International Business News

European shares opened lower Tuesday, continuing a modest decline began Monday, while remaining close to the peak reached in eight months last weekend.

In Paris the CAC 40 was down 0.41% (14.50 points) to 3,563.38 points. In Frankfurt, the DAX lost 0.5% and London, the FTSE 0.5%. The pan-European index Stoxx 50 yields 0.43%.

Investors expect the American Statistical probably the day starts, to give a more straightforward classes.

"There is profit taking (…) If there is improvement in housing starts in the U.S., it could give a boost," said Joe Rundle , in charge of trading at ETX Capital.

The Metro Action yield 1.68% to 30.35 euros after the German distributor told to anticipate a stable operating result in 2012 compared to 2011.

The title Transgene plunged nearly 7% after the biotech company announced Monday a widening of its loss in 2011. 

At the London Stock Exchange, the action BHP Billiton lost nearly 2% after the first Global Mining said it saw signs of "slowdown" in demand for iron ore from the China.

The title of the computer services group Tieto Finland earns more than 5% in early trade after the announcement of a plan for downsizing.

On the foreign exchange market, the dollar remains near its lowest in a week against a basket of currencies but showing signs of an improving economic conditions in the U.S. and higher yields U.S. Treasury bonds should be supportive factors for the greenback. 

While most stakeholders feel that the debt crisis of the euro area has stabilized in recent weeks, they keep in mind that it may get worse ; any time, questions focusing on the viability of Portugal.

On the front of sovereign debt in the euro area, 14.5 billion euros of Greek bonds maturing in the day, during which Spain will issue bond paper 12 and 18 months.

Veolia Environment announced Friday departures of three members of its management team the day after proposing not to renew the appointments of two members of its board of directors deemed close former CEO Proglio.

This series of ads comes as more directors of Veolia, which Proglio, currently head of EDF, has, according to sources familiar with the matter, considered asking for the resignation of the current CEO Antoine Frérot at a council held in late February.

Reputedly close to Proglio, the Chief Executive Denis Gasquet, Veolia leaves the group with immediate effect. Also Director of Operations, he was responsible for overseeing the implementation of cost reductions.

Olivier Orsini, who held the position of Executive Vice President and Secretary General, and Jean-Pierre Frémont, the executive vice president of public authorities and business, also leaving the Executive Committee of Veolia, and at the same time abandoning their duties within the group.

These changes were decided by Antoine Frérot to "accelerate the implementation of the strategic plan approved by the board," said Veolia in a statement.

Sylvain Boucher also joined the executive committee of which he was previously secretary. 

ACCELERATING THE STRATEGIC PLAN

The executive committee now includes, besides the CEO, seven against nine previously. Jérôme Gallot, Jean-Michel Herrewyn, Franck Lacroix, Jean-Marie Lambert, Jerome Le Conte and Pierre-Francois Riolacci to retain their seats.

In stock at 16h58, the title wins 5.07% to 12.755 euros, signing the largest increase in the CAC 40 index, which rose by 0.4% at the same time.

"The acceleration of the strategic plan and tighter around Mr. Frérot teams were well received," said a trader based in Paris.

Another market operator, also based in Paris, points out that these departures had been widely expected by the market, believing that the benefits likely to die as ; knotting of short positions as well as upward revisions of recommendations. 

"The action moves as people cheer the departure of Denis Gasquet: it was at the head of the Environmental Services division during his disastrous performance, and more recently he has overseen restructuring, "he adds.

The strategic plan of Veolia plans to refocus the group on water, waste and energy services and reduce costs of 420 million euros by in 2015.

Veolia also planned to produce five billion euros in sales in 2012-2013 and reduce net debt to below 12 billion at end 2013.

Siemens has offered concessions to the European Commission as part of an investigation into Areva NP joint venture specialized in nuclear reactors it had negotiated with Areva, said on Wednesday the EU executive.

The survey of Brussels is to determine whether a non-compete agreement between Areva and Siemens as part of their joint venture and still valid after the release of the German finalized in March 2011, violated Community rules.

"The Parties undertake to allow Siemens Areva NP to compete without restriction from the date on which Siemens has lost control of Areva NP joint," said the EC in a statement. 

