STRUGGLING French heavy engineer Alstom, which employs 500 workers at its train care depot in Eastleigh, is to sell its transmission and distribution arm to French nuclear power group Areva for £657.5m.
Alstom said the disposal of the business was "another key step'' in a recovery plan aimed at cutting group debt of about £3.4 billion.
It is to keep its train servicing operations, such as the one at Eastleigh, and power station work.
News that Alstom is fighting back from the brink of bankruptcy will be a relief to local workers, who have seen their shares plunge in value and have had to suffer uncertainty over their jobs.
The profitable transmission and distribution division makes equipment for power generators and distributors and employs 25,000 people, of whom about 3,500 work in the UK.
The Queen Mary 2, the world's biggest cruise liner, which makes Southampton its home port from December, is currently being completed at Alstom's shipyard in northern France.
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