Siemens would never have made the deal that is now in the works for its US-based rival General Electric to buy the energy division of the French engineering group Alstom, the head of the German engineering and electronics conglomerate said in a letter acquired on Sunday by dpa.
The French government’s condition that it become the energy unit’s biggest shareholder at 20 per cent would see to it “that American-style productivity and restructuring measures could not be overzealously implemented,” said Joe Kaeser’s letter to Siemens employees.
He said he regretted that Siemens’ joint offer with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries did not win out but added that GE and Alstom would now spend years bringing the tie-up to fruition – years that Siemens will use to its advantage.
A two-month trans-Atlantic tussle for Alstom’s energy business ended on Friday when France’s government came down on the side of GE and Alstom’s board on Saturday unanimously accepted its €12.35-billion ($16.8-billion) offer.