Areva has finalized the acquisition in April 2011 for 1.62 billion euros for 34% of Siemens in Areva NP, which the German group announced the sale in early 2009.

The French group had previously obtained in late 2009 that Siemens can not complete its proposed alliance with Russia's Rosatom in nuclear power as an arbitration procedure on the price at which the German group it would sell its share in Areva NP would not be complete.

The EC says it is awaiting comments from third parties to determine whether the proposed concessions are sufficient to allay any fears competition.

If so, the EU executive continues, the concessions could become legally binding for Siemens and Areva.

The country has avoided bankruptcy thanks to an agreement signed Friday with the creditors.

Greece has avoided bankruptcy by obtaining an agreement Friday to its private creditors to participate in the biggest operation of debt reduction in history and a green light from its partners in the euro area to help pay her 130 billion euros.

This announcement sparked a wave of enthusiastic reactions within the euro area, stuck for over two years in the debt crisis.

Its new president, recently renewed, Herman Van Rompuy, said that "turning the crisis is reached." "We are heading for calmer seas," he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has held that "the page of the financial crisis is beginning to turn" while German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has wanted more cautious. "We are not out of the woods, but we made a big important step," he told reporters.

Direct consequence: the International Monetary Fund announced it will participate in the new financing plan promised to Greece. After consulting the Member States of its board Friday, IMF Executive Director, Christine Lagarde, said the proposed amount was 28 billion euros to be paid over four years, more than 23 billion envisaged up 'here.

After nine months of tough negotiations, Athens Friday finally got the guarantee to erase at least 100 billion euros of debt to private.

The operation – the largest of its kind ever made – should help significantly reduce the national debt which is sinking into a deep recession, GDP fell by 7.5% yoy in the fourth quarter , according to official figures released Friday also.

In 2020, according to official projections, the Greek sovereign debt should represent more than 120.5% of GDP against over 160% today, a rate considered tolerable by the creditors, although it remains very high. 

Finally, Greece has secured the participation of creditors representing 95.7% of debt held by the private sector, which amounts to 206 billion euros of a total of over 350 billion.

To achieve such a result, the government had to resort to trigger clauses requiring recalcitrant creditors to go along with the offer.

This decision led Fitch to lower the rating of Greece and to place the country in "partial default" after the announcement of the results of the debt swap. Note the country should be raised once the deal is completed.

It also prompted the ISDA, the professional organization of insurance against credit risk (CDS, credit default swaps), to determine unanimously that it was a "credit event "and that investors could be repaid insured.

These assurances can be triggered when a borrower terminates the contract which governs the loan. ISDA has estimated that the use of "collective action clauses" designed to force the recalcitrant creditors, was that debt restructuring was not "voluntary".

Specifically, the exchange of securities to be held Monday for the obligations under Greek law. Security holders are not subject to Greek law have more time, until March 23, 0800 GMT, to make over 7 billion in bonds that are still missing the call.

Management companies in France are beginning to substitute for banks and lending almost "live" business (corporate) facing the credit crunch bank , says Antoine Flamarion, president of Tikehau Capital, Credit Specialist.

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and the willingness of regulators to strengthen prudential regulations that require a high level of capital to risk, banks, anxious to ease further their balance sheets, have significantly tightened their credit policies. 

"Banks are not lending, it is fine to have find lenders elsewhere," said Antoine Flamarion in an interview with Reuters, adding that Tikehau has funded a clinical enterprise private, Vitalia, belonging to private equity fund Blackstone.

Since 2008, in a highly regulated, financial corporations other than banks can finance companies.

Antoine said that Flamarion Tikehau had essentially mounted operations of this type in the world of LBO (Leveraged buyout or acquisition with debt leverage) and real estate, while broadening the spectrum to finance activities in dollars that banks no longer provide. 

"This is where we think we have the best risk / return ratio, that is where we have more room."

"Since we do not have unlimited resources, for us the question is always when at work 25 to 35 million euros, is to put it on the assets re -paid workers to Euribor plus 700, 800, 1,000, 1,200 basis points, "he said.

