Business & Financial News

Germany said Wednesday it was not necessary to strengthen the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), while the European Commission called last week to the revaluation of all components of EFSF, including its size.

"He (EFSF) is far from exhausted.In saying that, all is said, "said the spokesman of the German government at a press conference.

The current capacity is 440 EFSF billion, increasing to $ 750 billion if we add the contributions of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, participating in bailouts of countries in the euro area.

The emergency EU summit on July 21 has dramatically reformed the EFSF into an embryonic "European Monetary Fund."

But European leaders have not committed one way that investors called for: EFSF give more firepower.

The fund, which borrows on the markets with the guarantee of the member states of the euro zone and then lend to countries in difficulty, has now committed at least 142 billion euros of aid, benefiting Greece, the Ireland and Portugal.This leaves 298 billion to meet future deadlines.

However, economists have calculated that a bailout would cost Spain EUR 290 billion and an emergency program for Italy would represent some 490 billion euros.

The pressure of the German electorate

Last week, the debt crisis in the euro area has experienced a new peak, yields greater than 6% stake in Spanish and Italian sovereign debt raising fears that Rome and Madrid in turn must seek the assistance of EFSF.

It was against this background that Brussels had called a reassessment of all components of the EFSF to convince markets that the euro area could resolve the debt crisis.

Since the beginning of the week, thanks to such repurchase obligations to 10 years in Italy and Spain by the European Central Bank, the financing costs borne by Italy and Spain returned to more affordable levels, around 5%.

The words of the spokesman for the German government illustrate the difficulties faced by Berlin to convince voters of the merits of the government's commitment in resolving the debt crisis in the euro area.

For example, nearly two-thirds of the conservative party of Angela Merkel are dissatisfied with the management of this crisis by the Chancellor, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Sixty-two percent of respondents say they are worried about the image returned by the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and CSU (Christian Social Union), according to the survey of the Forsa institute for Stern magazine.

Approximately 52% of 578 members of both parties questioned in the survey said they opposed the bailout of the partners in Berlin in the euro area and only 42% approve of the plan of aid to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The survey was conducted on 4 and 5 August, before the lull caused by the acquisition of Italian and Spanish bonds by the ECB.

Fears that Germany's leading economic power in the euro area also enjoying growth prospects correct and historically low financing costs, pay the bulk of the bill for the debt crisis have resulted in an increase in German five-year CDS, which reached the level of CDS UK.

Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has started negotiations for a merger, it was learned Thursday from three sources familiar with the discussions.

The negotiations, which have not been officially confirmed despite press leaks, cover a reconciliation of the two industrial activities in the field of energy generation and development of power systems "intelligent" ("smart grids") , the sources said.

Mergers are often seen in Japan as a last resort for firms in difficulty, but analysts point out that a strategic combination would enable Hitachi and Mitsubishi to achieve economies of scale to overcome the strong yen and win competitiveness.

"If the merger is confirmed, it would be very positive news for the Japanese industry, because companies would not get competition in the conquest of foreign capital projects, which would increase their chances while supporting the economy countries, "said Kiyoshi Noda, a fund manager at MU Investments.

Hitachi, the leading Japanese electronics industry but also a player in nuclear energy, posted its first net profit in five years on the year ended in March, after losing about $ 14.3 billion (9 , 99 billion euros) over the past ten years.

For its part, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a supplier of power plants and aerospace equipment from Boeing including Areva and continues to incur losses on its shipbuilding activities and aviation.

A merger of two industrial conglomerates would create the second largest player in the heavy equipment behind General Electric, with a turnover of about $ 150 billion.

Thursday at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Hitachi ended up 1.73%, while Mitsubishi Heavy jumped 3.44%.

TF1 reported Tuesday a sharp improvement in profitability in the first half thanks to cost savings and a return to growth in advertising revenue for its flagship channel in the second quarter, which boosted the price of its action.

In a statement released Tuesday, the television group maintains its forecast, however, considered conservative by analysts, stability of its consolidated sales throughout 2011, suggesting a continued lack of visibility on the evolution of conditions.

In early trading, the action blazes 4.9% to 13.35 euros while the index of pan-European media yields 0.4% at the same time.Since the beginning of the year, the title grew by 3.2% while its main rival M6, which will publish its half-year after the close of trading, 12.6% abandoned.

"The second quarter results were better than expected thanks to higher performance expectations of the TF1 channel," said one market participant, citing in particular the surprise increase in advertising revenue in the first string after a bumpy start to the year.

The advertising revenue of the chain's flagship group has returned to growth in the second quarter with sales up 0.7% after declining 2.6% in the first three months of the year sealed by poor hearing.

The market, which questioned the ability of TF1 to rise the prices of its advertising space in the second quarter in the absence of significant remontrée hearings, expected a decline of about 1%.

Of all the first six months of the year, advertising revenue declined, however, emerged from 0.9% to 764.6 million euros.

