Letter of Credit Let's not confuse the letter of Credit which has been interpreted as moneys being held by Alstom.
I am thinking along the lines that this letter of credit or call it a guarantee by the bank of this international transaction or sale of BT to Alstom.
My reasoning for the letter of credit and its real purpose as I see it is that Alstom, having taken over all the BT contracts had also taken over all the possible potential liabilities associated with them.
Alstom, would fear that knowing of the precarious situation the Bomber was in finacially at the time wanted to assure themselves that these possible liabilities would be covered one way or another.
If the Bomber would have gone belly up, then there was no possibility of Alstom being indemnified ..
In that case the only other way was to reduce the price of purchase by 400 million and money held by third party.
If the Bomber would have gone belly up, I would presume the creditors would have been entitled to that money which would have made it "good luck with that "
We will see if we hear anything between now and end of Jan as to any liabilities.
JMO