FRANCE won an option to buy 20 percent of Alstom from construction group Bouygues on Sunday, in an eleventh-hour deal clearing the way for the agreed sale of Alstom’s energy business to General Electric.

    The government had backed the tie-up on the condition that it first secured the Alstom stake from Paris-based Bouygues — leaving less than three days to negotiate an agreement before GE’s formal offer expired yesterday.

    Ministers are determined to maintain influence over a complex deal that parks some Alstom assets deemed strategically important to France within GE-controlled joint ventures.

    “This is a way of organizing ourselves in the face of globalization,” Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg told France 2 television after announcing the option agreement.

    “It builds alliances rather than allowing France to become a giant shopping center for foreign corporations to come and prey on our companies,” he said.

    GE and rival bidder Siemens — later joined by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — had both revised their offers as France sought guarantees on jobs and sensitive activities.

    The U.S. group’s 7.3-billion-euro (US$9.9 billion) cash outlay brings Alstom shareholders a smaller windfall than envisaged at first, with a narrower perimeter of activities sold outright.

    Alstom said the same day its board had unanimously approved the deal.

    (SD-Agencies)