GE to make final pitch for Alstom bid at hearing

The closed-door hearing gives rival manufacturers and clients to present their views before senior EU officials.

GE executives will make a last-ditch attempt Thursday to win support from the European Commission for its €12.4 billion bid for the energy business of Alstom.

Some of the world’s largest manufacturing and energy firms will attend the closed-door hearing, where Commission investigators will defend their opposition before senior officials and member countries.

Firms like Siemens, MMI and Toshiba are expected to back the Commission’s view that the acquisition would hand GE too large a share of the market for heavy-duty gas turbines and give them too much market power.

GE is expected to call on several blue-chip clients to advocate in favor of the merger. GE’s principal argument is that the market for supplying gas-turbines is global, with Chinese firms also bidding for contracts.

Steve Bolz, the executive that leads GE’s power and water business, will represent the company at the hearing, according to a spokesman who declined further comment.

The Commission formally notified GE of its objections to the deal on June 12. Thursday’s hearing is GE’s last chance to persuade the Commission to change its mind.

If that fails, GE will need to offer concessions or see the deal sink in a re-run of the Commission’s notorious 2001 decision to block GE’s takeover of Honeywell.

GE has already discussed possible remedies with the Commission, although the company’s Chief Executive, Jeff Immelt, has already ruled out divesting certain elements of Alstom’s business, notably the service contracts for gas turbines.

The news that GE was in talks to buy Alstom broke last April, prompting a furious response from the French government which threatened to kill the deal.

It changed its mind after GE promised to create 1,000 new jobs in France.

In an unusual move, France’s socialist government has publicly criticized the Commission analysis of the takeover, suggesting that stopping the deal would see France lose jobs to rivals in China.

Alstom’s gas-turbine order-book has been in limbo since the GE deal was finalized a year ago.

On Tuesday, Alstom’s shareholders attacked the company’s CEO complaining about how the long review process is stifling business.

The Commission has until August 21 to make a final decision.