ALSTOM'S CASH MISSED THE TRAIN

The real news

The story, straight

A train order is future business, not money already in the bank. Building the train costs money.

Delayed deliveries can push incoming payments further away while bills keep arriving.

Alstom, which built Dublin's Luas fleet, has hit that problem on its German Coradia Max regional train programme. Testing problems have delayed the first deliveries to 2028 instead of 2027, The Irish Times reports.

According to Alstom's 2 November guidance, reported by The Irish Times, the company now forecasts €1.5 billion of negative free cash flow for the year ending March 2027, instead of positive cash flow. That means it expects cash spending to exceed cash coming in by that amount.

It is a forecast, not a loss already recorded.

Alstom also cut its adjusted profit-margin forecast from around 6.5% to around 1%. That measure compares adjusted operating profit with sales: roughly €1 per €100 of sales, rather than €6.50.

This is its 2nd forecast cut since Martin Sion became chief executive in April. Yet the order book remains strong.

Plenty of customers want trains; that doesn't make an unfinished train spendable.

Lil'meme is therefore attempting to deposit an entire train at a cash machine. Apparently the bank wanted something more liquid than a railway carriage.

The useful lesson: check whether orders become completed deliveries and cash, not just impressive announcements. A packed order book cannot pay a bill by itself.

Repost this before your bank installs a platform.

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