Alsthom-Atlantique SA, the French engineering firm rescued from near bankruptcy last year, said it may miss its profit forecast, forcing a renegotiation of 1.5 billion euros ($2.43-billion) in loans.
Cost overruns on a power-station contract in the United States mean Alsthom probably won't achieve earnings targets agreed to with banks, the Paris-based builder of Eurostar trains and the 2,620-passenger Queen Mary 2 cruise liner said in a statement.
Chief executive officer Patrick Kron, 50, last year asked the French government and 32 lenders to lead a bailout after a design fault on power turbines wiped out profit and drained cash.
The 8.2-billion-euro rescue included equity, bonds, loans and contract guarantees.
"They've disappointed the market again," said Jerome Forneris, who helps manage the equivalent of $7-billion at Banque Martin Maurel in Marseilles. "You would have thought that following the capital increase and restructuring things would have been better." He no longer holds Alsthom stock.
The company's shares yesterday fell 13 per cent, to 1.8 euros, the biggest drop since Nov. 27. About 163 million shares changed hands, more than six times the six-month daily average. The 650 million euros of 5-per-cent bonds due 2006 traded at 89.25 per cent of face value, from 93.25 per cent yesterday, according to RBC Capital Markets prices on Bloomberg.
Once the dominant French engineering company, Alsthom has built power stations that generate one-fifth of the world's electricity and subway cars for commuters in London and New York.
Additional costs on a contract to supply generators and boilers for a power plant in Pennsylvania mean operating profit in the fiscal year through March may be below the 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent of sales forecast in November, the company said. A 2-per-cent margin would be "very, very weak," Mr. Forneris said.
Alsthom didn't say with which banks it might have to negotiate. Its lenders include Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole SA, Société Générale, Commerzbank AG and BNP Paribas SA, as well as the French state.
The company is committed to having earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of at least 100 million euros for the year. It has also undertaken to have a consolidated net worth of 1.4 billion euros.
"The company's negotiations with banks were based on higher expectations than were announced," said Julien Batteau, an analyst at Richelieu Finance in Paris. "It's very bad news."
The company owes bondholders about 1.3 billion euros. It isn't rated by Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's or Fitch Ratings, although Fitch said in a note last year it would be in the lower part of the non-investment category.
European Union regulators have yet to approve the rescue.
The contract to supply equipment to a Reliant Resources Inc. power station in Seward, Pa., was announced in March, 2001, and is worth 260 million euros, the French company has said. The coal-fired plant was due to begin operations in May. Reliant, based in Houston, produces power in 13 U.S. states.
Alsthom also expects 650 million euros in restructuring costs this year, exceeding a previous forecast of no more than 500 million euros. Mr. Kron, who took over as CEO in January, 2003, is shedding assets to raise money and cutting 7,000 jobs to reduce costs.
"Progress in implementing restructuring programs should lead to the recording of the related costs in the accounts earlier than foreseen," an Alsthom spokesman said.