Alstom will shed €1.6bn ($1.9bn) of assets after the French government and European Union competition regulators agreed a €3.2bn rescue package for the troubled engineering group. It will also bolster its capital base by another €1.8bn to €2.2bn through a rights issue and debt-to-equity swap.

The agreement follows three trips to Brussels by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French finance minister, to meet Mario Monti, the EU competition commissioner, as well as several telephone conversations between the two.