International Business News

The number of new firms declined 9.8% in France in April after rising 8.3% in March, according to data released Wednesday by INSEE. A total of 46,042 enterprises have emerged in April.

Start-ups fell by 9.8% in April compared with the previous month if one takes into account the self-entrepreneurs, announced Wednesday the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).

Excluding self-entrepreneurs, the balance of new firms declined 3.5%, adjusted for seasonal variations and the number of working days, INSEE said in a statement. A total of 46,042 enterprises have emerged in April, among which, when adjusted, 20,035 companies "classic". The self-contractors are responsible for more than a creation of two businesses (26,007 seasonally adjusted).  

INSEE said do not know enough about the seasonal pattern of self-entrepreneurs, the regime created relatively recently (January 2009), to correct the number depending on the season. The cumulative number of creations in the months of February, March and April 2012 is up slightly over the same period last year (0.8%).

The sectors contributing most to this increase were information and communication and construction. The number of start in the 12 months ended in late April is down from the previous 12 months (-4.0%).

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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.

The British telecoms operator BT said on Thursday a 12% increase in its annual dividend, its cost savings and solid demand in broadband that led to its beneficial ; fice and its cash flow despite an overall decline in sales.

BT, which has relied in recent years of spending cuts and efficiencies to power its cash, has also pledged that his dividend increased by 10 to 15% per year over the next three years.

"In what remains a difficult environment, we recorded another year of earnings growth and free cash flow," said CEO Ian Livingston. 

BT, which competes with Virgin Media and TalkTalk, shows a steady improvement in its performance since the profit warnings issued in 2008 and 2009, and because of the strict control its costs.

The full year, earnings from main businesses grew 3% to 6.1 billion pounds despite a 4% drop in sales , to 19 billion pounds (23.65 billion euros).

The cash flow appears considerably higher than projected at 2.5 billion pounds.

BT results were supported by an agreement in March to fill the deficit of 4.1 billion pounds pension fund's staff decided more quickly than before. The announcement was relieved investors by opening the door to a potential increase in dividends.

Wall Street ended higher Friday, as a result of strong corporate earnings often, especially high tech values ​​such as Amazon. Com and Expedia began to counterbalance the economic indicators for the less mixed lately, like the GDP released Friday.

The Dow Jones gained 23.69 points (0.18%) to 13,228.31. The S & P 500 is 3.38 points (0.24%) to 1,403.36. The Nasdaq Composite gained 18.59 points (0.61%) to 3,069.20.

Over the whole week, the Dow shows a gain of 1.5%, the S & P 500 gained 1.8%, while the Nasdaq 2.3% advance.

The Dow and S & P and enroll their weekly gain the highest since mid-March. For the Nasdaq, is the more substantial gain since early February.

Of the 287 companies in the S & P 500 that have published their accounts, 73% of the students have exceeded the consensus, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The gains of the day, even though moderate minimal, yet allow Wall Street to make its best weekly performance since more than a month.

Growth of the U.S. economy slowed in the first quarter mainly because of declining business investment, although the strength of the automotive market has helped ease the movement.

Another statistic was published on Friday, held better than GDP. 

The U.S. consumer sentiment improved slightly in April to its highest level since February 2011, according to final data from the monthly survey Thomson Reuters -University of Michigan.

Values, Amazon.com and the online travel agency Expedia surged 15.75% respectively and 23.54%, the two companies that reported results Thursday at the higher consensus and having allowed the Nasdaq Composite to register a gain slightly higher than the Dow or S & P.

Procter & Gamble lowered its earnings forecast Friday yearly because of the fragility of developed markets, more aggressive pricing of its competitors on certain products and pressure on prices in Venezuela in particular.

The action yields 3.63%. 

Ford announced Friday a drop in quarterly profit, a result of his difficulties outside of the U.S. market, but the results exceeded the expectations of investors.

The action coward 2.27%.

Chevron released Friday net profit up 4% in the first quarter, boosted by higher oil prices and improved margins in its refining background of declining its oil and gas.

The action ended unchanged.

Merck published Friday quarterly earnings slightly above expectations, boosted by tighter control of costs, but revenue has however disappointed expectations facing generic competition.

The action eventually stationary.

Small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs and self-family businesses, which account for most of the economic fabric of the country, paying a heavy price for the Greek crisis. The European Commission is trying to address the funding problems they suffer. In Greece, six out of ten SMEs have seen their incomes decline in 2011.

Up to a thousand individual companies will put the key under the door every week in Greece in the first half of 2012 due to the serious crisis that is sinking the country, said Friday the European Commission, which seeks to root the problem.  

