GEC-Alsthom

GEC Alsthom was an Anglo-French industrial company formed in 1989 as a 50/50 joint venture between the British General Electric Company (GEC) and the French group Alsthom, then part of Compagnie Générale d'Électricité. It brought together the power generation, electrical distribution and transmission, and rail transport divisions of the two parents, building electrical plant, railway trains and ships. The merger gave the French side a way to sell beyond its home market and gave GEC's power division access to large gas turbine technology. In its first year the company took over the railway business of Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon, and it later bought a majority of Linke-Hofmann-Busch and the steam turbine maker MAN Energie. In 1998 it acquired the electrical contractor Cegelec, was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and changed its name to Alstom, as both GEC and Alcatel sold part of their stakes.