International Business News

The U.S. places have opened on a slightly downward Thursday, torn between statistics on jobs better than expected and concerns about U.S. consumer Publications mixed after several distributors.

In early trade, the Dow dropped 0.08% to 13,258.81 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, yielding 0.11% at 1400.55 points while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.23% to 3052.65 points.

The number of jobless in the U.S. fell more than expected during the week to April 28, showed the figures published by the Labor Department.

But concerns over consumption weigh on the market, while according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters of 15 distribution groups that have published their sales figures, seven were worse than pre ; seen by consensus.

U.S. investors did not react to the announcements of the ECB and its president Mario Draghi. The central bank has maintained the status quo on rates.

Values, Costco Wholesale fell by 1.3%. The U.S. distributor saw sales grow by 4% in April on a comparable basis, while analysts expected a more pronounced increase of 5.1%.

In the same area, the retail giant Home Depot fell by 0.6%, the largest decline in the Dow Jones.

General Motors gave 0.7% after surging more than 6% in pre-market trading. The automaker reported earnings higher than expected in the first quarter, driven by strong demand in North America and a smaller loss than expected in Europe.

Kensey Nash Corp. soared 32.4% after the announcement of its acquisition by the Dutch group of food chemistry and DSM for $ 360 million.

The consortium led by Russia's Gazprom to develop the giant Shtokman gas field in the Arctic in June will announce an overhaul of this project, which accuses several years of delay, have we learned from several sources within the consortium, industry and Russian authorities.

Gazprom and its allies in this project, which include the French Total and Norway's Statoil, plan to give up on the Shtokman gas transit to Europe through pipelines in favor of production liquefied natural gas (LNG), the sources explained.

They stated that no decision on this point had been adopted so far, but several sources have said that the consortium had canceled all tenders already started to build. 

A redesign of the project could result in a delay in the production field, currently scheduled for 2016.

"For now, the technical configuration of the project not suitable for any of the shareholders, so they are not willing to take a final investment decision," said a source in the consortium.

Signing a new agreement could intervene at a meeting of investors in St. Petersburg in June, she added.

"After that one year might be necessary before a final investment decision. They need time to launch new tenders and find new suppliers. "

The unemployment rate in Greece has reached a new record in January to 21.8% against 21.2% in December, said Thursday the department of statistics Elstat, confirming that the measures austerity and the debt crisis continue to weigh on the labor market.

The budget cuts imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out the country has sparked a wave of closures and bankruptcies.

Beginning in April, the unemployment figures are Greek seasonally adjusted.

The average unemployment rate in the euro area was 10.7% in January against 10.6% in December.

The owner of Viking Ocean Cruises canceled its order for two ships passed in December shipyards in St. Nazaire, said Thursday the direction of STX France.

Both boats "high end", representing a total of 4 million hours of work needed to be delivered in spring 2014 and spring 2015.

"This decision is bad news, first for all (of) employees, as it will take several months to try to fill that hole load immediate, especially for its offices studies, whose workload will be directly and immediately affected, "writes the shipbuilding company in a statement. 

Subsidiary of Viking River Cruises, Inc. specializes in river cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises has decided to "continue discussions for the construction project with one of our competitors," said STX, which notes elsewhere "that to date no other site does was given command of ships".

The unions of the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire, the cancellation of the order is due to failure of the financial operation.

"Compared to other European countries, France is missing today in a state bank be able to mount such files," responded Marc Menager, delegate CFDT union of the company, which speaks of a "miserable failure". 

"The state must take the emergency measures imposed by the state to save sites", said for his part-Prinborgne Nathalie Durand, secretary of the Workers' Force, claiming and controlling an aircraft carrier and a fourth helicopter carrier for the French Navy.

Partial unemployment measures had already been announced a week ago by management to face the hollow charge provided on the second half of 2012. They were to receive consulting firms, especially weapons and fabrication shops.

STX France is a branch of shipbuilding group STX South Korean, in which the French state owns a 33.34%.

The company is currently completing the construction of a ship commanded by a Libyan state company, but bought last month by the Italian-Swiss owner MSC after freeze international assets of the Gaddafi regime.

The shipyards of Saint-Nazaire have also started building a small luxury liner on behalf of the German cruise line Hapag Lloyd Cruises and two helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy.

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.

Net inflows of life insurance has turned positive in February for the first time since August. But the lights are far from all being returned to green. Explanations.

Life insurance finds the appeal to the French. Net new money (deposits less withdrawals) was positive in February in France, to the tune of 300 million euros for the first time in seven months, according to figures released Friday by the two main associations of insurers. This figure confirms the recent comments from several insurers, which reported a relative normalization of the market after a very difficult semester, unprecedented in the history of this offering.

