EU: The Spanish manufacturer obtained a plant in France, as well as intellectual rights for two platforms of multiple units.
Alstom announced the completion of the divestment on August 1, but the permission to sell assets by the European Commission was received at the end of May. Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) became the owner of the plant in Reichshoffen (France) and received the intellectual rights to the Coradia Polyvalent train platform produced there, as well as to the Talent 3 train platform manufactured in Hennigsdorf, Germany. CAF will take over 700 employees from the Reischshoffan site, as well as the Talent 3 platform engineering staff in Germany. According to Heraldo, CAF estimates the value of the acquired assets at €75 mln.
The deal is subject to behavioral conditions set for Alstom, which it had to fulfill as part of the takeover of Bombardier Transportation, another major player in the rolling stock market, that took place in early 2021. It is worth noting that Alstom was originally supposed to also sell part of the Hennigsdorf production facilities, but there is no official information about the transfer of this production to CAF. Last summer, Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge noted that the company is considering the facility in Hennigsdorf as a site for a promising contract to supply 540 trains for the Berlin S-Bahn system.
Earlier, on July 1, Alstom fulfilled other obligations to the European Commission by selling its 50% stake in the production of high-speed ETR 1000 (V300 Zefiro) trains in Italy to Hitachi Rail, which ownes the second half of the enterprise. The requirement to divest this asset was aimed at ensuring the stability of the 54 trains deliveries for the HS2 high-speed line project in the UK.
Presentation of Coradia Polyvalent EMU for the Leman Express regional passenger rail services in 2019. Source: Jean Schweitzer, Alstom
The Polyvalent platform has a maximum speed of 160 km/h and assumes a multi-system design, which makes it possible to operate these trains on routes between EU countries with different power supply conditions for railway networks. Polyvalent is the most modern in the Coradia range by Alstom, more than 300 trains have been produced since 2014, and the capacity in Reichshoffen allows to produce up to 500 cars per year. According to CAF, with the Polyvalent platform, the portfolio of projects of the Spanish manufacturer will increase by €500 mln.
The Talent 3 platform was introduced by Bombardier Transportation in 2016 and is created for design speeds of both 160 km/h and 200 km/h. A significant order for these vehicles was made by OBB in Austria: a framework agreement with Bombardier provided for the delivery of up to 300 trains. However, the trains never passed the certification, due to this fact OBB abandoned this order, changing the supplier to Siemens Mobility and its Desiro platform. According to Railvolution, over 20 Talent 3 trains have been built for OBB and stay idle now.
Talent 3 train for OBB at InnoTrans exhibition in 2018. Source: Falk2, wikipedia.org
It is worth noting that CAF has its own Civity regional train platform. According to the manufacturer’s website, it is possible to arrange trains from 2 to 8 cars, the design speed is 160 km/h with the possibility of bringing it up to 200 km/h. The Civity platform offers catenary, diesel, battery and hybrid power options. These trains are manufactured by CAF in Spain and the UK (the main customer): as of 2021, over 250 of these trains have been built, with contracts for over 250 more in CAF’s backlog.
Civity trains in the UK. Source: railway-news.com
CAF notes that the new assets will allow it to take a new step in development and diversification, to strengthen position in the French market, as well as to open up additional opportunities in Germany and Central Europe. As of 2020, CAF accounted for 2% of the global rolling stock market, and 10 production sites in Spain, France, Great Britain, the USA, Mexico and Brazil in operation. CAF entered the deal with a record backlog in the railway segment at €9.8 bln (+11% by the end of 2021).
In turn, Alstom accounts for about 13-14% of the global market, includes 40 production facilities over the world, and the company completed the 1st half of 2022 with a backlog of €83.4 bln (+7% by the end of 2021). The parties have not yet disclosed changes in the structure of their backlogs as a result of the deal.
