International Business News

The placement of the French No. 1 would be the victim of a crisis of confidence? Withdrawals from contracts of life insurance were up 1.8 billion euros in deposits last month. Life insurance, savings, piggy.

Withdrawals from contracts of life insurance on deposits were higher in September, a phenomenon already observed in late 2008, according to figures released Monday by the French Association of insurance.

The net outflow of insurance contracts reached 1.8 billion euros in September, confirming the dire straits facing the preferred placement of French. In September, 9.7 billion have been placed on these contracts. In nine months, the collection of contributions amounting to 98 billion euros, down 11% over the same period in 2010, the association said in a statement.

In detail, 83.4 billion were paid on the supports euros and 14.6 billion euros in the media unit of account (capital not guaranteed). "An outflow of EUR 1.8 billion does not affect the attraction of investors to the guaranteed investment whose remuneration is attractive," said the President of the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA) Bernard Spitz, in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper published Monday.

He said the phenomenon of redemption affects only a little more than half of the 11.5 billion euros of withdrawals, which also reflect the aging population, with retirees who are drawing more and more in their life insurance.

A Booklet has not particularly benefited from the alienation found in September for life insurance, recording an average level (1.13 billion euros).

The G20 countries pledged Saturday to support and rebalance the global economy face "significant risk of deterioration" and said they expect a robust response of Europeans to contain the crisis in the euro area.

Meeting in Paris to prepare the annual summit of the Forum on 3 and 4 November in Cannes, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 welcomed the decisions taken in late July to strengthen the powers and capacity of intervention of the EFSF, the emergency fund of Europeans.

But they said to wait for new work to maximize the impact of the fund, with $ 440 billion, and "avoid any risk of contagion" from the Greek crisis to other economies.

"We expect the results of the European Council of 23 October, which will present a comprehensive plan to provide an aggressive response to current challenges," we read in the final communique of the meeting.

The U.S. Secretary of State to the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, said he was "encouraged by the speed and the direction in which the Europeans are progressing."

"They clearly have more work to do on the strategy and details, but when France and Germany agree on a plan and decide to pass the act, great things are possible", has he said.

French and German partners presented their G20 outline of the plan which they work for a solution "comprehensive and lasting peace" to the crisis in the euro area, which is due October 23.

Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, said that the world economy had changed "negative" from the meetings of the IMF and the World Bank last month in Washington and that emerging economies had expressed concerns contagion of the crisis in advanced countries.

To deal with these "heightened tensions", the 20 largest economies in the world have expressed their agreement to conduct coordinated policies in the short and long term as part of an action plan to be presented at Cannes.

ALL WILL BE DONE FOR THE STABILITY OF BANKS

This "cover a range of measures to respond to immediate vulnerabilities and strengthen the foundations for strong, sustainable and balanced".

Advanced countries adopt policies to build confidence and support growth and implement measures clear, credible and targeted to rebalance public finances, we read in the press release.

Countries with large current account surpluses will take further measures by which their growth will rely more on domestic demand, while those with large current account deficits will implement policies to increase national savings.

Emerging countries to adjust their macroeconomic policies on their part to maintain the growth momentum to face downside risks and contain inflationary pressures.

They are also encouraged to continue "their efforts to move toward systems of greater exchange rate determined by the markets."

On this point, Timothy Geithner acknowledged that China had allowed its currency, the yuan, appreciate gradually but should do so more quickly for the benefit of the global economy.

The G20 countries could not agree on the principle of an increase in IMF resources desired by some to strengthen its response capacity in the current crisis.

The statement said only that they have pledged to "ensure that the IMF has adequate resources to fulfill its responsibilities systemic."

The group LVMH said on Thursday replaced by Francis Morel Nicolas Beytout to the general direction of Les Echos.

Nicolas Beytout, former managing editor of business daily, was appointed in 2007 after the takeover of the newspaper by the world leader in luxury.

He became editorial writer "for all group titles," said LVMH in a statement.

