Now its sell-side market analysts were getting suspicious. Out in the power markets, the company was aggressively bidding for any new business it could win, often offering prices to build new coal- and gas-fired power plants so low that it would prove impossible to turn a profit once all the work was complete. But those long-term profits were of little concern to Alstom’s sales teams—they needed to win those deals for the down payments alone: the deposit paid by a customer on signing such a contract was virtually the only cash coming in the door.
