Hitachi, Alstom, Stadler win $5 billion contract to build trains for Trenitalia

ROME (Reuters) - Hitachi Rail Italy, France's Alstom and Swiss firm Stadler have won contracts worth a combined 4.5 billion euros (3.74 billion pound) to build trains for Trenitalia, the Italian train operator said on Tuesday.

Hitachi Rail Italy, born out of Hitachi's purchase of AnsaldoBreda from Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI) last year, won the biggest chunk of the contract, to build 300 trains.

A person familiar with the deal told Reuters that Hitachi's contract, consisting of trains with at least 450 seats, was worth about 3 billion euros. Trenitalia did not say how much it would pay each individual supplier.

Alstom (ALSO.PA) will build 150 medium-capacity trains, Trenitalia said in a statement. Stadler won the bid to build diesel-powered trains, but Trenitalia said it reserved the right to re-evaluate the Swiss firm's proposal.

Trenitalia is part of national railway operator Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato (IPO-FERRO.MI), in which the government plans to sell a stake as part of a long-delayed programme of privatisations to reduce its huge public debt.

Canadian firm Bombardier (BBDb.TO), Spain's CAF (CAF.MC) and Hyundai had also presented bids to build the trains.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie and Silvia Ognibene; Editing by Philip Pullella and Susan Fenton)