TGV TRAIN MARKS ALSTOM INITIAL LISTING AT NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE, 1998-06-22 (photo)

An 80-foot-long, three-ton model of a TGV Duplex train crashing through a street is displayed outside the New York Stock Exchange June 22 to mark the initial listing of the Paris-based industrial giant Alstom. Alstom also went public at the Paris stock exchange in Europe's biggest non-privatization initial public offering. Created in 1989 as a 50-50 joint venture of Alcatel Alstom and Britain's GEC, Alstom becomes a French company as part of the launch and changes its name from GEC Alsthom. The company is best known as the maker of the high-speed TGV trains. PM/HB/ME