OPERATING INCOME surged 79%

The 43%-owned subsidiary of Bouygues also shows a jump of nearly 79% of its operating profit in the first half to 186.5 million euros against 136.5 million on average, expected by the market.

This sharp increase is due to new significant savings on the cost of grid TF1 which stood at 423.6 million, against 482.6 million during the same period last year.

The difference is mainly due to favorable basis of comparison, the channel that broadcast in June 2010 World Cup soccer.The net savings in terms of broadcasting rights, amounts to 49.3 million euros, TF1 said in a statement.

In contrast, sales of other activities of the group remained stable, rising advertising revenues and TMC NT1, the DTT channels redeemed last year was offset by the absence of income related to resale of sports rights.

Overall, the consolidated turnover of the group amounted to 1.3 billion euros, down 0.5% from the first half of 2010.

Net income Group share for its 118.6 million euros in the first half, against 74.2

A conference call for analysts is scheduled for 9:30.Group CEO, Nonce Paolini, could announce on this occasion it will request the free passage of its continuous news channel LCI.

The Dow Jones, owned by News Corp., announced Friday the resignation of its CEO, mixed with the wiretapping scandal that hits the media empire of Rupert Murdoch.

The Hinton was responsible for overseeing the British newspapers owned by News Corp. at the time of the alleged crime.

New Corp is particularly owner Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. The entire group is shaken from the revelation of multiple telephone answering machines hacks led by the tabloid News of the World, which has since been closed.

The group Total SA said Tuesday opt-out of the Consolidated Global Profit (BMC), which does not provide any tax benefit.

Only a few French multinationals are using this system, which integrates in taxable income results in France (and therefore the potential deficit) of foreign subsidiaries under their control. This "niche" tax is regularly called into question because it would allow them to pay less tax.

In an interview published on the site of Les Echos, the financial director of the oil company argued that this system has no benefit for the group since its only loss-making French operations are today.

"The BMC can be charged in France for losses incurred abroad.But insofar as we record losses in France, we do not pay corporate taxes in France, "observes Patrick of Chevardière.

"The refining business has been in deficit since 2008, amounting to almost 600 million euros last year.The last time the regime of worldwide profits had a positive impact on our taxes, it was in 2001, "he says.

The ability to waive this system had already been mentioned the last weekend by the CEO of Total, Christophe de Margerie.

The group has repeatedly reminded, however, he brought some 800 million euros in tax revenues to France, notably through the withholding tax on dividends, business tax, property taxes.

After a very dynamic first quarter, the French economy is expected to mark time before rebounding and reaching 2.1% over the year, exceeding the government's objective, according to INSEE. French managers come to the business district of La Défense

French growth should undergo a brake in the second quarter before rebounding and reaching 2.1% over the year, slightly more than the government's objective, according to new estimates published by INSEE on Thursday. After a very dynamic first quarter in which gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1%, the French economy would have stalled, says the National Institute of Statistics in its first forecast for the whole of the 2011.

As in other advanced economies, France has experienced the full number of shocks, such as rising commodity prices, the consequences of the earthquake in Japan, or more restrictive economic policies. However, these shocks will be "temporary" said Sandrine Duchêne, head of the economic situation of INSEE. And factors should slow fade in the second half.

After an expected growth of only 0.2% in the second quarter, activity should then bounce back with an expected GDP growth of 0.5% during the last two quarters of the year. Over the whole of 2011, growth would reach 2.1%, slightly higher than the official government forecast (2%).

This performance is consistent with the euro area average. As usual, Germany will remain the locomotive of the region, INSEE provides a 3.7% growth for the country in 2011.Conversely, Spain (+0.7%) and Italy (+0.8%) will be left behind.

Unemployment folds

Over the period, the labor market should continue to improve in France, total employment grew more strongly than in 2010. Unemployment, which stood at 9.2% of the workforce in the first quarter, fell back slightly by the end of the year to 9%.

Household consumption, even in the first quarter supported by a "drag effect" of scrapping, related to the timely delivery of vehicles ordered in late 2010, should fall back sharply in the second quarter, "backlash". She then rebound in the second half, however, at a rate slightly lower than before the crisis, according to Insee.

Traditional engine of French growth, consumption would increase by 1.2% over the year, after rising 1.3% in 2010.Business investment will remain dynamic, while the trade would have a broadly neutral impact on growth.

Household income would be supported by rising employment and wages. The decision to pay a premium to employees in companies distributing dividends is expected to contribute to this increase, according to INSEE.

Inflation of 2.2% trim on the purchasing power

But this acceleration will be partially eroded by the pursuit of expected inflation. To INSEE, the rise in food prices, already substantially since March, is expected to continue in effect until December. On average, inflation should be 2.2% throughout this year, a level higher than the 1.8% forecast by the government.

Thus, household disposable income, which should accelerate in 2011 (+3.3% after +2.0%), would contreblancé by higher inflation.Overall, the purchasing power of households rise by only slightly faster in 2011 than in 2010 (1% after +0.8%).