BANK FINANCING CERTAIN drop

The three-month Euribor, which is the reference to credit operations at variable rates in the eurozone, was just over 1% (1.036%) Friday .

"For now, we have tended to concentrate on issues and topics LBO estate," said Antoine Flamarion. 

"It was an operation at the end of 2011 real estate financing (…) We refinanced bonds estate of a foreign structure that de French assets held. Fifteen million matured. We kept the existing contract obligations and we just changed the rate. It was lent to 15%, "he said

. Tikehau also participated in financing activities such as shipping or aviation in need of dollars and that French banks do not finance more

. "There was done a little differently, we did not take the debt but we have invested capital with a family that owns the tankers, "he said

.

"The banks are out a lot of business funding and therefore we see a lot of asset classes in finance," he said. 

Tikehau Capital manages € 800 million, including $ 250 million deal with the tradeable public debt (corporate bonds) on the credit market and 550 million euros for private debt e (private debt) in the form of mezzanine funds and special situation funds.

DREAMS OF THE DEBT

"In 550 million, is made of primary and secondary. The primary is Blackstone. In the secondary market, that we sometimes buy distressed debt," he adds .

Antoine Flamarion intends to develop the private debt activity can represent, for LBO France, a market of 5.0 billion euros.

"Normally players as we are of secondary we buy ready-made products, but we will increasingly be the primary."

"Potentially, this is a big market. For example, the Company generally sells its entire portfolio of loans to real estate professionals. It means that some of these professionals who used to borrow from the SocGen will go and borrow elsewhere so we think a number of professions, real estate and LBO on it require substitutions to banks, "he said

. Insurers will have to play an important role in this area ..

……. According to him, disintermediation is expected to increase in Europe. In other words, like what is happening for a long time in the U.S., companies are going to look more to the credit market as far 80% of their funding came from banks.

Antoine Flamarion cites the example of Blackstone, best known for its private equity activity but an activity that "private debt" provided by its subsidiary GSO manages, according to the website of Blackstone, near of $ 44 billion on nearly 180 billion in total managed by the group.

"Today, everyone dreams of making the debt. As private equity can no longer raise money, all private equity funds begin to make the debt," said the head of Tikehau.

List of stocks covered Wednesday at the Paris Bourse, where the CAC 40 index was up 1.01% to 3,409.69 points at 24:08, notably supported by the comments of the governor of China's central bank promised Europe to support the crisis.

* Values ​​European BANK (2.46%) signed the largest increase in the sector in Europe for about the governor of the PBOC as investors also hope qu'Antonis Samaras, the leader of the Greek conservative party New Democracy, submit his written support for new austerity measures adopted in the country.

BNP PARIBAS (6.22%), which is expected this year to stabilize the crisis in the euro zone but does not anticipate a recession in Europe is ahead of increases in the CAC 40 and SBF 120 index. 

SOCIETE GENERALE advance of 4.11% and Crédit Agricole.

* The CYCLIC are well oriented. The French economy has withstood the fourth quarter with a growth surprise of 0.2%, thanks to foreign trade and investment, while activity ; contracted in Germany and Italy.

RENAULT wins 3.65%, 3.16% and STMICROELECTRONICS LAFARGE 2.2%. The pan-European Stoxx index of auto sector advance of 1.47% and 1.22% of the construction.

* In contrast, PSA was down 1.72%, largest drop in the CAC 40. The group announced new savings and a comprehensive plan for asset sales in order to redress the financial situation of the group after a year marked by a relapse in 2011 net profit.

Moody's placed the ratings under review with the manufacturer as possible downgrade.

* PAGESJAUNES fell 12%, largest drop in the SBF 120 volumes representing already seven times their daily volume the past three months. The group announced that its board would propose as an exceptional pass the dividend for 2011, after registering a decline in its revenues and profit margins last year.

* BIC (4.2%) released 2011 results sharply higher through its consumer business (stationery, lighters and razors) and said target operating margin for 2012 Standardized e "near the record level reached in 2011."

* DANONE (1.59%) stated address with confidence after 2012 achieved its growth targets for 2011 thanks to its good performance in emerging markets where the group re alise today more than half of its sales. 

