French transport and power group Alstom on Monday raised its profit targets after its power generating activities helped it more than double net profit to 448 million euros ($603.7 million) in 2006/2007.
The engineering firm, which builds industrial power plants and develops high-speed trains, also reported a 40 percent rise in operating profit to 957 million euros and said it would pay a dividend to shareholders for the first time since 2001.
Alstom, which says one in four light bulbs in the world are powered by its generators, reported a profit margin of 6.7 percent in 2006/2007 and said it expected this to rise to more than 8 percent by the end of the decade.