Alstom wins lifeline from Paris

FRANCE has thrown a £213m lifeline to engineer Alstom, safeguarding the jobs of 11,000 British workers. After a night of intensive talks to ease its £3.4bn debt, Paris promised to take up half of the £426m rescue cash call.

Shares in the group, best known in the UK for building Virgin's tilting trains and rolling stock for the London Underground, were suspended at 219 1/2p ahead of the talks.

As part of the deal - which could still be blocked by the European Union - Alstom's lenders are expected to lend a further £700m and delay repayment of £1.4bn of debt. The French government will be left with a 30% stake.

Alstom lost £980m last year. Former Marconi chief executive Lord Simpson is among its directors.

However, some of Alstom workers will see no benefit from the bail-out. In June, it said it would cease building trains at its 100-year-old factory at Washwood Heath, Birmingham. Half the plant's 1,900 jobs will be axed.

The fate of 3,000 workers at its electricity transmission and distribution arm, based at Stafford, Rugby and Kidsgrove, near Stoke, is also uncertain as the plants are marked for sale. Its remaining 6,100 workers are scattered at 17 sites around the UK, where they make electricity generation and train equipment.