* Haulotte Group (10.23%) leads to increases in the CAC Mid & Small, supported by the announcement of a 23% growth in turnover in 2011 of the truck manufacturer é ; lévateurs.

* Abandons EUROPACORP 2.55%, the producer and distributor of films that have shown a fall of 58.2% of its turnover in respect of its fiscal third quarter.

The U.S. company Spirit Airlines confirmed Wednesday an order for 75 A320 aircraft manufacturer Airbus, valued at seven billion dollars (5.3 billion) at list prices. The MoU, which was announced in mid-November at the Dubai air show, includes 45 A320neo, the enhanced single-aisle Airbus, a subsidiary of europe ; in EADS. The company has not announced the engine selected, the aircraft manufacturer said in a statement. 45 A320neo have been recorded in the order book in December 2011. The success of the A320neo, more fuel efficient, has allowed Airbus to sell almost twice as many planes as its U.S. rival Boeing in 2011, although it acknowledges that it will be difficult to keep the advantage in 2012, with the response of 737MAX, improved version of the aisle of his American rival.

"Line of precaution and Liquidity" provides a credit of the member states to meet their emergency needs. This is one of the G20 commitments in Cannes.

The International Monetary Fund announced Tuesday, November 22 creating a new lending instrument to "break the chains of contagion" of financial and economic crises. The institution said in a statement that its board had given its green light to the "Line of precaution and liquidity" (LPL), which had been promised by the G20 at its summit in Cannes (South East of France) earlier this month. The TPA provides a credit of the member states to meet their emergency needs.It "can be used as a source of liquidity, allowing an agreement six months to meet the needs of short-term balance of payments," said the IMF.

This device replaces another established in August 2010, the precautionary credit line, which has a single member state, Macedonia. The difference is that the old line of credit was designed to be held in reserve, while the news is expected to eventually be used immediately. Countries that are eligible are the same: those with a crisis, and have sound economic policies and undertake to maintain. Executive Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, had said at the summit in Cannes that Italy could meet these criteria. To support this country, "the typical instrument we would use is a precautionary credit line.

The lobbying firm Clark Lytle & Geduldig Cranford offers 850,000 dollars to the Association of American banks to undermine media-movement Occupy Wall Street. These indignant protest against the Wall Street financial crisis behind, growing inequality and policy failures, they accuse of being subject to the bosses of finance or business. They claim to represent the aspirations of 99% of Americans, arguing that 1% of the population owns most of the wealth and is always preferred.

Lobbyists deemed related to banks, proposed a $ 850,000 plan to attack the movement Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the politicians who would support him, reported Saturday the U.S. television network MSNBC.In a four-page memo, the Washington firm Clark Lytle & Geduldig Cranford (CLGC) propose to the Association of American banks (ABA) to conduct a "search" Occupy on Wall Street to "build a story negative" on the move , "to place in the media," and on "those who support them," according to the memo published by MSNBC. If the Democrats support OWS, "it would mean more than a temporary embarrassment for Wall Street. This can have an impact long-term political and financial companies for the heart" of Wall Street, the memo adds.

"It may be easy to dismiss OWS as a group of protesters demonstrated disordered but rather they should be treated as competing organized, highly skilled and able to work the media.

Allianz reported Friday a third quarter net earnings well below expectations, the financial market turbulence has sealed investment income of the first European insurer.

The German company posted a net profit of 196 million euros over the period while 14 analysts polled by Reuters had expected an average of 566 million.

Allianz has spent 931 million euros in provisions, mainly on investments in the financial markets.

The cons-performance does not deter investors to buy the title, the emphasis operators operating income.

The latter is certainly emerged down 7.3% to 1.91 billion euros, but above a forecast of 1.71 billion.We do not judge too negatively the fact that the net profit is below expectations because it was caused by a higher taxation and impairment of assets higher than expected, "said Philipp Hässler Equinet Bank.

By 10:00 GMT, taking 1.87% to 74.07 euros while the index grouping the values ​​of the European insurance advanced 0.97%.

Allianz confirmed its target of operating profit between 7.5 and 8.5 billion euros for the whole of 2011 but said that the annual net would likely be less than five billion euros in 2010.