International Business News

European shares ended Friday declined, while Wall Street turned down, in a context that is marked by fears about the crisis in the eurozone.

In Paris the CAC 40 finished down 0.13% (3.99 points) to 3,008.00 points. The Paris index lost 3.89% on the week and 4.8% since the beginning of the year.

The UK FTSE dropped 1.33% and 0.60% the German Dax, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended down by 1.18% to 969.81 points, at lowest since December.

Going against the trend, some banks have rebounded, including Santander (2.97%) and BNP Paribas (2.94%), supported by the rumor of a reintroduction of the ban on sales to die covered on banking stocks.

Fitch downgraded the ratings on Thursday night in Greece, citing the growing risk of leaving the country monetary union, while Moody's has downgraded 16 Spanish banks, citing the ability reduced by the Spanish state to help them. 

On Wall Street, the entrance of Facebook on the Nasdaq has temporarily obscured the uncertainties created by the political situation in Greece. But the market turned downward, and the action of the first global social network, which debuted at 42.05 dollars, quickly erased its gains to return around its IPO price of $ 38.

CNP Assurances announced Friday that the market decline of savings in Europe had continued to weigh on its sales in the first quarter and said the change of government in France maintained the uncertainty the life insurance industry.

The turnover of the insurer fell 12.9% during the first three months of the year, to 7.028 billion euros.

The action CNP Assurances signed Friday in early trading shrinkage greater than that of the sector to 9:50, the title lost 2.27% to 9.7330 euros, while the European index limited its losses to 1.35%.

"There is a wait due to the structure of taxation and savings in general," he said during a conference call the Director Financial Group, Antoine Lissowski. 

He explained that it was difficult to assess the impact that doubling the ceiling of the Livret planned by President-elect Francois Hollande on appetite of French for life insurance.

It is currently suffering from competition from banks, seeking to attract customers and their deposits with savings accounts attractive.

The persistence of low interest rates also makes traditional life insurance products unattractive in terms of yield.

Despite a set back, CNP Assurances has managed to generate a first quarter net profit up 1.8% to 275 million euros through improved financial markets. 

The group took advantage of the upturn to continue its program of disposals of risky assets, particularly in Italy and Spain.

"The improved market conditions in the first quarter allowed us to record an increase in our earnings while actively pursuing our strategy of selling risky assets," said the director gen ; eral, Gilles Benoist, in a statement.

Antoine Lissowski said his group no longer had to date of Greek sovereign debt and had reduced its exposure to equity markets.

The CFO did not want to comment on the planned replacement of Gilles Benoist.

NOC has postponed its annual meeting from 7 to 29 June, after the parliamentary elections. 

At that time a new boss of the Caisse des Depots (CDC), the majority shareholder of NOC, should have been appointed.

Director General of the CDC until early March, Augustin de Romanet applied for membership to the estate of Gilles Benoist as Director General of NPC.

Deutsche Bank announced Thursday a decline in taxable profit in the first quarter, to 1.9 billion euros, due to exceptional charges and trading activity subdued.

A year earlier, taxable income was three billion. The Reuters poll gave it to 2.4 billion euros for the period under review.

The taxable profits of the corporate and securities division, usually the main generator of profits of the bank, declined to 1.7 billion euros against 2.3 billion a year earlier.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 0.82% Thursday, erasing gains from yesterday in the wake of Wall Street, investors fearing the results of a major auction of Spanish debt provided in the Day.

The Nikkei lost 78.88 points to 9,588.38 points and the Topix broader, yielded 5.14 points (0.63%) to 814.13 points.

At the opening, investors reacted to the downturn on Wall Street by making clearances. But following the publication of figures in the trade balance of Japan, a weaker yen on the foreign exchange market helped limit losses.

The downturn in the Japanese currency has allowed exporters including Toyota and Nissan to earn 0.9% and 0.24%.

Japanese exports rose in March at an annual rate for the first time in six months, mainly due to inflows into the United States but the high price of its crude imports weighs on its trade balance, back into the red.

The new lawyer's former trader Jerome Kerviel, who was sentenced in 2010 to five years in prison for three farm loss of 4.9 billion suffered by the bank Société Générale ; eral in 2008, renewed the assault of his former company.

David Koubbi me, who just succeeded Olivier Metzner to defend the prisoner for his appeal hearing in June, wrote to the chairmen of the Assembly Finance e and Senate to be surprised that SocGen could receive a tax deduction of nearly 1.7 billion euros in compensation from the e episode.

In his letter obtained by Reuters has learned me Koubbi asks Jérôme Cahuzac Philippe Marini and the convening of a commission on this episode. This request will remain a dead letter at least for now, the Parliament sitting over pending legislative elections in June

But it is a way for Jerome Kerviel, also condemned in first instance to repay 4.9 billion euros, to start the assault on his former company , it has always accused of being informed of their risk practices and turning a blind eye as they pertained.

Koubbi is me in his letter that a tax deduction for exceptional loss is legally possible that if there were no obvious deficiency in the controls. Now this is the case, since the Banking Commission fined 4 million euros to SocGen in 2008 for this failure.

"It seems to me that the allocation of that amount in favor of Societe Generale goes against the established case law applicable to the deduction tax (…) I therefore ask you to convene a committee to inform our citizens, "the lawyer wrote in his letters.

Convicted of embezzlement, forgery and using false and fraudulent intrusion into a system of data processing, Jerome Kerviel, who was also sentenced to ; repay the loss, is currently free and still has not paid, the appeal is suspensive. 

