Signage for the Mitsubishi Heavy is seen at its headquarters in Tokyo. Hitachi will team up with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in a bid for Alstom’s power business.
Bloomberg/Tokyo
Hitachi will team up with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in a bid for Alstom’s power business, strengthening the partnership in energy charted by the two Japanese companies in recent years.
The Japanese duo would join the Siemens AG-led attempt to counter a $17bn offer by General Electric Co for the French company. The plan is a “good thing” for Hitachi, Katsumi Nagasawa, president of Hitachi’s power systems unit, said yesterday in Tokyo. The bid won’t affect Hitachi’s alliance with GE in nuclear energy, he added.
Mitsubishi Heavy and Hitachi may bid ¥500bn ($4.9bn) for Alstom’s steam turbine business while Siemens will pay ¥500bn for Alstom’s gas turbine business, the Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information. Alstom’s grid business wouldn’t be part of the deal, the Nikkei said.
Mitsubishi Heavy and Munich-based Siemens AG will decide whether to submit a joint proposal to Alstom’s board of directors by June 16, the two companies said in a statement on Wednesday, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News. The companies didn’t give further details. Hitachi’s involvement would build on ties already developed between the two Japanese companies.
Earlier this year, Mitsubishi Heavy formally began operating a venture with Hitachi that combined their energy-equipment businesses. The venture, called Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, was announced in November 2012.
