Toshiba eyes Alstom's power grid business

Japan's Toshiba will offer to buy Alstom's power-grid business from General Electric, if the US firm completes a $17 billion bid for a chunk of the French conglomerate, a report said Thursday. Alstom, which builds power stations and electricity generating equipment as well as the French TGV high-speed train, is mulling a bid from GE for its energy unit and a rival offer by German group Siemens. The division includes fossil-fuel-fired power plants, renewable energy and power grid equipment. Japan's leading Nikkei business daily said Toshiba would move once GE seals the deal, paying an estimated several hundred billion yen (several billion dollars) for the energy business. The US firm is seen as having an edge over its German rival, the report said, and Toshiba already has a tie-up with GE in thermal power generation. If completed, Toshiba would see its power-grid sales nearly triple from about 300 billion yen annually now, the Nikkei said. Toshiba is betting that GE would agree to unload the grid business to ease its acquisition burden and focus on power generation systems, the Nikkei said. Toshiba's Tokyo-listed shares rose 1.28 percent to 395 yen Thursday morning. A company spokesman said no decision had been made on the reported GE offer.