International Business News

Sanofi-Aventis does not set a limit for lead in discussions with the U.S. biotech group Genzyme, which he formalized this weekend an offer to buy, said Monday the director general of the French laboratory in Echoes.

Sanofi expressed readiness Sunday to pay $ 69 per share in cash, or a total of $ 18.5 billion (14.5 billion euros) to take control of rare diseases specialist.

Asked by the newspaper on the time he has given direction to Genzyme to meet her proposal, Chris Viehbacher said: "It's hard to say since this is a great deal for both parties. "

"The goal now is to meet to discuss," he added."We want to show our determination and seriousness, but not immediately threatening. A lot of time may elapse."

Asked about the production problems encountered by Genzyme, Chris Viehbacher said that Sanofi could help the U.S. group to solve.

"We will certainly have the opportunity to conduct due diligence," said Director General of the French laboratory. "Organic products are difficult to make but we master this technology."

Accor announced Thursday an increase in its target operating profit in 2010 and has unveiled a new debt reduction target.

The fourth global hotel group, a rival giants InterContinental, Marriott and Hilton and Starwood, will report an operating profit of between 370 and 390 million euros this year, sharply up from 236 million recorded in 2009.

Accor, which has reported interim results up, also plans to reduce its adjusted net debt of 600 to 650 million euros in 2010.So far, the company had forecast a decline in its debt of 450 million over the year.

The group had announced in May a program of disposals of hotel assets for an amount of two billion euros over the period 2010-2013.

In the first six months of 2010, gross operating Accor rose 17.4% (13% on a comparable basis) to 833 million euros, showing the gross margin to 29.2%.

The operating profit marked a growth of 120% (109.3% on a comparable basis) to 154 million euros while sales in accordance with what was announced July 21 the company is progressing 4.7% on a comparable basis to 2.84 billion.

Accor publishes its first results since the demerger of its business prepaid, Edenred, July 2.

Accor announced Monday the sale of 48 hotels in Europe for 367 million euros. This decision follows the announcement in early July, the sale to Newrest 60% of its business catering on trains of the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits (CWL).

Accor is also preparing to separate from its 49% stake in the casino group Lucien Barriere.

The Paris Bourse rebounded on Monday tentatively early trade, after closing Friday at its lowest in about a month and while several indicators of activity in Europe in August are expected.

Around 9:15 am, the CAC 40 rose 0.27% to 3535.80 points.

STMicroelectronics is the head increases and takes 1.43%, followed by France Telecom gained 1.27%. Brussels will dismiss the complaint of the operator and its competitors SFR and Bouygues Telecom against the state in the allocation of the fourth 3G license to Free, The Tribune wrote Monday.

Carrefour lost 0.28%. S & P cut its rating to "sell-off.

Ahead of London and Frankfurt 0.18% 0.12%.As for the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 wins and 0.16% Eurofirst 300 rose 0.3%.

The euro has halted its decline against the dollar after losing more than a penny Friday and is trading around 1.2711.

U.S. light crude oil remains below $ 74 after rising briefly crossed. The barrel is trading at around 73.85 dollars.

The president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., Mark Hurd resigned Friday after being accused of falsifying expense reports to conceal a "close personal relationship" with a woman working for a subcontractor.

The announcement was made during the dip the world's largest maker of personal computers by 10%, Mark Hurd is credited with having brought HP to the highest level in five years at the helm of the U.S. group.

Mark Hurd will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak who is acting as interim executive director.A committee was responsible for appointing a new CEO.

A colleague outside the group, who had worked on the marketing of HP between late 2007 and fall 2009, contacted the Board in June and accused of sexual harassment Mark Hurd, the group said.

An investigation ensued and concluded that Hurd had not breached the code within the company for sexual harassment.

But the CEO of 53 years, married, kept "a close personal relationship" with the woman without the knowledge of the board of directors, said HP.

"The investigation board has concluded that Mark had demonstrated a profound lack of discernment that has seriously damaged his credibility and was highly prejudicial to his ability to lead HP, and Mark agreed," said Mike Holston, director of corporate legal department.

The departure of the CEO was unanimous, he added.

The group says Hurd submitted "number of expense reports inaccurate" to conceal the relationship with the offending subcontractor, which has itself received compensation and refunds without a legitimate reason.

