General Electric has announced it is planning to cut up to 6,500 jobs in energy units it bought from French engineering giant Alstom over the next two years.
The figure includes 765 jobs to go in France.
To secure the deal last year, GE had soothed French government concerns by pledging to create 1,000 jobs in the country.
A GE spokesman said the company would stick to its pledge, creating the roles in the next three years.
In Europe as a whole, staff in Alstom’s renewables, power services and energy management divisions could be affected.
A spokesman said unions had been informed.
“This is a plan, which could change following discussion with employee representatives,” he added.
Around 1,300 of the layoffs will be in Switzerland, the company said.
In May 2015, GE pledged to create jobs in France as part of efforts to calm French government concerns about the company’s proposed acquisition of Alstom’s energy units.
At the time, both GE and Siemens were in talks with the French government to try to secure a deal.
The French government had previously given itself powers to block foreign takeover bids for companies deemed “strategic”.
GE’s takeover of Alstom’s energy business – which includes gas and steam turbines, wind turbines, turbines for hydro dams and power grids – added about 65,000 employees to GE’s workforce of about 305,000.
The head of GE’s power division said in September 2015 the company would seek to make $3 billion in cost savings over five years from the Alstom acquisition.
Bank of America has reported a net profit of $4.07 billion for Q3 of 2015 against a loss of $470 million a year earlier.
The report comes a year after Bank of America reached a $5.6 billion settlement with the US government over mortgage loans extended to homebuyers before 2008.
Profits at its consumer banking division, the bank’s largest unit, rose 5% from a year ago to $1.8 billion.
Residential mortgage lending rose by 13% to $17 billion.
“The key drivers of our business – deposit taking and lending to both our consumer and corporate clients – moved in the right direction… and our trading results on behalf of clients remained fairly stable in challenging capital markets conditions,” said Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.
Bank of America, which has paid more than $70 billion in legal expenses since 2008, said its legal costs fell for the third quarter in a row, dropping to $231 million from $6 billion a year earlier.
Separately, Wells Fargo reported its first profits rise for three quarters, with the results helped by its acquisition of commercial loans from General Electric earlier this year.
Net income edged up 0.65% from a year ago to $5.44 billion in Q3 of 2015 with revenues up 3% to $21.9 billion.
However, its mortgage banking revenue fell 2.7% to $1.59 billion.
Earlier this year, the bank bought a portion of GE’s commercial real estate loans worth $9 billion, which helped to boost profits in the latest quarter.
On October 13, Wells Fargo said it would buy a $30 billion portfolio of commercial loans and leases from GE.
Alstom’s board has unanimously voted to accept a $17 billion offer from General Electric.
GE is bidding $17 billion for the French rail and energy group’s energy business. The deal still needs regulators’ and Alstom staff representatives’ approval.
The French government agreed to support the deal, which will involve the state buying a 20% stake in Alstom, and other steps to protect French interests.
Alstom’s board has unanimously voted to accept a $17 billion offer from General Electric
A rival offer from Siemens-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was rejected.
GE chief Jeff Immelt said the deal would be “good for France, GE and Alstom”.
If approved, the deal is expected to be completed in 2015. Reports say it would be GE’s largest ever industrial acquisition.
Under the deal, GE will sell its railway signal business to Alstrom, and set up three joint ventures with the French company.
The joint ventures would cover Alstrom’s power grid business, renewable operations, and nuclear steam turbines.
Alstom employs about 18,000 people in France. The government had asked for assurances that French energy and transport interests and jobs would be safeguarded.
It plans to acquire a controlling stake in Alstrom by buying shares from French group and main shareholder Bouygues.
However, the government wants to pay market price (28 euros per share) while Bouygues is demanding about 35 euros per share.
General Electric has reported a 16% rise in its profits for the first quarter of 2013, helped by a one-off gain from the sale of its stake in NBC Universal.
GE made a profit of $3.53 billion in Q1 2013, up from $3.03 billion last year. Revenue was flat at $35 billion.
The conglomerate has been trying to put its focus back on core industrial businesses, which include aviation and energy infrastructure.
General Electric said orders for its aviation equipment jumped 47%.
Orders for oil and gas equipment and services, such as turbines and plant maintenance, rose 24%, said GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt.
GE made a profit of $3.53 billion in Q1 2013, up from $3.03 billion last year
“In growth markets, equipment and service orders grew 17%. We ended the quarter with our biggest backlog in history,” he said.
Orders grew to $216 billion in the first quarter from $210 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.
In the first three months of 2013 GE was awarded a $620 million maintenance contract for QGC’s Queensland Curtis liquified natural gas plant off the east coast of Australia.
It also won a contract to provide power equipment for the Emirates Aluminum smelter complex in Abu Dhabi, and another maintenance contract for a LNG project in Russia.
But the company said it had been affected by weaker-than-expected sales in Europe, especially in sales of power and water equipment.
“GE’s markets were mixed. The US and growth markets were in line with expectations. We planned for a continued challenging environment in Europe, but conditions weakened further with Industrial segment revenues in the region down 17%,” said Jeff Immelt.
“We always anticipated that the first half of 2013 would be our toughest comparison,” he added.
During the first quarter of 2013, GE sold its 49% stake in NBC Universal to Comcast for $18.1 billion.
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