MADRID: Alstom SA and Schneider Electric SA are in exclusive negotiations with Areva SA of France for its power-grid subsidiary, knocking out overseas bids from General Electric Co and Toshiba Corp.

Alstom, which makes high-speed trains and energy-generation equipment, and Schneider, a maker of electrical circuits, bid 4.09 billion euros ($6.14 billion) for Areva T&D, the nuclear reactor company said. The French state, which owns 91 percent of Areva, expects to complete the transaction in 2010.

Paris-based Areva became the third-largest provider of power transmission and distribution equipment behind ABB Ltd and Siemens AG after buying the unit in 2004 for 920 million euros from Alstom.

President Nicolas Sarkozy orchestrated the sale as finance minister to avert Alstom's breakdown, and Areva is now selling it on to fund expansion in the global nuclear power market.

"Alstom's win allows the French industrial jewel to regain some of the luster it lost and participate in the rapid build- out of new transmission infrastructure in emerging countries," Ben Elias, analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach, said in an e-mail.

The decision followed an examination of the bids on Monday, Areva said. Under the French group's plan, transmission activities will go to Alstom and the distribution activities to Schneider.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 12/02/2009 page16)