GE completes $10.6 billion acquisition of Alstom

The Alstom plant on Riverfront Parkway in downtown Chattanooga is seen Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2015.
The Alstom plant on Riverfront Parkway in downtown Chattanooga is seen Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2015.
photo The Alstom plant in on Riverfront Parkway in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., is seen Tuesday, Feb. 1., 2015.

Energy production through the years

1888: James Casey and M.M. Hedges buys defunct iron company and form Casey-Hedges Co. in Chattanooga 1899: Patrick Walsh and Michael Weidner set up the Walsh-Weidner Co. to produce pressure vessels, tanks, fire tube and water tube boilers, 1928: Casey-Hedges and Wasl-Wiedner combine, are bought by the International Combustion Engineering Co. of New York and create Combustion Engineering Corp. 1990: Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) buys Combustion Engineering 2000: Alstom buys the boiler and fossil fuel businesses of ABB and Westinghouse Electric buys ABB's nuclear business 2015: General Electric buys Alstom Power

General Electric Co. completed its $10.6 billion acquisition of the power and transmission division of French manufacturer Alstom on Monday, bringing a new corporate owner to one of Chattanooga's biggest manufacturers.

Fairfield, Conn.-based GE said the closing on the sale comes after regulatory approvals from more than 20 countries and regions. The European Union approved the takeover in September after an eight-month investigation into whether it would distort the European market.

GE Power and Water division officials said they will take advantage of complementary strengths in technology and global capability, and also will be able to make purchases more efficiently.

Steve Bolze, who heads Power and Water, told reporters at division headquarters in Schenectady that GE will be poised to take advantage of the world's growing energy needs.

"We've added now 35,000 employees to our business," Bolze said. "It's 65,000, and we're ready to step forward."

He did not address future employment levels.

GE and Alstom agreed to the deal in 2014.

Alstom operates a boiler division with more than 300 employees in Chattanooga and built a turbomachinery plant in Chattanooga in 2010 that has another 140 workers. GE is the fourth corporate owner of the boiler and energy manufacturing operation in Chattanooga, which began in 1888 when industrialists James Casey and M.M. Hedges bought a defunct iron company and formed Casey-Hedges Co. in Chattanooga.

The GE business, headquartered in Schenectady, New York, will have an estimated annual revenue of about $30 billion.

The industrial conglomerate's power and water unit, which makes heavy-duty gas turbines and machines for utilities and independent power producers, had revenue of $27.56 billion in 2014, with about 38,000 employees.

There have been no final decisions made on any actions that would impact jobs at GE's Power business as a result of the Alstom integration, GE spokesman Seth Martin said.

The company said it expects the deal to add 5-8 cents to earnings per share in 2016 and 15-20 cents by 2018. The company is targeting $3 billion in cost synergies in the fifth year.

General Electric also operates the Roper appliance manufacturing plant with more than 1,700 workers in Lafayette, Ga. General Electric wanted to sell the appliance division to Electrolux, but the deal was blocked by European regulators.

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