GE Completes $10.6 Billion Acquisition of Alstom

General Electric Co. completed its $10.6 billion acquisition of the power and transmission division of French manufacturer Alstom, 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.

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.

Source: Times Free Press

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