FINANCIERE ALEXANDRE III, subsidiary of the Swedish group INDUSTRI KAPITAL, has made a public bid for the whole of the French engineering group COMPAGNIE DE FIVES-LILLE (turnover EUR 419 million during the first half of 2000) at the price of 107 euros per share. The offer gives the group a total value of EUR 235 million. The main shareholders, BNP-PARIBAS and the US investor Allan Green, which hold 50.15% of the capital in total, have undertaken to contribute their shares.