US firms Latham & Watkins and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton are advising as German industrial group Siemens and French rival Alstom agree to merge their rail operations.

The business will have €15.3bn (£11.5bn) in combined revenue.

Alstom produces the TGV, the French long-distance trains, while Siemens make Germany's equivalent, the ICE.

Cleary is advising Alstom with a cross-border team led by corporate partners Pierre-Yves Chabert and Charles Masson in the firm's Paris office and including corporate partner Michael Ulmer in Frankfurt, tax partner Richard Sultman in London, and corporate partner Glenn McGrory and tax partner Yaron Reich in New York.

The French government will sell its current 20% stake in Alstom as part of the deal.

US rival Latham & Watkins is advising Siemens with a team including corporate partners Patrick Laporte and Pierre-Louis Cleroin Paris and corporate partner Rainer Traugott in Germany.

Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer is acting for Siemens on the competition and merger control aspects of this deal, with a team led by Brussels partners Frank Montag and Thomas Wessely.

Latham is also currently advising global engineering company CH2M on its sale to rival Jacobs Engineering's for $3.27bn (£2.47bn).

The US firm is fielding a team led by Silicon Valley corporate partner Tad Freese, alongside benefits and compensation partner James Metz, intellectual property partner Anthony Klein and San Francisco tax partner Grace Lee.