After weeks of rumors about a possible departure of Nicolas Beytout, LVMH has finally passed the act, while the newspaper Les Echos recorded losses for the second consecutive year.

"Nicolas Beytout is punished for his bad management," they say internally to Echos, where writing is concerned about his appointment as a columnist.

"We know its proximity to Nicolas Sarkozy and the ethical charter signed by the shareholder recognizes the need for a non-partisan editorial in the newspaper," says one.

Les Echos journalists are scheduled to meet Friday morning at a general meeting to discuss the appointment.

The group, in addition to the Les Echos newspaper, magazine Enjeux-Les Echos, Investir, Connaissance des Arts and the station Radio Classique.

General Manager of Le Figaro from 2004 to 2011, Francis Morel was the architect of the development of internet newspaper, owned by the Dassault family, and the revitalization of its sales.

Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde warned on Saturday against the risk of the global economy plunging into recession and called for a rapid and coordinated political action, particularly in restructuring European banks.

"The events of this summer showed that we were in a dangerous new phase," she said at the annual meetings of the Fed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

"The stakes are clear: we are in danger of compromising a fragile recovery.We must act immediately. "

Advanced economies must develop long-term plans to control their debt, while ensuring that conservation measures will need not jeopardize the recovery, she added.

"Macroeconomic policy needs to support growth," said the former French Finance Minister in his first major speech since taking office as head of the IMF in July.

"Monetary policy also needs to be extremely flexible because the risk of recession is higher than inflation."

She stressed the need to restructure European banks.For her, the most effective way to effect a recapitalization would be "substantial", if possible through private channels or so through a form of European public funding.

She urged European countries to implement programs to reduce "credible" in their public deficits, relying in particular on the European Central Bank.

About the situation in the United States, she said that the need for long-term fiscal consolidation should not obscure the importance of supporting growth in the short term.

"Who can believe that commitments to reduce spending could survive a long stagnation, with unemployment still high and face the social discontent?"

Wall Street closed up nearly 4% Thursday's meeting, the figures better than expected U.S. employment combined with the strong performance of Cisco allowed to eclipse the fears of the day concerning the debt crisis in the euro area.

The New York Stock Exchange finished up 3.95% Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial winning 30 points to 11143.31 423.37 points.

The S & P-500, wider, took 51.88 points, or 4.63% to 1172.64 points.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 111.63 points for his side (4.69%) to 2492.68 points.

The day before, heavy speculation about the systemic risk posed by the French banks and rumors of deterioration in the sovereign rating of France had the Dow Jones plunged 4.62% to a low of nearly a year, after a volatile session.

The U.S. Index Standard & Poor's 500 benchmark fund managers, lost alone more than 710 billion dollars of capitalization this week after clearing 850 billion the previous week.

The decline of greater than expected weekly jobless (395 000 against 400.000 expected) has brought relief to markets, while another statistic published simultaneously showed an unexpected widening of the trade deficit the United States, its highest level since October 2008, due to a decline in exports and imports indicating a slowdown in global demand.

Values, Cisco has jumped by more than 15.95% after announcing on Wednesday after-hours trading better than expected quarterly results.

The food group Sara Lee fell after reporting a decline in sales volumes, sealed by price increases to offset the rising costs of raw materials.

The title of Sara Lee has lost 1.27% after dropping to 7.6% during the session.

AOL has finally announced a program to repurchase up to $ 250 million, with the intention to revive investor confidence in its action, which fell 32% in two days.

After the announcement, soared as 22%. It closed up 12.23%.

The new car registrations in France were charged in July the fourth consecutive month of decline, and the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA) maintains its forecast of a decline of 8% to 10% of the market this year with the end of scrapping.

The CCFA said Monday that new car registrations in France fell by 5.9% last month to 159,945 units. July 2011 had counted 20 working days, one fewer than in July 2010, the decline in comparable number of working days (CJO) stood at 1.2%.

