France wants better Alstom offers: presidency source
PARIS (Reuters) - The French government raised the stakes in the battle for the power assets of engineering group ALSTOM (ALO.PA) on Tuesday, urging rival suitors General Electric (GE) and Siemens to come up with better offers.
Siemens earlier presented a joint proposal with Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) <7011.T> to President Francois Hollande that it said valued Alstom's power business at 14.2 billion euros ($19.3 billion), above GE's existing 12.4 billion offer.
But Hollande's government, which insists any solution must protect French jobs and strategic influence over the company, said it expected improved offers in the days leading up to the June 23 deadline imposed by GE for its offer.
"The talks between the state and the different companies are going to continue this week," a source in Hollande's office said after the meeting with Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries CEO Shunichi Miyanaga.
"The offers must be improved," the source said.
However, Kaeser, outlining the Siemens-MHI offer at a news conference in Paris, said he saw no reason to discuss improving an offer which he said was already the better one on the table.
"Why would a superior offer be improved if it is superior already? There is no reason for us to discuss that question at this time," he said.
Under the Siemens-MHI deal, Siemens offered to buy Alstom's gas turbines business for 3.9 billion euros in cash, and MHI to buy stakes in Alstom power assets including hydroelectric power equipment and grid, to be held in separate joint ventures.
MHI would inject 3.1 billion euros in cash into Alstom and offer to take a stake of up to 10 percent in the French firm from 29 percent shareholder Bouygues .
GE has said it made progress in discussions with the government on its offer for all of Alstom's energy arm, which includes its thermal power, renewable power and grid businesses.
Hollande's Socialist government has tried to negotiate better offers to preserve Alstom as a player in both transport and energy, seeing both as vital national industries at a time when unemployment is stuck above 10 percent.
"We are keeping a proud French icon strong and making it even stronger," Kaeser said.
"We are not going to dismantle this proud company," he said, adding that Siemens was also ready to enter into "good faith" talks with Alstom to strengthen both companies' mobility businesses.
Mitsubishi Heavy's Miyanaga told the joint news briefing with Kaeser that it would create around 1,000 new jobs in France with joint research and development, marketing and manufacturing cooperation, and efforts to boost local vocational skills.
Kaeser said he had committed during the morning's meeting with French officials to create 1,000 apprentice training jobs in France and guaranteed that existing Alstom worker benefits would not be damaged by the tie-up.
Alstom said late on Monday it would examine the Siemens-MHI proposal in the coming days.
(Writing by Mark John; Editing by James Regan)