Alstom bail-out flounders

Shares in Alstom plunged over 9% and were suspended from trading after the European Commission blocked French government plans to bail out the troubled French engineering group.

Alstom in dire straits

Shares in Alstom were suspended after they plunged 9.18% to 2.70 euros.

  

A short while earlier, the European Union’s executive arm had said in Brussels it was banning “in principle” the French state’s plan to lead a rescue worth 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion) into the near-bankrupt Alstom.

  

EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said he had proposed other ways for the French government to help Alstom that would not breach EU rules on state aid.

 

The French authorities have until Monday to “publicly commit themselves not to participate in measures that would mean the irreversible involvement of the French state in Alstom”, he told reporters.

Source: AFP