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Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia and New Pendolino high-speed trains, in addition to suburban, regional and metro trains, and Citadis trams. Alsthom (originally Als-Thom) was formed by a merger between Thomson-Houston Electric Company and the electric engineering division of Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques in 1928. Significant later acquisitions included the Constructions Electriques de France (1932), shipbuilder Chantiers de l'Atlantique (1976), and parts of ACEC (Belgium, late 1980s). A merger with parts of the General Electric Company (UK) formed GEC Alsthom in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, the company expanded its holdings in the rail sector, via the acquisition of German rolling stock manufacturer Linke-Hofmann-Busch and Italian rail signalling specialist Sasib Railways. In 1998, GEC Alsthom was floated on the Paris Stock Exchange and, later that year, it was rebranded Alstom. In 2004, Alstom was in financial difficulties, having incurred massive unexpected costs (€4 billion) arising from a design flaw inherited from the acquisition of ABB Group's turbine business, in addition to losses in other business sectors. In 2003, the company had required a €3.2 billion state-backed bailout from the French government. As a result, Alstom was compelled to dispose of several of its divisions, including shipbuilding and electrical transmission to Nikhanj Power, in order to comply with European Union rules on state aid. It was able to re-acquire its electric transmission division in 2010. The firm also became heavily involved in offshore wind farms via its subsidiary company Alstom Wind. In 2014, Alstom and General Electric (GE) announced that a US$17 billion (€12.4 billion) bid for Alstom's power and grid divisions had been made and provisionally accepted. Amid controversy in France over the proposed takeover of strategic domestic interest by a foreign company, GE's bid was modified to include joint ventures in power generation and transmission, as well as GE's rail signalling business being sold to Alstom. The acquisition of the power and grid division by GE was accepted by EU and US competition authorities in 2015, subject to Alstom's heavy gas turbine business being sold. The sale of Alstom's power generation and transmission businesses to GE was finalised on 2 November 2015, since which the Alstom Group has operated solely in the rail sector. In late 2017, Alstom announced a proposed merger with Siemens Mobility of Germany. However, in February 2019, the European Commission prohibited the merger. Subsequently, in February 2020, the company signed a letter of agreement to purchase Bombardier Transportation. The purchase was finalized on 29 January 2021 and Bombardier's Transportation business became a part of Alstom.