PARIS (Reuters) - Alstom (PA:ALSO) Chief Executive Patrick Kron told investors on Friday that the company hoped to reach an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding an ongoing bribery case soon.
The Justice Department has evidence that a former Alstom executive tried to bribe officials to secure power projects in Indonesia, India and China, according to court filings seen by Reuters earlier this year.
Alstom is close to settling the bribery claims for $700 million (447 million pounds), a person close to the matter said this week. That would be the largest criminal fine levied by the United States for foreign bribery.
The CEO said the French company would not be able to transfer any of the fine to General Electric (N:GE), which is buying most of its power business.
However, he said, the impact of the fine would be mitigated by a positive adjustment to the deal - extra money to be paid by GE to use the Alstom brand, he said.
As a result the overall negative impact would be around 1-2 percent of the 12.35 billion euros (9.7 billion pounds) GE deal, he said.
"We are in the final phase of negotiation with the U.S. Department of Justice," Kron told a shareholder meeting. "If a settlement is found, which we expect in the near future, the Department of Justice should require that any fine remains the liability of Alstom and cannot even partly be transferred to GE."
(Reporting by Natalie Huet; Editing by Andrew Callus)