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.
The firm, which skirted bankruptcy in 2003, said that sales - on a comparable basis - climbed 14 percent to 14.2 billion euros from 12.4 billion for 2005/06.
Alstom - which developed France's high speed TGV trains and metros used in Paris and London - said strong free cash flow made the company almost debt free in March 2007 and announced plans to pay a dividend of 0.80 euro per share.
Alstom competes with General Electric Co, ABB and Toshiba and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in the power market and with Bombardier Inc and Siemens in transport.