(Corrected in the 3rd paragraph, 4th sentence, the information on the share price recovery since the low at the beginning of this year: This amounts to 41 rpt 41 percent).

FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Knorr Bremse's entry into the signaling technology business met with applause from analysts and investors alike on Monday. After the close of trading on Friday, the brake manufacturer announced that it was buying the conventional rail signaling business of rail vehicle manufacturer Alstom in North America. The latter's shares only benefited briefly from the news.

Around midday, Knorr shares rose by 4.5 percent to 71.15 euros. This made them one of the biggest winners in the friendly MDax. They also headed for their most recent interim high of 71.45 euros. If they break this, they would be more expensive than they have been for around two years. Since the beginning of 2024, the share price has already risen by 21%. This also means one of the top positions in the index of medium-sized German stock market companies for this period.

Alstom shareholders were not able to rejoice for long on Monday. Initially, the shares climbed to 16.11 euros, their highest level since the slump at the beginning of October, when the French company shocked the market with its forecast of a clearly negative cash development. At 15.055 euros, however, the price charts last showed a drop of 0.3 percent. The shares have already recovered by 41 percent from their long-term low of EUR 10.66 at the beginning of this year. However, they still have a long way to go to reach the previous valuation level above the EUR 21 mark.

Bernstein analyst Daniel Cunliffe stated a takeover with an above-average margin at a good price. This could mean slight earnings per share for Knorr-Bremse and greater dilution for Alstom than he had expected, added Barclays expert Vladimir Sergievskiy.

As Knorr is thus entering a new market, the transaction should also be completed quickly, according to Cunliffe. In the case of a buyer from the industry, approval from the competition authorities would probably take longer - an assessment shared by expert Akash Gupta from the US bank JPMorgan. Knorr wants to have completed the takeover by the summer. In addition, analysts at the Swiss UBS and the Metzler bank are optimistic about the quarterly figures due on May 8.

For Alstom, experts see the transaction as an important step towards debt reduction. Gael de-Bray from Deutsche Bank expects details on this on May 8 - and thus on the same day as the Knorr figures. The Alstom share is largely pricing in a possible capital increase and is already one of the stocks in Europe with the highest downside bets. Kepler referred to the French company's plans to carry out a capital increase of around two billion euros in order to secure its investment grade credit rating and optimize working capital financing./gl/nas/jha/