"July is an important month for the market before the August break, performance remains quite good," said a spokesman for the CCFA."It turns well to a decrease of 8% to 10% throughout the year as it will be impossible to trace levels of late 2010."

The French market continues to nibble advance acquired in the first quarter, delivery period of the last cars ordered before the end of the scrapping. In the first seven months of the year, it remains still rising, but only just (0.2%).

Demand is traditionally strong in July before the last burst of holiday departures. In June, the market shrank from 12.6% in raw data – and 3.9% on CJO.

"No real surprise in July, a small decline.The market is now entering a phase worst, with a second half ahead mechanically more difficult, "said Philippe Barrier, industry analyst at Societe Generale.

THE PRODUCT MIX OF BENEFIT TO FOREIGN

The scrapping has benefited mainly small cars and French manufacturers, which is a great specialty, the 'product mix' has rebalanced toward larger models since the end of aid.Foreign manufacturers such as Volkswagen's German (7%) benefit.

In July, registrations French manufacturers have fallen by 9.3% – those of PSA Peugeot Citroen fell 7.0% and Renault's 12.4% – while sales of foreign manufacturers have declined only 1.2%.

Of these, however, Italy's Fiat showed a fall of 22.8% across the group because of its high exposure to the city car segment.

The performance of the Renault group in the past month hides a wide disparity between the low cost brand Dacia (-48.8%) and diamond brand (-2.7%).

Dacia continues to suffer from supply problems in diesel engines because many manufacturers in Spain and Turkey fail to keep up with demand, and the fall in sales of LPG Sandero since the abolition of the government bonus for this type of engine.

In contrast, commercial offers for motorists to shift to diesel fuel to alleviate the supply problems have borne fruit on the Renault brand.

The market for light trucks for its part, experienced declines of 11.8% unadjusted and 7.4% on CJO, reflecting the slowdown in economic activity during the summer.

However, registrations of trucks still rose 34.6%, this segment continued to benefit from favorable comparisons because the restart was later.

JCDecaux announced Friday a lower growth of its sales in the second quarter, hit by the difficulties of the countries of southern Europe and the bases of comparison difficult.

World number one outdoor advertising company in front of the U.S. Clear Channel Outdoor has said it expects a stabilization in the third quarter, with growth of the same order as the previous three months.

The French in the second quarter generated a turnover of 634.7 million euros, representing organic growth of 4.3% from 7.8% in the first three months of the year.

This figure, higher than the 4% target announced by the group, however, appears below market expectations which projected 4.6%, according to estimates by nine analysts.

Referring comparison bases demanding (11.3% in the second quarter of 2010), the group warned that its economy is slowing in the second quarter as its competitors Omnicom and Publicis have seen their growth accelerate over the period.

In the first half, JCDecaux has posted a turnover of 1.17 billion, in line with market expectations, representing organic growth of 5.8%.

The action has opened up 1.4% to 19.47 euros.It was down 15.4% since the beginning of the year against a decline of 8.3% of the European sector index.

DISPLAY AT THE PENALTY

"While concerns remain about the economic outlook in the short term, we are confident in our ability to generate solid growth in our business," it said in a statement Jean-Francois Decaux, CEO and Co-CEO .

JCDecaux has signed a significant increase in revenues in the Asia-Pacific and "Rest of the World" (respectively 19.8% and 31.4%) which was however overshadowed by a slowdown in the UK and France and persistent problems in Southern Europe.

The group's operating margin stood at 260 million for a rate of 22.2%, unchanged from the first half of 2010.The market expected a slight improvement with a margin of 268 million for a rate of 22.8%.

The margin was mainly impacted by the activity of display that saw the decline in sales accelerated in the second quarter to -4.9% after -2.1% over the first three months of the years.

The transport division, however, maintained a high growth rate, signing an increase of 16.9% in the first half, while the furniture, the first division in terms of revenues, rose a moderate 2.4% .