"Greece is facing an economic crisis and social crisis which is reflected in the situation of small and medium enterprises: six out of ten companies have seen their incomes decline in 2011 and 150,000 jobs were lost," said the Commission in a press on the sidelines of the visit to Athens Friday the European Commissioner for Industry, Antonio Tajani. "It is estimated that during the first half of 2012, up to 1,000 small businesses have closed every week," said the statement, which does not provide estimates on the number of companies created in parallel.

The Commission therefore calls for increased aid to these companies, self-entrepreneurs and family businesses, which form the bulk of the Greek economic fabric. Since last September, the European Union through its Task Force for Greece including trying to find ways to overcome the credit crunch affecting SMEs, banks, deficit, cut off from markets and dependent on the ECB, having suspended loans. In March, a special guarantee fund, with 500 million euros, was created by the EU to promote through the European Investment Bank lending to SMEs up to a billion euros.

According to the Commission, in 2010, Greece had 742,600 very small businesses, employing a total of 2.512 million employees, over 85% of total employment in the country, a record level in the EU. These structures produce 35.3% of the value added of the country against 21.8% on average in the EU. With 14% of employees on average in Greece, against 33% in the rest of the EU, large companies they create 28% of the value added, highlighting the low productivity of small businesses in Greece, the Commission added.

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 European Banking Authority (EBA) would like to see banks of the Old Continent to restructure in order to raise funds directly in the markets without relying on cash-rate cut by the Bank Central Europe (ECB) and the regulator intends to propose measures to this effect at the end of its meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.

The debt crisis weighed heavily on the financing capacity of European banks, leaving them little choice but to resort massively in recent months to two injections of liquidity to three years ECB. Spanish and Italian banks will be among those who most borrowed during these operations.

"The ABE discusses possible policy measures that could accompany this process of deleveraging and restructuring to ensure it takes place in an orderly and measured, allowing banks to maintain a regular supply of credit to the real economy, "said Chairman of the EBA, Andrea Enria, in a dossier presented to finance ministers of the European Uni ; enemies last week.

European regulators want banks such as replacing their short-term financing through funding of longer maturities, to avoid having to call too often investors. 

Such a development would also help banks prepare for the scrutiny of their business models in a new series of stress tests ("stress tests") pre ; for next year.

The EBA also seek this week to ensure that banks with 31, according to its criteria, a total need of fresh capital of 115 billion euros take the necessary steps to fill the gap by the June 30

Andrea Enria estimated last week that the recapitalization plan was "on track" but that some banks were based on "overly optimistic assumptions" about how they plan to raise capital. 

SPANISH AND ITALIAN BANKS: CAUTION, FRAGILE

In the opinion of analysts, the Italian bank Monte dei Paschi, particularly should struggle to achieve by June 30, the goal of a capital ratio "hard" 9%.

The managing director of the bank, Fabrizio Viola, said last week that Montepaschi fill nearly a third of its capital requirements – which amount to € 3.3 billion – by converting hybrid securities into shares. Italian media reported Sunday also that the bank plans to cut heavily into its portfolio of sovereign debt and close 150 branches.

Some Italian banks like to see the EBA to backtrack on its requirements for emergency funds to the crisis, citing the easing of tensions on sovereign debt markets since the two operations rations refinancing three years of the ECB.

The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, told Saturday that ABE could relax its requirements for capital. But he said it was a medium-term and that the EBA should not take any decision on this matter at its next meeting.

Spanish banks are also in sight, many are afflicted by the bursting of the housing bubble and the deterioration of the economy.

In case some institutions could achieve their own funds by the June deadline, Andrea Enria proposed that the new emergency fund in the euro area, the mechanism Europé in stability (MES) can directly inject funds to troubled banks after its introduction in July.

At this stage, the MES is designed only to assist States. 

The EBA board will also consider progress made by banks in limiting bonuses was decided in January 2011.

The EBA report is expected after Easter.

The government deficit in France amounted to 5.2% of GDP in 2011 against 5.7% forecast in the Finance Act, prompting the government to ; improve its forecast for 2012 to 4.4% against 4.5% previously.

The public deficit, which includes state, local and social security funds, totaled 103.1 billion euros last year, according to preliminary results of the national accounts published by INSEE Friday.

The public debt amounted to 85.8% of GDP at end 2011, to 1.7173 trillion euros, up 122.1 billion in one year, and this leads to a more e ; up 84.9% as expected.

The deficit was the end of 2010 to 7.1% or 137.0 billion. 

Armed with this result, "we expect to accelerate our progress in reducing the public deficit to 4.4% of GDP, and keep the 3% in 2013," said the budget minister, Valérie Pécresse, in interview published Friday in Le Monde.

At 5.2% end of 2011, "it's 10 billion better than the objective of which France had undertaken", welcomed the Prime Minister, Translation ois Fillon.

