Tuesday May 5, 11:19 AM
Alstom reports profit surge
PARIS (AFP) - French engineering giant Alstom (Paris: FR0010220475 - news) , which builds the TGV high-speed train, reported on Tuesday a 30-percent surge in net profit for its year to March, but the shares fell on profit taking after a rise on Monday
Alstom reported a net profit for 2008-09 of 1.1 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) and forecast that profitability would rise further in the current year, saying it would tighten controls on costs and investment to confront the economic crisis.
Chief executive Patrick Kron said: "Alstom is not in a separate bubble with regard to economic realities, but we are involved with markets which are growing in the long term and there is no reason to challenge this thinking."
The price of shares in the group, which had risen by 4.81 percent on Monday, were showing a fall of 4.58 percent on profit taking, analysts said.
So far this year, shares in Alstom have risen by 14.30 percent compared with a gain of 0.21 percent for the CAC 40 (Paris: news) index of leading shares quoted in Paris.
However, the profit figure was slightly below analysts' forecasts of 1.13 billion euros for the 12-month period ending in March.
Alstom's turnover rose 11 percent to 18.7 billion euros.
The group, which also makes power stations, said that its performance in the year to March had been "satisfactory."
In the second half, orders taken had risen by 5.0 percent on a 12-month comparison taking the order book to 45.67 billion euros, equivalent to nearly two and a half years of work and an annual increase of 16 percent.
The strong order book enabled the group forecast an operating margin of about 9.0 percent this year, after 8.2 percent last year and 7.7 percent the previous year, the company said.
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