JCDecaux has reduced its debt to 264.2 million against 358.8 million at end-December and has a cash flow of 106.9 million euros.

The group has openly expressed interest in CBS Outdoor, a subsidiary of the American CBS, in order to strengthen its presence in the United States.

"So far, nothing has changed", however, said Jean-Charles Decaux, co-CEO of BFM Business.

BP reported Tuesday a profit below expectations in the second quarter of weak results over the months to come, while promising a long-term growth likely to calm the impatience of its shareholders.

BP's net income falls to replacement cost to $ 5.31 billion (3.66 billion euros) in the second quarter, compared with a loss of 16.97 billion dollars a year earlier due to the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Excluding items, the result stood at 5.61 billion dollars against 6.02 billion average expected by analysts polled by Reuters.

BP appears to receive less than its competitors to higher crude oil prices, up 50% over the previous year.

At midday, BP lost 2.4% while the Stoxx European sector fell by 0.4%.

Investors lament the poor performance on the stock exchange for nine months although some signs that the final bill of the oil spill will probably be lighter than expected.

The oil company said that maintenance work in the North Sea and Angola as well as the result of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico drew down its quarterly results and will continue to weigh on its performance in the second half.

Its oil and gas production fell 11% in the quarter following the sale of deposits required to foot the bill for the oil spill.

The Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley said agreements to secure new reserves this year would support the group's performance in 2012 and 2013.

"We will see the true value of our business better reflected in the price of our action," he told shareholders.

Major international banks have offered to European leaders a "menu of options" to allow more private creditors to participate in a second aid package to Greece, said Tuesday the president of the French Banking Federation (FBF ).

Echoing the position of German banks, François Perol, who is also president of BPCE (People's Bank, Savings Bank) has also estimated that the project of a tax credit to participate in the bailout of Greece was not the solution.

"We stopped for a month to make proposals to governments," said François Perol during a press conference. "First there was the proposal of French banks.There is now a broader proposal emanating from the IIF (Institute of International Finance, Ed) and includes a wider menu of options. "

The chairman of the FBF has not wanted to give more details on the proposals but said discussions were continuing while a summit of heads of state and government of the euro zone on Greece on Thursday.

French banks had proposed rescheduling the end of June ("rollover") voluntary debt Greek but the rating agency Standard & Poor's determined that this proposal would mean a selective default. (And)

"These proposals (the IFIs) are structured (…) they are on the table of the Council of European governments," he said François Perol."There are ongoing discussions."

"It's not for me to advertise the proposals in the press," he added.

FBF, however, indicated that to obtain the widest possible creditors of Greece, it was necessary to select several options.

"We were told that private sector involvement should be done in a voluntary," he said.

"If it is a voluntary framework, we need investors, according to their positions, have an interest in future operations that are proposed."

"LEADING MARKETS"

A two-day summit of European leaders and as investor concerns about a contagion of debt to other countries in the euro area remain high, government officials and banks are still struggling to find an area of agreement on new aid to Greece.

Asked about plans for a tax credit, François Perol held that a tax was not the right answer to problems facing Greece.

"It does not seem that this is the solution for Greece", said the chairman of the FBF.

For French banks, it is now up to politicians to make decisions as quickly as possible.

"It belongs to the European authorities to decide together, speaking with one voice and talking at once, what their strategy (…) for the euro," stressed François Perol. "This is not a technical matter, it is a political issue."

"The markets need to be guided. It's the political authorities to guide them."

The investment company Wendel said Thursday it had made an offer to acquire Mecatherm, the global leader in equipment for the bakery.

Through its subsidiary Oranje-Nassau Development, Wendel became exclusivity period with funds advised by the Alpha Group to finalize the transaction that values ​​Mecatherm to 170 million euros, nine times EBIT (earnings Operating net of goodwill).

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011, the company said in a statement.

Founded in 1964, employs approximately 300 employees Mecatherm in R & D laboratory and three industrial sites in France.