Alstom keeps guidance despite weak European orders, sees pickup ahead

July 22 (Reuters) - French train maker Alstom maintained its full-year guidance on Wednesday and said commercial momentum would accelerate in the second quarter, even as first-quarter orders fell sharply on weaker European bookings.

Orders totalled 2.56 billion euros ($2.92 billion), down 37% from 4.08 billion euros a year earlier, while the book-to-bill ratio fell to 0.5x from 0.9x.

"We expect commercial momentum to accelerate in the second quarter," Chief Executive Martin Sion said in a statement. European orders fell 69% to 1.07 billion euros, although bookings in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia jumped to 1.08 billion euros from just 15 million euros a year earlier.

Sales, however, rose 4.8% organically to 4.73 billion euros. Alstom's backlog stood at 102.8 billion euros at end-June.

($1 = 0.8764 euros)

(Reporting by Hugo Lhomedet and Aleksandra Kret; Editing by Matt Scuffham)