Energy
Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Consider Joint Bid for Alstom Assets
FRANKFURT — Siemens AG will decide by Monday whether to bid for the energy assets of France’s Alstom SA and exit the train business, marking a strategic shift. But big course changes are routine for the 166-year-old company, which started in the telegraph business.
Over the past two decades, Siemens has shed divisions making computers, phones, cellphone networks, light bulbs, car parts and semiconductors while becoming a world leader in wind turbines. The German industrial conglomerate said Wednesday it would work with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd to assess a potential pitch for the Alstom operation.
Siemens’s willingness to unload what had been considered core assets is a hallmark of its desire to invest in industries where it holds a technical edge or it sees growth prospects. Managers display little emotion toward operations, sometimes selling only a few years after entering a field, and seek partnerships to share costs for operations that lack synergy with the rest of the group.
Siemens and Mitsubishi last month, for example, struck a joint venture combining their metals subsidiaries. A day earlier Siemens said it would buy most of Rolls-Royce Holdings RR.LN -5.48% PLC’s energy division and said it would consider listing shares in its own health-care unit.
The medical unit, which makes hospital equipment such as X-ray scanners and ultrasound machines, could represent an even bigger deal for Siemens than the Alstom transaction, which is preliminarily valued at up to €11 billion ($14.9 billion). Siemens’s health-care unit accounts for more than one-third of the company’s €84 billion total market value, analysts estimate.
Siemens invited Mitsubishi to join its appraisal of Alstom, which has tentatively approved a bid from General Electric Co. GE -1.00% GE’s offer values Alstom’s energy and rail divisions at $17 billion, but French government officials have objected to the U.S. company controlling what they see as strategic national assets. Mitsubishi’s participation could help Siemens allay European antitrust concerns while putting more heft behind its offer.
Siemens has completed due diligence of Alstom, Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser said recently. “We will make up our minds what that means for us,” he said. “There are opportunities and risks.”
Siemens buys and sells assets frequently, and many of its moves have been shrewd.
In 1999 the company sold shares in Epcos AG, a maker of electronic components, when the electronics industry was booming. A year later Siemens floated 29% of chip-making subsidiary Infineon AG through an initial public offering and another stake soon after. Infineon shares shortly lost almost 65% of their value and haven’t recovered.
In 2005, Siemens paid Taiwan-based BenQ Corp. of Taiwan €250 million to take over the German company’s cellular-handset division. A year later, BenQ sought bankruptcy protection for the unit.
Siemens in 2007 sold its VDO car-component unit to German car-parts maker Continental AG for €11 billion, just before the European car market hit a multiyear skid.
In 2008, Siemens contributed its corporate phone-system business to a joint venture with Gores Group LLC. The combined company, now called Unify Inc., said this month it would slash half its workforce as demand drops for traditional phone systems.
Siemens that same year transferred its cordless-phone unit to Arques Industries AG of Germany at undisclosed terms. Shares of Arques, which later renamed itself Gigaset AG, have plunged to around €1 from above €6 at the time of the deal.
Not all of Siemens’s moves have been so well-timed. It started to exit the cellular-network business in 2007 by entering a joint venture with Finland’s Nokia Corp. But it took six years for the German company to extricate itself completely. That was too late, because prices already had peaked, said Christoph Niesel, a fund manager with Germany’s Union Investment, which holds a stake of around 1% in Siemens.
Siemens last year spun off light-bulb maker Osram Licht AG, and its shares peaked this March at more than twice their listing price. That gain could have gone to Siemens shareholders had the company waited to make the listing, Mr. Niesel said.
Now Mr. Kaeser faces similar concerns over timing. Siemens said it contributed its division that builds steel plants to the joint venture with Mitsubishi because of “the challenging market environment and high price pressure.”
Siemens’s rail division, which Mr. Kaeser has proposed giving to Alstom as partial payment for the French company’s energy division, and the rest of Siemens’s transportation-and-logistics operation was unprofitable in the fiscal year through September.
The health-care division, in contrast, is very profitable but lacks synergies with Siemens’s other businesses. Mr. Kaeser has indicated that he sees potential takeover targets in the sector but that they are at higher values than he is willing to pay. Listing stock in the medical division would allow him to pay for acquisitions with the shares.
“We would float health care in parts and then be able to acquire companies with similar multiples,” he told investors recently.
– WALLSTREET JOURNAL
Joseph Ambakederimo, convener of the South-South Reawakening Group, has questioned the accountability of Nigeria’s crude oil forward sales, demanding clarification on the volume of crude lifted, outstanding balances and the use of upfront payments.
