Press Release on Festival
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ERRATUM
As previously disclosed, ALSTOM has in the past provided
vendor financing to certain purchasers of its equipment,
particularly in the Marine Sector. The Groups
total outstanding Marine vendor financing was 650
million at 30 September 2003, including financing of three
cruise ships delivered to cruise-operator Festival : Mistral
(1999), European Vision (2001), and European Stars (2002).
Given Festivals failure to meet its contractual
financial obligations, the owners/creditors, including ALSTOM,
have launched the process of immobilizing these ships and
terminating the charter arrangements with Festival.
ALSTOMs exposure with respect to Festival is
176 million, assuming that the value of the three cruise
ships is zero. Based on a prudent estimate of the re-sale value
of the ships, ALSTOM considers that its direct and indirect
interests in the ships (100% on Mistral, 9.5% on European
Vision and 10.5% on European Stars) adequately cover this
exposure.
As a consequence, ALSTOM does not intend to add a provision
with respect to Festival to the existing Marine vendor
financing provision of 140 million.
ALSTOM no longer provides vendor financing facilities.
For full details, please see attached file:-