A greater than expected weakness in the U.S. economy or boost pressure on sovereign debt, however, could darken the picture, warns INSEE. Conversely, if the French households decide to save less this year, would benefit just the consumer, so to growth.

Citigroup said Thursday an attack against computer networks, allowing hackers to access data on some 200,000 cardholders in North America.

The hackers had access to customer names, account numbers and contacts, including e-mail, said the bank.

Other information, such as dates of birth, social security numbers and expiration dates and PINs of bank cards have not been compromised, however, assured Citigroup.

"We contact customers whose information has been affected.Citi has implemented improved procedures to prevent such events from happening again, "said the email spokesman Sean Kevelighan.

"For the safety of these customers, we will not disclose more details," he added.

In the brief statement issued by the bank, how hackers managed to penetrate the network is not specified.

Another spokesman for the bank, James Griffiths, said from Hong Kong that the intrusion had affected 1% of customers in North America, numbering 21 million according to the latest annual report from Citigroup.

According to the Financial Times, the compromise of data was detected during a routine check in early May.Citigroup could be criticized for not informing affected customers earlier.

Many companies have been hit by cyber attacks lately, like Lockheed Martin, sony, or Google.

Moody's downgraded Wednesday sovereign debt rating to Caa1 Greek cons B1 with a negative outlook.

In its statement, the rating agency said the risk of degradation by the increasingly important to see Greece fail to stabilize its debt level without its debt is restructured.

The reduction, says Moody's, also reflects the possibility of growing to see the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union claim the private sector to restructure.

These risks imply that there is a probability of at least 50% to see Greece default.

While a report intended to involve doctors who prescribed the Mediator as an appetite suppressant to compensation to victims, the health minister said Sunday that only pay Servier.

The Health Minister Xavier Bertrand has sought to extinguish incipient controversy Sunday with the doctors on compensation for victims of the Mediator. "Doctors will not be paying. I say this very clearly," said the Minister in issuing C. Policy on France 5.

He was reacting to the outrage among doctors According to information published Saturday in Le Figaro on the public fund to compensate victims of the Mediator to be introduced Wednesday in the Cabinet.

The newspaper cited an unnamed source "who participated in drafting the text" and assured that "will be paying the Servier Laboratory, or the doctors who prescribed the Mediator outside the accepted indications."

"In other words, doctors who prescribed the drug limited to antidiabetics in persons wishing to lose weight, could be targeted," added the daily.

This article was written "on the basis of preparatory documents and not from the text itself" to be presented by the Council of Ministers, assured Xavier Bertrand. Questioned by AFP, the Department of Health said on Saturday that doctors could be called to "go into the process" to compensate victims of the Mediator."Doctors may be asked to participate in the compensation of victims after it is established medical expertise they have some responsibility," had they added the same source.

However, Sunday, Xavier Bertrand assured: after reviewing the file and if there is "prejudice", "the Oniam turns against the laboratory Servier. Point. Because it is precisely that produced the Mediator." "The Oniam will not seek the responsibility of a doctor," he stressed. The compensation fund will be managed by the National Compensation medical accidents, iatrogenic and nosocomial infections (Oniam).

Anti-diabetic widely misused as an appetite suppressant, the Mediator would have done in 33 years between 500 and 2,000 deaths, before being withdrawn from the French market in November 2009. Hundreds of complaints have been filed to date.

Physician unions reacted strongly Sunday to a possible defendant. "I find it particularly outrageous that one looks for scapegoats in this case through the prescribers," he told Europe 1 Claude Leicher, President of MG France, the leading syndicate generalists. "We have documents that show that when doctors had doubts and questioned the laboratory, they were told that this product does not pose any particular problem," he added.

For Dr. Michel Chassang, president of the Confederation of French Medical Unions (CSMF), largest union of private practitioners, this "direct indictment of physicians" is "completely ridiculous". "If an institution must be questioned is the one who authorized the sale of the drug, it seems logical. The doctor comes entirely downstream," he told AFP.

Receives a request from a victim, Oniam Servier will turn to systematically asking him to directly compensate the person for a specific amount. If the pharmaceutical company refuses, the Oniam indemnify the victim to court to obtain reimbursement from Servier accompanied by a significant penalty.

Ares Life Sciences fund holds 73.18% of the final capital and voting rights of the specialist allergy treatment Stallergenes at the end of the second phase of its takeover bid, said Friday the AMF.

The offer, which originally ran from January 11 to February 14, was reopened on 22 February to 11 March inclusive.

"In total, the company Ares Life Sciences, controlled by Mr.Ernesto Bertarelli, holds 9,844,053 shares and voting rights Stallergenes, representing 73.18% of share capital and voting rights of that company, "said MFA in a statement.

Ares was acquired last November's 46% stake held by Wendel Stallergenes priced at 59 euros, then launched a bid for the entire share capital of the company at the same price.

At the Paris Bourse, the action of specialist allergy treatment gained 1.63% to 56.81 euros in mid-afternoon.