French rail multinational Alstom secured €2.34-billion worth of orders in the quarter ended December 31, 2015, compared with the €1.61-billion of orders secured in the three months to December 2014.
Major commercial successes for the quarter under review included the provision of regional trains in Belgium; Pendolino trains and associated maintenance in Italy; electrification, signalling and telecommunications projects in India; supplying locomotives in Switzerland; supplying regional trains to Germany; the extension of metropolitan rail in Panama; and the supply of a tramway in France.
This brought orders in the first nine months of the year to €6.3-billion, while sales over the first three quarters jumped 3% to €4.9-billion.
Sales increased to €1.61-billion in the third quarter of the year, compared with €1.5-billion for the same period last year, mainly fuelled by deliveries of suburban and regional trains in France, regional trains in Germany and Italy, tramways in Algeria and a maintenance contract in the UK.
Following the closing of the sale of its energy business to General Electric (GE) on November 2, Alstom was now entirely refocused on rail transport.
“Alstom used part of the proceeds to acquire GE rail signalling activities and reinvest in three joint ventures with GE in the fields of grid, renewable and French steam and nuclear,” the company said in a trading statement for the third quarter.
Over the medium term, the group expected to grow sales at over 5% a year organically, hoping to improve operating margin within the 5% to 7% range.