Although Alstom recorded a sharp drop in net profit from €3bn in 2015-16 to €289m in 2016-17, its net profit in 2015-16 mainly reflected the sale of its Energy business to GE.

Sales grew from €6.88bn in 2015-16 to €7.3bn in 2016-17 of which rolling stock accounts for €3.17bn, services €1.47bn, systems €1.29bn and signalling €1.38bn.

Orders in Europe grew by 24% to €5.1bn, and by 40% in the Middle East to €4.1bn. Alstom did particularly well in the Americas, where its order intake jumped from €1.3bn in 2015-16 to €2.9bn in 2016-17 due partly to a supply-and-maintenance contract from Amtrak for high-speed trains. However, orders in Asia-Pacific dropped from €4.1bn in 2015-16, when Alstom signed an electric locomotive deal in India, to €600m in 2016-17.

Signalling, systems and services represented 57% of sales in 2016-17, which Alstom says is in line with its 2020 objective of 60%. Systems sales increased by 27%, while signalling sales grew by 19% following the integration of GE Signalling into Alstom and projects in Britain and Canada. However, services sales were down slightly at €1.5bn due to an adverse foreign exchange impact on a British maintenance contract.

Alstom says it maintained its spending on research and development at €248m in 2016-17, representing 3.4% of sales.

Alstom recorded an adjusted Ebit of €421m in 2016-17, compared with €366m million the previous year. Alstom says its adjusted Ebit margin has been improving steadily, rising from 4.8% two years ago, to 5.3% for last fiscal year, and reaching 5.8% in 2016-17.

Alstom says sales should grow organically by 5% per year by 2020, while adjusted Ebit margin should reach around 7% by 2020 driven by volume, its portfolio mix and the results of its 2020 strategy.