Alstom profit jumps 56 percent

PARIS (Reuters) - Alstom (ALSO.PA) posted a bigger than expected 56 percent rise in full year net profit and boosted its medium-term outlook on Wednesday, as the maker of power plants and fast trains reaped the benefit of high orders.

The French engineering firm reported a net profit of 852 million euros (670 million pounds) in the year ended March 31, while income from operations rose 35 percent to 1.295 billion euros, generating a margin of 7.7 percent, compared with a margin of 6.7 percent the year before.

The company said given its strong backlog, the operating margin in March 2010 should exceed the previous forecast and reach around 9 percent.

Alstom proposes doubling the dividend to 1.6 euros per share.

Analysts had forecast net profit of 812 million euros, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales rose 19 percent to 16.91 billion euros, beating analyst forecasts of 16.54 billion euros according to Reuters Estimates.

The company said it booked 23.5 billion euros of new orders in the year, up 23 percent from the previous year, bringing its backlog to 39.2 billion euros, up 21 percent, representing 28 months of sales.

The rise in orders came from all divisions, with a 21 percent rise in Power Systems, an 8 percent rise in Power Service and a 39 percent jump in Transport.

"Fiscal year 2007/08 was marked by a record level of orders in both our Power and Transport activities, highlighting our good positioning in the growing infrastructure markets," said Chairman and CEO Patrick Kron in a statement.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; editing by Rory Channing)