The sum of her falsified expense would reach 20,000 dollars for travel, accommodation and meals shared with the woman according to a source close to the Hurd's statements on the case, who spoke of a "working relationship".

Another source with knowledge of the case made it clear that this woman was not a major subcontractor.

ANTICIPATED RESULTS

Mark Hurd, known for its rigor in cost reduction, said in a statement that the decision to resign was "painful".

"I realized that on some occasions I have not met the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I adopted at HP," he said.

The shock is brutal for investors, who saw Mark Hurd as the chief of the success of the Informatics Group.Since his arrival at the helm of the group five years ago, the stock price has more than doubled.

"Mark Hurd has a large responsibility in the revival of the group," said analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro.

"His departure will leave a big void at the head of the group."

The now former CEO of HP scored his mark, combining the rigor of external growth strategy, which took shape with major acquisitions as the pioneer of the smartphone or Palm, in 2008, EDS Corp., a leading software houses U.S. 13.9 billion.

Analysts said the place of Mark Hurd will be coveted both externally as internally, where the manager's PC division Todd Bradley and chief strategy Shane Robinson figure are potential candidates.

Hurd's departure, they added, should not affect either the strategic direction of the company or its performance.

The announcement was however immediately reflected on the price of HP has lost up to 10% in after-hours transactions, dropping to 41.50 dollars after the meeting ended at 46.30 dollars.

To cushion the shock, the group decided to bring forward the publication of its quarterly results.

He announced on Friday earnings per share to $ 1.08 in non-GAAP standards for the third fiscal quarter offbeat performance slightly higher than that anticipated in the consensus among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S consensus forecast of $ 1.07.

The company raised its earnings per share over the year to a range of 4.49 to 4.51 against $ 4.45 to 4.50 dollars previously. The consensus is at 4.49 dollars.

HP also said it expects an annual turnover of between 125.3 and 125.5 billion dollars, while analysts are predicting a figure lower than this range to 124.515 billion dollars.

Boeing said that delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner could be delayed until early 2011 instead of the fourth quarter of 2010, flight tests have revealed some difficulties.

Speaking at a teleconference with the press, Scott Fancher, general manager Dreamliner program, however, said the decision to postpone the delivery of first aircraft from All Nippon Airways (ANA) has yet been taken .

"We found some difficulties that challenge our schedule a bit," he said adding that these difficulties were related to issues of "configuration tools".

Around 17:30 GMT, Boeing retreated 0.51% to 64.42 dollars, wiping out a portion of losses just after the announcement of a possible further delay, while the Dow Jones yielded 0.57 %.

If ever the first delivery was postponed again, the behind the original schedule – May 2008 – would exceed two and a half years.

The beginning of the production launch of the plane was delayed five times in three years and the first flight, which occurred in December 2009, had been postponed six times, due to both a lack of parts, problems design and a two-month strike that affected Boeing plants in 2008.

"We want to play the card of caution and say it could be that delivery is delayed to the first part of next year. But at this point, our schedule still provides a delivery by the end of the year "Scott Fancher continued.

Moments earlier, Boeing said it had revised upwards its forecast of orders for new aircraft by 2029, thanks to an increase in the number of LCCs, the replacement of less fuel efficient aircraft and economic recovery.

The U.S. aircraft manufacturer estimates that 30,900 the number of orders over the next two decades, a figure up 6.5% compared to the forecast of 29,000 made last year.

Home sales in Spain rose for the fifth consecutive month in May, according to data released Monday by the Institute of Statistics, a sign of market stabilization.

Housing sales rose 11.9% in May on a year to reach 37,787 units. In one month, the increase is 10.1%.

The Spanish housing market, which had been boosted by lower borrowing rates over the past decade, has collapsed since the start of the financial crisis, affecting the full brunt of the Spanish economy.

At the height of the housing boom, more than 80,000 homes were sold every month.After the bubble burst, this figure fell to touch a low of 29,178 in April 2009.

Despite the recent rebound, the experts polled by Reuters believe that prices will continue to decline in 2010 and during much of 2011.

HSBC Holdings announced the acquisition of the retail banking and commercial banking at Royal Bank of Scotland in India, the British bank nationalized virtually continuing its withdrawal from foreign markets.

HSBC announced it would pay a premium of up to $ 95 million (75.8 million) compared to the net asset activity during the closing of the transaction, expected to first half of next year.

The price could be reduced in cases of increased bad debt during the next two years.