The trial court ruled that he had deliberately violated his professional engagements and hidden the reality of its position in its hierarchy.

The young man admitted pronouncements risk of dizzy from 2005 to 2008 on European equity market indices, reaching nearly 50 billion euros, and camouflaged by other reversals of orders fictitious market, expected to cover the risk.

Unsettled after the announcement of their discovery by the bank, in full rout of financial markets, these positions, which were once largely the beneficiaries, ultimately caused a net loss of 4.9 billion euros.

Activity in the services industry and the euro zone shrank in March for the second consecutive month, according to the PMI company Markit. A decline in private activity that reflects the current recession in Euroland. Headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt.

The private activity has continued to contract in March in the euro area, reflecting a return to recession in the first quarter, according to a second estimate of Wednesday's PMI purchasing managers. The composite index, which summarizes the activity in the manufacturing and service sectors, rose to 49.1 points in March against 49.3 in February. This is the second consecutive month in which the activity is contracting. This figure is higher than the first estimate of the index (48.7). Above 50 points, the PMI indicates that the activity increased, while if it is below this threshold, it contracts.

"This monthly decline in activity means that the entire first quarter of 2012, economic activity declined result synonymous with a new technical recession in the euro area", said in a statement the company that publishes Markit the PMI. Apart from growth in January, the economic downturn has been ongoing since last September, continues Markit. However, large disparities remain national: Italy and Spain are firmly entrenched in a recession in March. In Germany, growth slows and displays its lowest level in three months and in France, business retreats for the first time in four months. Only Ireland is holding its own game (PMI at 52.4 points in March to a high of 11 months).  

The eurozone has taken a first step towards recession in late 2011, recording for the first time in over two years a decline in activity. It should logically register a further decline in its activity in the first quarter. The growth figures for this period will be published mid-May by the European office of statistics, Eurostat. A recession is technically two consecutive quarters of decline in activity.

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has admitted for the first time Monday that the initiative to introduce a tax on financial transactions in the euro area was bound to e failure.

"We simply can not do it, even in the euro area alone," said Schaeuble in Berlin, referring to the Franco-German initiative to bail out of public finances with by the financial crisis. "We will therefore try something else."

Britain and other European countries do not support this tax, commonly known as "Robin Hood Tax," he said Schäuble, adding that the establishment of such a tax n ' was conceivable that across the EU.

A working paper of the European Commission is the basis for thinking of this tax, which could raise up to 57 billion euros, mainly from London, the leading financial center of the EU.

France must introduce in the coming months its own tax, similar to stamp duty imposed on the London stock exchange transactions.

Swatch Group posted double-digit growth in sales early this year, despite a deceleration of the very high end in China, said Thursday its director gen ; neral.

Nick Hayek, however, continues to focus on growth of 5% to 10% for the watch industry in 2012, believing that Swatch should continue to outpace the market.

"In January and February, we again had a Swatch Group at double-digit growth, but I'll be careful not to extrapolate the first two months for the entire year," Has he said at a news conference in Geneva. 

Nick Hayek, however, expects that sales growth remains strong in all regions and all segments despite a high comparison base.

Swiss watch exports reached a record in 2011 with the Asian consumer craze for watches, exceeding for the first time the bar of 19 billion francs.

The professionals, however, predict a slowdown this year, a new double-digit increase is difficult to achieve at a time when the watch face significant bottlenecks throttle at the production apparatus. 

In a recent interview with the weekly Der Sonntag, Nick Hayek, however, indicated that Swatch Group expected a figure of 8 billion francs in 2012, after posting sales of more than seven billion a year last.

The CEO of Swatch Group, however, acknowledged Thursday that the pace of sales growth in the segments of the highest range had been decelerating.

"In China, it is true that there is a slowdown on the very high end," he said, stressing however that the application had progressed so rapidly year past that the group would not have been able to track the level of production. 

"The demand is (now) than in the region of 15% to 20% and we still can not meet this demand still high," he added .

According to statistics from the Federation watch, Swiss watch exports rose 33.2% in Hong Kong and 32.2% in China in January, after surging more than 70% some months.

Nick Hayek, however, expects that the slowdown in the luxury watches is largely offset by higher volumes in other price ranges, considering that the Chinese consumer enthusiasm for Swiss watches continues unabated.

"The consumption of brands like Longines, Tissot and Swatch, and even higher in Omega segments have increased dramatically. There may be a shift to the segments of entry to mid range, "he said

. Swatch Group, the first Swiss watch manufacturer, is present in all price ranges through a portfolio of brands ranging from Swatch watches multicolored plastic whose prices start at 50 francs, up to premium brands such Breguet, which can be sold beyond a million francs

. At 16:00 GMT, had erased its gains and yielded 0.5% to 408 francs, while the European index values ​​are discretionary appreciation of 1%

.

The group of transportation and logistics Dentressangle Wednesday announced financial results increased in 2011 but noted that economic conditions had deteriorated in late 2011.

The company saw its turnover increase by 5.6% at constant scope and exchange, to 3.576 billion euros. The gross operating surplus (EBITDA) increased 17% to 130.4 million euros while net income rose from 57.2 million to 63.3 million.

"Dentressangle has seen since the end of 2011 signs of slowing economy and observed high volatility of demand for its customers early this year , "the group noted in a statement.

The company, which does not give forecasts for 2012, will offer its shareholders a dividend of 1.25 euro per share for fiscal 2011, against 1.10 euros a year before.

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.