Speaking during an interview on Arise TV on Sunday, Ambakederimo expressed concern over the monitoring of crude oil transactions, questioning who was responsible for tracking deliveries and providing feedback on the arrangements.
“We don’t even know who is monitoring and giving us the feedback of the barrels of crude that have been lifted on forward sales basis,” he said.
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He challenged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to provide details of the transactions, including the quantity of crude already lifted, the outstanding balance and whether the agreed deliveries had been completed.
“Today, can we get this from NNPC? How much have they lifted? What is the balance remaining? Have they been completed?” he asked.
Ambakederimo also questioned how the money collected upfront under the arrangements had been spent, demanding an explanation of its use.
“That money that was collected upfront, what was the use of the money? Can you justify it?” he asked.
He argued that Nigeria should make better use of its natural resources to accelerate infrastructure development and improve living conditions.
Citing land reclamation projects in the United Arab Emirates, Ambakederimo said Nigeria could explore similar opportunities to create additional land for residential and other developments.
He recalled seeing a signpost while travelling from Dubai to Abu Dhabi describing a project to reclaim land from the sea, using the example to highlight the development possibilities he believes Nigeria could explore.
The South-South Reawakening Group convener also argued that Nigeria could reclaim land in suitable areas, provided environmental concerns were properly managed.
He called for the country to translate its natural resource wealth into infrastructure and improved living conditions, stressing the need for greater accountability in crude oil transactions.
Oil output from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rose to record levels in September, underscoring its resilience even amidst the Middle East crises and liberation from OPEC+ limits.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) issued the data in its monthly report, adding that Abu Dhabi raised total oil production, including condensates, by 400,000 bpd to 5.3 MMbpd.
According to the IEA, the UAE bolstered crude output to more than 4.4 MMbpd, nearing its maximum capacity, which surpasses the previous highs for total oil in August, and crude oil in June.
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The UAE has been one of the most successful among regional producers in restoring flows through the Strait of Hormuz, by drawing on a fleet of tankers to discreetly shuttle cargoes through the chokepoint and then transfer them onto other vessels. In addition, the country’s decision to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as of May has freed it from the group’s output caps, a source of frustration for years.
Its gains contributed to a wider recovery in flows from Gulf producers, which reached more than 75% of pre-war levels in September, led by Saudi Arabia, according to the Paris-based IEA.
Still, it’s unclear how far the regional rebound has withstood a new wave of Iranian attacks on tankers transiting Hormuz, and escalating hostilities carried out by the Houthi rebel faction in Yemen.
The UAE depleted its observable above-ground inventories at a record pace of more than 270,000 bpd in September, drawing them to an all-time low, according to the IEA.
Africa’s gas potential and strengthening the continent’s energy security would take centre stage at the Africa Interviews Sustainability Forum (AISF 2026) scheduled for Wednesday, October 21, in Lagos.
Biztellers reports that top officials of Oando Plc and Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, Ayotola Jagun and Tony Attah, respectively, will be leading other industry leaders in the discussion.
Jagun, Oando’s Executive Director, Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer, and Attah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, will participate in a panel discussion alongside Lamé Verre of Lean In Equity & Sustainability (LiNES) and Dapo Filani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Waltersmith.
The panel will examine Africa’s energy security and the role of natural gas in the continent’s energy transition.
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The forum, launched in 2024, is holding its third edition under the theme, “Energy Security and Africa’s Energy Transition: Defining the Role of Gas.”
This year’s gathering will explore how African countries can strengthen energy security, attract investment in gas development and balance growing energy demand with sustainability objectives.
Verre, a London-based energy and sustainability executive, is Co-founder and Chair of the Advisory Board of LiNES. She will bring her international experience in sustainability, decarbonisation and low-carbon development to the discussion. Her work spans low-carbon initiatives across sectors, including marine, the built environment, forestry, land and agriculture.
Jagun brings extensive experience in corporate governance, regulatory compliance, enterprise risk management and sustainability. Her contribution will provide a corporate sustainability and governance perspective on the relationship between energy development, environmental responsibility and Africa’s transition priorities.
Attah, a former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria LNG Limited, has extensive experience in the oil and gas industry, particularly in natural gas development and major energy operations.
Filani leads Waltersmith, an indigenous Nigerian energy company with interests across the oil and gas value chain. His participation will highlight the role of indigenous energy companies in strengthening domestic energy capacity and supporting economic development.
The panel will consider what is required to unlock greater investment in Africa’s gas sector, how natural gas can support industrial growth while advancing sustainability, and what practical measures could help translate the continent’s energy ambitions into tangible outcomes.
Beyond the panel discussion, AISF 2026 will provide opportunities for engagement among senior energy executives, policymakers, investors and business leaders.
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