Mitsubishi, France could take equal stakes in Alstom

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the French government would take equal stakes in Alstom as part of a rival offer to that of General Electric, a trade union representative said following a meeting with economy minister Arnaud Montebourg.

"The minister described Mitsubishi (MBI.F)'s offer...Clearly, this is an alliance scheme that counters GE's proposal," said Gabriel Artero, CFE-CGC representative of France's steelworkers federation.

"The state and Mitsubishi would take joint and equal stakes in Alstom," he said, adding this would imply buying back at least a part of the 29 percent stake currently held by Alstom's top shareholder Bouygues (BYG.MU).

(Reporting by Matthieu Portard; Writing by Natalie Huet; Editing by Maya Nikolaeva)