Alstom sorts out the bidders

French heavy engineering firm Alstom is on the verge of selecting a preferred bidder for Australian and New Zealand transport assets including the company that services and maintains Toll NZ's trains.

An investment banker said Alstom was believed to be choosing from a shortlist of three.

Alstom Transport NZ chief executive Mike Yeoman had previously told the Business Herald the company expected to have a preferred bidder by the end of this week and a deal by the end of March.

Investment bank Rothschild in Sydney is handling the sale. The bidders have not been named.

The Age in Melbourne last year reported estimates of a A$200 million ($217 million) to A$300 sale price.

The Business Herald was told the business was bigger than transtasman engineering services business Areva - another former part of the Alstom empire - which sold in December for A$193 million ($209 million).

The bulk of the business is in Australia where Alstom's activities include making and maintaining trains. The company's New Zealand website says it maintains, services and overhauls Toll's fleet of mainline diesel-electric, electric and shunt locomotives and diesel multiple units.

It also inspects and maintains about 4200 flat-container, box and specialist freight wagons for Toll and provides an asset management service.

Alstom last year said it employed more than 2000 people across both countries.

Yeoman said the business in New Zealand was looking at expanding into other areas within the transport sector. Alstom, a maker of high-speed trains, cruise ships and gas turbines, put assets on the block after hitting near-bankruptcy in 2003.

In January of last year it sold its worldwide transmission and distribution activities to nuclear power and generation and electricity distribution company Areva of France.

In December, Areva flicked on the New Zealand and Australian sections of those assets - electrical and telecommunication servicing businesses - to the Australian-listed Transfield.

That deal was largely overlooked - coming just before Christmas and in the same week that Tenon sold its structural timber mills to Carter Holt Harvey for $165 million.

Transfield says the Auckland headquartered business has 1900 employees, more than 600 sub-contractors and annual turnover of $300 million, with 56 per cent of that coming from New Zealand.

The company's services include network maintenance and faults response for the telecommunications industry and power station maintenance.