Sources had previously said qu'HSBC redeem these activities, which have 1.1 million customers, more than 1,800 employees and 31 divisions in India.The gross value of these assets were worth $ 1.8 billion at end March.

Currently, HSBC has about two million customers and 50 divisions in 29 Indian cities.

RBS, owned 83% by the British government, seeks to refocus on its core business and sold off in recent weeks some of his small business.

The group puts an end to a decade of international development, raising over 2.5 billion dollars by withdrawing more than twenty activities over the past 14 months.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) announced Wednesday it had exonerated Natixis in an investigation into financial information of the bank in November 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

In late 2008, the AMF had launched an investigation against the bank owned almost 72% BPCE (People's Savings Bank) after announcing a loss of 234 million euros and information from press reports at the same time a trading loss of one billion euros.

In its decision, the Sanctions Committee of the AMF does not hold grievances against the bank regarding the sincerity and accuracy of its financial information.

"It does not appear that the emergency situation in which it was placed to make before markets opened an initial response to articles in The Tribune, Natixis has disregarded the requirements of accuracy, precision and fairness set out in Article 223-1 of the AMF General Regulation, "reads the decision of the Sanctions Committee.

Contrary to the myth of the victory of 1998, a course team of France in World Cup-2010 has little chance of boosting consumption and cheer to the French morose for months, analysts said.

"Given the past, there is little chance that there is an impact on the morale of the French," explains Benoit Heitz, chief of the division at INSEE cyclical synthesis. While in 1998, "there was an improvement in consumer confidence in July, when the victory of France, but the improvement trend existed before. At best, it would have amplified the trend already existing" he continues, noting that these good results were anyway mostly related to the fact that the competition was held in France.

But this year the World Cup takes place in South Africa and French morale was already at half mast.This indicator summarizes the views of households on the economic situation and declining steadily since the beginning of the year and has dropped 8 points since January. And the chances of a reversal through the course of the France team is minimal.

"Only a victory in the final could possibly have an exhilarating effect, otherwise it will be marginal," said Alexander Law, chief economist at Global Xerfi. "If we win, it will have a positive impact on consumer confidence, but it is only on their morale.And only if we win, if we lose the first round or even the final, "added Nicolas Bouzou, an analyst at Aster.

Impact on sales of TVs

Whether this improvement would last, "it depends much more on attitudes to austerity plan that results in World Cup," says he, in all cases ensuring that the course would have the Blues no impact on consumption. "At the macro level, it has no impact," he insists.

"Often they say that the victories of 1998 and 2000 have generated growth but this is not the case, growth was already there, also notes Marc Touati, director of Global Equities. "The victory is the icing on the cake.The route of the France team can only be the icing on the cake, and if it does not cake …", continues the analyst.

The World should certainly have an impact on sales of televisions, which France won or not. The GfK account and an increase of 200,000 to 250,000 pieces by this event that will invigorate even more a market already in great shape (8.7 million sales in 2010). Good results could also French "boost sales of textiles, with the Blues jerseys, notes Alexander Law. "But not to be extremely high, especially since the team of France does not enjoy a good symbol of love," he tempers.

An early elimination should not have any effect on consumer sentiment. "The team has qualified in pain, his popularity rating has rarely been so low, so people just say + they knew they were unable +.Unfortunately, the French economy has disadvantages much heavier than the poor performance of its sports teams, "said Alexander Law. Failure" could generate a movement of depression, but temporary, "said Marc Touati of his side.

The Chinese growth model, based on a docile workforce and cheap, is it threatened? The strike in Chinese factories of Honda and suicide clusters among the subcontractor Foxconn electronic, seem at least symbolic of a turn. These two events led to strong wage increases. And Beijing has validated this finding of a lack of remuneration in deciding dramatically Friday to raise the minimum wage by 20%. Twice that during the normal annual adjustment.

In a country accustomed to explosions of anger – with 127,000 protests in 2008 – and where information is locked, it is unclear whether they had the same impact in other times.

240 euros to live in Shenzhen

Until recently, indeed, the authority said that this kind of slippage occurs only in "capitalist" countries.But Premier Wen Jiabao has officially acknowledged the existence of a "certain level of social tension." It is also not a coincidence that the budget for public safety has increased significantly this year. But power is also well aware that the inequalities of wealth, rather than decreasing with the crisis has intensified further.