PARIS, May 12 (Xinhua) -- France's transport infrastructure company Alstom on Tuesday published improved financial results for its 2019-2020 fiscal year citing "strong commercial momentum in a very dynamic railway market," while noting a limited impact on its income caused by the coronavirus epidemic.
"Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, Alstom booked 9.9 billion euros (10.76 billion U.S. dollars) of orders, consolidating an industry-leading backlog of 40.9 billion euros. Sales reached 8.2 billion euros, at 2 percent growth (1 percent organic), including limited COVID-19 impact at year end," the company said.
"We won major orders especially in Europe and in Asia-Pacific. In addition, we secured pioneering orders for our green mobility solutions, illustrating the potential of such technologies and the dynamism of the shift to carbon-free transportation modes," it said.
The group noted that the COVID-19 crisis will have a negative impact on its financial performance in 2020-2021, which will be further assessed. It also said that its objective of 5 percent average annual sales growth in the period between 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 "should be slightly impacted.
Recalling its announcement in February, the company added that it still plans to acquire the rail construction activities of the Canadian company Bombardier Transportation. The transaction is expected to be closed in the first half of 2021.
Due to the epidemic, Alstom decided not to propose a dividend distribution for this year. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar) Enditem
