Reports that the US engineering giant General Electric is rumoured to be interested in buying out the French company Alstom led to its two Indian subsidiaries witnessing hectic buying in these stocks this morning.

In fact, talks of acquisitions or buyouts abroad seem to be the flavour of the season with already a bunch of pharma companies like Pfizer, Novartis, AstraZeneca, and GSK Pharma, either getting into the acquisition mode abroad or rumours of their doing so that have led to renewed interest in their Indian subsidiaries.

According to media reports, GE is in talks to buy Alstom for about $13 billion (€9.4 billion).

Economic slump

It was mentioned that the ongoing economic slump in the European Union had impacted the business of Alstom which is into the manufacture of power equipment, high speed trains etc.

The pharma sector has been active abroad with swaps and merger attempts or deals being announced. It was reported that the pharma giant Pfizer was courting AstraZeneca for possible acquisition that injected fresh life into the stocks of their Indian subsidiaries.

This was followed by the mega swap of businesses among Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly that led to renewed interest in the first two companies' listed subsidiaries in India.

Stock movement

The latest announcement of GE making a bid to acquire Alstom led to the stock prices of the latter's two Indian subsidiaries going up.

Alstom India shares were up by Rs 22.80 or 5.7 per cent to Rs 418.20 on the BSE. Alstom T&D India Ltd shares gained Rs 19.60 to trade at Rs 275.30.

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