PARIS ¨C The French government has raised the stakes in the battle for engineering group Alstom, telling rival suitors General Electric and Siemens to come up with better offers.
President Francois Hollande¡¯s government has given itself the power to veto a deal on the grounds it does not want Alstom, an innovator and big employer, to sell the bulk of its business to a foreign firm without the state having a say.
In a crunch week ahead of Monday¡¯s deadline on GE¡¯s American bid, Germany¡¯s Siemens presented Hollande with a joint proposal with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that it said valued Alstom¡¯s power arm at €14.2 billion ($19.3 billion), above GE¡¯s €12.4 billion offer.
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