It was a blow from the stock market that the European number one in the rail industry, Alstom, had to face on Monday March 7. The action fell by 5.7% at the close, after having unscrewed at the start of the session, beyond −12%. So Alstom, in turn, caught up, after several other French groups, by the turmoil of the war in Ukraine, because of its activity, its contracts and its ambition in the former Soviet Union.
To tell the truth, the reaction of the markets presents some disproportions with the reality of the volume of business carried out in Russia by the French group, the Stock Exchanges having entered a bearish phase where they overreact to any new considered worrying. “How can we say that Alstom is presenting a major exhibition in Russia, as we have read here and there?, asks a spokesperson for the company. Our turnover in Russia represents less than 0.5% of our sales. We have thirty employees in Russia, forty in Ukraine and no expatriates in the two countries. »
Alstom’s Russian activity is linked to a French stake in the Russian manufacturer of railway rolling stock Transmashholding (TMH), up to 20% of the capital. The tricolor group delivers to TMH the traction system manufactured in Tarbes for a locomotive model, but at a slow pace (about five per year). TMH contributed 44 million euros of profit, out of 300 million of profits for Alstom in total, during the financial year 2020-2021 (ended on March 31) and generated a loss of 2 million in the first half of the financial year 2021- 2022 (at the end of September).
“Sell, but sell to whom? »
The financial damage therefore does not appear to be major. But that’s without taking into account the risk that weighs on Alstom’s stake in TMH, which the tricolor group has registered for 480 million euros in its accounts. What will become of this half a billion? No decision has been made for the moment as to a possible exit from this stake, says one at Alstom. “Sell, but sell to whom? And what is 20% of a Russian company really worth today? », asks a good connoisseur of the file.
More broadly, the invasion of Ukraine burdens Alstom’s ambitions in the republics of the former Soviet Union, where the Saint-Ouen group (Seine-Saint-Denis) had made some great conquests over the past ten years. : 40 freight locomotives have been sold to Azerbaijan (the last was delivered a few days ago), and, above all, a monster contract for another 250 locomotives destined for Kazakhstan is in progress. Alstom has two factories in Kazakhstan, the largest of which is in the capital Noursultan, in a joint venture with TMH (75% Alstom, 25% TMH).
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