstom will have to restore Bombardier's operating margin “
to a standard level
” and expects to achieve 400 million euros in savings through synergies.
The group expects “
double-digit
”
net earnings per share
from the 2nd year after purchase.
Read also: Railway: towards new consolidations in Europe
Two new directors were elected on the proposal of the Caisse des Dépôts et Placements du Québec (CDPQ), which will own 18% of Alstom: Kim Thomassin, vice-president of the CDPQ, and Serge Gaudin, founder of the Canadian giant of the CGI computing.
Exceptional compensation in shares (contested by less than 12% of voters) was voted for the CEO of Alstom and the executives who participated in the transaction.