"France has done much better thanks to the efforts of the French," said President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Socialist Francois Hollande, favorite in the polls for the presidential election, pledged to cut the deficit to 4.5% end 2012 and 3.0%, the limit the European Stability Pact, the end of 2013. 

BOOST FOR 2012

The lower deficit in 2011 will ease the task of the next president, provided that economic growth does not collapse, the effort is less important.

But the trend was poor in January and a sharp economic slowdown is expected for all of 2012, likely to derail the accounts if it were larger.

Last year, the tax burden increased by 1.3 points to 43.8% of GDP, due to higher taxes (+ 7.8%).

Spending continued to decelerate, with growth of 2.1%, a rate lower than GDP growth in value, after 2.3% in 2010 . Public spending accounted for 55.9% of GDP in late 2011 after 56.6% in late 2010.

Revenues have increased it by 5.9% after 3.3% in 2010, and accounted for 50.7% of GDP from 49.5% in late 2010.

Interest paid by France to its income increased 9.5% due to increased debt and the impact of the acceleration of inflation on compensation of indexed bonds.

Operating expenses slowed, wages rising by 1.6%, after 2.1% in 2010, and intermediate consumption decreases by 1.5%.

Social benefits have remained the same dynamic in 2010, up 3.1% after 3.2%. Public investment increased by 1.6%, after falling 8.0% in 2010.

On the revenue side, taxes on income and wealth grew by 10%: the increase in tax revenues from both the corporate income tax (8.7 billion ) than the general social contribution (5.2 billion) and income tax (3.6 billion), note INSEE. Taxes on products and production are up 5.8%.

Social contributions have accelerated (+4.1% after +2.0%), in connection with the resumption of payroll and annualized general relief contributions social.

DEBT NOT ALWAYS CONTROL

The State contribution to the debt ratio increased from 90.3 billion euros last year, a somewhat larger variation than its financing needs.

The difference results from an increase in cash (5.9 billion) and loans to troubled countries in the Euro zone (10.4 billion). Conversely, the State shall be reimbursed a portion of loans to the automotive sector (4.0 billion), note INSEE.

The debt of central government bodies amounted to 10.4 billion at end 2011, down 3.7 billion, due to the deleveraging of the Company's equity participation of the State (-3.5 billion).

The contribution of local government debt reached 166.3 billion against 161.1 billion in late 2010.

The contribution of social security funds to the debt increased 30.4 billion to $ 205.4 billion. The change in debt, larger than the deficit resulted mainly from the increase in cash of social security funds (12 billion), said INSEE.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena suffered a net loss of 4.69 billion euros last year and said Thursday it would pay no dividend for fiscal 2011, which is tumbling the stock exchange.

The market was expecting a loss twice as heavy, according to Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S was -2.13 billion.

The third Italian bank, which is restructuring and has also undertaken to reduce the size of its balance sheet, recorded in its accounts for 4.51 billion euros of writedowns in total.

The capital ratio "hard" was 8.5% at end-2011 excluding 1.9 billion euros of bonds guaranteed by the state written in 2009 to strengthen its capital.

At 10:45 GMT, the share was down 8.2% to 0.3314 Euro, by far the worst performance of the European banking sector index (-1.37%). 

The competitors UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo also recorded huge writedowns on their fiscal 2011.

But analysts say Montepaschi particularly vulnerable because it has to find 3.3 billion euros of capital by June to comply with new European regulatory requirements.

European shares ended Wednesday at their lowest closing levels for three weeks, concerns about U.S. growth and the fiscal situation of Spain showing the above.

In Paris the CAC 40 lost 1.14% to close at 3430.15 points, just below its 50-day moving average and its lowest in March 23.

The London Stock Exchange yielded 1.03% and 1.13% in Frankfurt. The benchmark index of the Madrid Stock Exchange dropped 1.96%.

Of the European indices, the Eurostoxx 50 was down 1.13% to 2,496.68 points – in its 50-day moving average – and Eurofirst 300 lost 1.02% to 1,072.48 points – just above his own.

"The markets were down with the bank, especially Spanish because of sluggish economic outlook in Spain, and durable goods orders subdued in the U.S.," said Alexandre Le Drogoff, manager special ; cialist of technical analysis in Talence Management.

He believes that the next support is at 3396 points for the CAC 40 or the "gap" opened on March 8, then from 3350 to 3360 points, its lowest points in February and March. 

As for values, Total (-1.4%) again weighed on the CAC 40, as before, following the gas leak on one of its deposits in the North Sea.

Bank stocks were cyclical and the most affected by the current sales, including Spanish banks Banco Popular, which lost 3.31% and Bankia which lost 3.61%.

Oil prices fell back, Brent losing 1.3% to 123.92 dollars a barrel, after rising more than expected U.S. inventories last week.