Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the French government would take equal stakes in Alstom as part of a rival offer to that of General Electric, a trade union representative said following a meeting with economy minister Arnaud Montebourg. “The minister described Mitsubishi’s offer…Clearly, this is an alliance scheme that counters GE’s proposal,” said Gabriel Artero, CFE-CGC representative of France’s steelworkers federation. “The state and Mitsubishi would take joint and equal stakes in Alstom,” he said, adding this would imply buying back at least a part of the 29 percent stake currently held by Alstom’s top shareholder Bouygues.