The big US companies, rich of cash, assail European industries from Astom to AstraZeneca: The different attitudes of the French and the British governments. And the old Italian policy of industrial dismantling.
The spring brings great deals. The companies of the USA are full of cash, perhaps also due to the largesse of the government, which tried to maintain or possibly increase the number of people working in the industry of the country.
First, General Electric decided to buy the energy division of Alstom, a big French company for heavy engineering and machinery. General Electric (GE) , one of the largest industrial company in the United States , has had a long presence in France , and knows well how to operate there Alstom shareholders have already expressed their acceptance of the American take over , as the offer to them was perhaps slightly above the immediate value of the company. And, of course, GE is ready to consider any request from the government of the guest country which would not alter the basic nature of the deal.
However, the French government did not like the proposal and decided to reconsider, saying that it will try to regulate the meeting of the various parts according to the “French interest” of which it is the best interpreter. The French State did not stop to that. It also brought forward a fully fledged different proposal. Instead of being sold , Alstom should enter in a Joint Venture with Siemens, a similarly sized engineering German company, which would sell to Alstom its group producing the high speed trains , in which Alstom is a leader , and obtain from it the energy division.
The idea was considered quite interesting by the Germans , because it would give the opportunity to repeat in the ground transport what was done for air transport , with the great European Airbus effectively competing with the Americans in international flights .
The fast train is now the most interesting development in the field of long distance ground transport, and Alstom is very well positioned in that sector. One interesting element in this story is that this proposal was advanced by the French government, on behalf of national interest, but involving also Germany. and, actually, the whole European economy. We may understand this position considering the French tradition going back to Colbert , the great French minister whose basic attitude was reinforced , and not weakened , by the Great Revolution.
Second, but not of minor interest, , is the offer of the American Pfizer, a large producer of pharmaceuticals, which wants to buy the UK company AstraZeneca , a similar producer of pharmaceuticals . That company originated from the dissolution of the majestic ICI Imperial Chemical Industries.
ICI was a large company created in the Thirties of the last century , when the Empire was still there , putting together all the UK chemical and pharmaceutical producers in a great single multiproduct unite company. ICI was dissolved, in the second half of the last century, in a large number of companies, of which AstraZeneca, which is now well known for its capacity for research and innovation. The case is quite different from the Alstom-GE one.
In the case of AstraZeneca, the present management and, also a number of shareholders, are strongly refusing the offer feeling that the company will lose or radically weaken the scope of independent research, an area in which AstraZeneca is quite well known. The UK government reacted by requesting assurances on employment levels, including the location in London of twenty per cent of the combined group responsible for research and innovation. It gave, substantially, the impression to be explicitly in favor of the takeover, although it tries to repeat that the decision was up to the shareholders.
On the other side, in Italy, there are similar negotiations between Italian companies and foreign ones: but the Italian Government behaved very differently from the French and English ones. It has shown no interest, and advanced no proposal, for example, on the negotiations for the selling of Alitalia, the Italian flag bearer. The government has abstained from the negotiations , as if they were simply some discussions between two private companies, free to do what they decide. An attitude that prolongs that taken by the Italian government some years ago, in the great sales of the companies owned by the IRI, the multisectoral State owned company, which was liquidated. And a large part of the companies that were sold are by now shut down for ever.
We must ask ourselves a simple question. If the State has no idea about selling or not selling an international company, the flag bearer, which serves its citizens flying abroad and in the country, what are its job and its responsibility toward its citizens? All States control a number of sectors, for example, energy, and each of them tries to support its own people working in industry and services. Is the Italian government pursuing the wellbeing of its citizens? Is it interested in the whole of the Italian economy? Doing nothing and letting things go, they will eventually succeed to compel the Holy Father to fly in a plane owned and run by Muslims. The