First Half Results Fiscal Year 2002 - 1 April 2001
30 September 2001

Orders received up 22% to 13.2 billion from
10.8 billion.

Sales up 12% to 11.9 billion from 10.7 billion.

Operating income up 6% to 523 million from 494
million.

* excluding Contracting

Commenting on the results presented to the Board on 5
November 2001, Pierre Bilger, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of ALSTOM said:

'Orders, sales and EBIT all increased during the first half.
Operating margin was broadly flat while net income decreased,
and cashflow, including the proceeds from the disposal of
Contracting, was down.

With the worsening of the world economic situation currently
affecting about a third of our business, the strong increase of
the orders and sales during the first half will not be
sustained for the full year. Thanks to the visibility of our
strong orderbook, current first half margin levels should be
achieved for the full year 2002. We expect to deliver a
significant improvement in 2003 but achievement of our 6%
target will be challenging in the prevailing environment.

In the First Half, there was a net cash outflow of
421 million. Our first priority is to improve cashflow,
stabilise our debt and then reduce it substantially by the end
of March 2003. This will be achieved by focusing on improved
working capital management, cost and overhead reduction,
exploiting opportunities to monetise our real estate portfolio,
and intensifying the review of our portfolio to dispose of
businesses which are not integral to our growth strategy.

Three specific factors significantly affected cash flow in
the First Half: commercial settlements and costs of remedial
works as we progress on the GT24/26 recovery strategy as
anticipated; execution of four major long-term projects in
Power and Transport, for which we received substantial up-front
payments in earlier years, produced cash outflows as the
projects progressed; quality issues affecting some UK Transport
projects which delayed delivery and payments.

Concerning the Renaissance issue, we have a provision of
110 million. The actions necessary to mitigate the
corresponding risks are well underway. Going forward the
exposure of ALSTOM to vendor financing will decrease.

The recovery plan in Power is delivering strong margin
improvement. Transport is delivering a good performance, except
for a few UK projects. The T&D organisation has been fully
reengineered and I am confident we are now well positioned to
deliver profitable growth in spite of a challenging market
environment.

We are confident that the sustained long term growth of the
global energy and transport infrastructure markets, the
strength and the visibility of our orderbook and the increasing
quality of our operations, will lead to improved performance in
the years to come.'

Orders backlog is 36.7 billion, equivalent to 20 months of
sales (excluding Contracting and GTRM).

Orders received grew by 22% to 13.2 billion.

Power up 42% to 6.6 billion mainly due to growth in the
Americas.

Transport up 25% to 3.3 billion thanks largely to orders
in Spain, Singapore, and France.

Sales increased by 12% to 11.9 billion driven by Power,
Transport and T&D.

Power up 31% to 6.7 billion due to increases in steam
and gas turbines across all main regions. North America now
represents 34% of sales.

Transport up 14% to 2.0 billion.

Operating income increased 6% to 523m with Power up 72%
to 284m partially offset by T&D and Transport.

Operating margin was broadly flat at 4.4% (excluding
Contracting).

Power margin improved from 3.2% to 4.3%.

Transport fell due to performance on UK regional train
contracts.

T&D margin dropped due to price pressure.

Net income declined to 92m from 103m principally
due to increased interest costs and goodwill amortisation,
despite higher operating income and net capital gains
(126 million).

Net cash consumed by operations was 552 million during
the first half and net cash was down 421 million,
including the disposal of Contracting.

Net financial debt increased to 2,054 million compared
to 1,633 million at 31 March 2001.

Total securitisation of future receivables is 1,264
million at 30 September 2001 versus 1,578 million at 31
March 2001.

Off balance sheet guarantees on contracts down to 10.8
billion from 14.1 billion at 31 March 2001, primarily
due to initiatives to recover expiring bonds and limit new
bonds together with the effect of disposal of Contracting.

 

NOTE: This press release should be read in conjunction with
the First Half of Fiscal Year 2002 Management Report
(57Kb).

* * *

*

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release and the First half of fiscal year 2002
Management Report contain, and other written or oral reports
and communications of ALSTOM may from time to time contain,
forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A
of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements appear, without
limitation, in all of the paragraphs of the comments of the
Chairman and CEO (with the exception of the first paragraph) in
the press release and in the sections entitled Off-Balance
Sheet, Marine-Vendor Financing and Outlook of the Management
Report. Examples of such forward-looking statements include,
but are not limited to (i) projections or expectations of
sales, income, operating margins, dividends, provisions or
other financial items or ratios, (ii) statements of plans,
objectives or goals of ALSTOM or its management, (iii)
statements of future product or economic performance, and (iv)
statements of assumptions underlying such statements. Words
such as 'believes,' 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'intends,'
'aims,' 'plans' and 'will' and similar expressions are intended
to identify forward-looking statements but are not the
exclusive means of identifying such statements.

By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that the forecasts, projections and
other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. Such
statements are based on managements current plans and
expectations and are subject to a number of important factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially from the
plans, objectives and expectations expressed in such
forward-looking statements. These factors include: (i) the
inherent difficulty of forecasting future market conditions,
level of infrastructure spending, GDP growth generally,
interest rates and exchange rates; (ii) the effects of, and
changes in, laws, regulations, governmental policy, taxation or
accounting standards or practices; (iii) the effects of
competition in the product markets and geographic areas in
which ALSTOM operates; (iv) the ability to increase market
share, control costs and enhance cash generation while
maintaining high quality products and services; (v) the timely
development of new products and services; (vi) the inherent
technical complexity of many of ALSTOMs products and
technologies and the ability to resolve effectively and at
reasonable cost technical problems that inevitably arise,
including in particular the problems encountered with the
GT24/26 gas turbines; (vii) risks inherent in large contracts
that comprise a substantial portion of ALSTOMs business;
(viii) the effects of acquisitions and disposals; (ix) the
ability to invest in successfully, and compete at the leading
edge of, technology developments across all of ALSTOMs
Sectors; (x) the availability of adequate cash flow from
operations or other sources to achieve managements
objectives or goals; (xi) the factors mentioned in the press
release or in the Management Report (including, without
limitation, the inherent difficulty in estimating future
charter or sale prices of any relevant cruise-ship in any
appraisal of the exposure in respect of the Renaissance matter)
or the unusual level of uncertainty at this time regarding the
world economy in general; and (xii) ALSTOMs success at
adjusting to and managing the risks of the foregoing. ALSTOM
cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not
exhaustive; when relying on forward-looking statements to make
decisions with respect to ALSTOM, investors and others should
carefully consider the foregoing factors and other
uncertainties and events, as well as other factors described in
other documents ALSTOM files from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including reports on Form
6-K. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on
which they are made, and ALSTOM undertakes no obligation to
update or revise any of them, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.

* * *

*

Press enquiries :

Gilles Tourvieille /Séverine Gagneraud

(Tel. +33 1 47 55 23 15)

internet.press@chq.alstom.com

Investor relations :

Robert S. Shaw

(Tel. +33 1 47 55 25 78)

investor.relations@chq.alstom.com

Internet :
http://www.alstom.com