Withdrawals down

The return to the green net inflows is primarily attributable to a sharp slowdown in redemptions (withdrawals), down 24% compared to January. They are still 21% above their level in February 2011. At the same time, payments recorded a more moderate decline of 14% compared to January 2012 and 13.5% compared with February 2011, according to figures released by the French Association of Insurance (AFA), that meets the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA) and the Group of mutual insurance companies (Gema). The total amount placed on life insurance contracts has increased from 1.369 billion to 1.377 billion in January end in late February.

These figures tend to confirm the speech held by many insurers, who announced several weeks back to "a sense of normalcy," the term used by the CEO of AXA France, Nicolas Moreau, mid-February. "The movement announced inflection is confirmed over the last month," he told AFP the president of the FFSA, Bernard Spitz, while calling for caution. "It is far too early to see a trend," he warned. Life insurance, however, seems out of the rut, after a year-end nightmare.

Crisis in the eurozone and sluggish economy

The product has suffered because of the deepening crisis in the euro area, which prompted investors to favor short-term investments. But many of these products were already pushed forcefully by banks, launched a hunt for deposits in view of the arrival of the new regulatory framework, says Basel III.

Climate degradation, but also the planned reduction of Scellier, also resulted in the postponement of significant financial investments to real estate. "There was an overall campaign debt", marked, among other things, a wave of mortgage repayments, observed Mr. Moreau. He said "it is possible that at the peak of the crisis, our people have chosen to pay off debt rather than reinvest."

Calming the markets

The normalization of markets, beginning in 2012, supported by advances on Greece and off operations of the European Central Bank (ECB), have provided some form of appeasement. "The purchases have decreased significantly, people are less worried" at the end of 2011, said Thursday the CEO of the insurance arm of BNP Paribas, Eric Lombard. "On the first months of 2012, Aviva is pleased with the evolution of the collection," said Aviva France Friday. However, several factors unfavorable to life remain, primarily the arrival of the retired generation "baby boom" and the continued decline in yields. Last month, the CEO of CNP Assurances, Gilles Benoist, and had talked about "turning point".  

"Life insurance is going to find his true vocation, which is not to compete with short-term banking products, but to constitute a real reserve of long-term savings and fund pensions and dependency," he had said. A vocation that does not seem challenged by the candidates in the presidential election in a position to be elected. "On the substantive issues, there is a line of force that consensus on the left and right is one that returns a favor long-term savings," said Mr. Spitz. For him, "everybody understands that to have growth, you need investment and therefore long-term savings. I have no fear as long as this message has gone."

UBS has hired Andrea Orcel, head of mergers and major acquisitions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Europe, to co-direct its investment banking activities alongside Carsten Kengeter.

The Swiss bank said Andrea Orcel, an Italian who has orchestrated some of the largest European banking in recent years, would take up his new duties July 1.

At UBS, he worked under the supervision of one of his former colleagues from Merrill Lynch, Sergio Ermotti, now CEO of Swiss number one industry. 

Andrea Orcel, a forty who is fluent in four languages, have served more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch, where he was appointed manager in September 2009, Global Banking and Markets, a year after s acquisition by Bank of America.

The new recruit UBS is one of the celebrities from the world of investment banking. This is among others in the past occupied the Dutch takeover of ABN Amro by Royal Bank of Scotland and helped to strengthen the capital of Italian Unicredit.

In 2008, he received total compensation of nearly $ 34 million (26 million).

"It is effective, even ruthless when it comes to getting things done. There is a good chance that some of his customers leave with him (at UBS), "said one banker who has worked on several transactions in which Andrea Orcel intervened

. "It always provokes a strong reaction from customers: they either love it or they hate it."

.. …… Bank of America declined to comment

. The U.S. group will also experience the departure of another of its officials, Jonathan Moulds, president for Europe and Canada, who will retire end of June according to an internal memo that was procured Reuters

The station

. Jonathan Moulds Andrea Orcel was proposed but the latter preferred to leave at UBS, said a source familiar with the matter. 

Bank of America is currently under pressure from some shareholders who demand a better performance while four of the six quarters ended in losses and its stock price was battered last year.

BofA has cut jobs in recent weeks in its equities and securitized mortgage loans according to sources familiar with the matter.

Management should be next month how the cost reduction plan launched at the group level will affect the activities of capital markets, asset management and retail banking.

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.

Ubisoft has reduced its loss of more than half in the first half, picking a few benefits of the shift to online games and confirms return to operating profitability in the green in 2011-2012.

Highly anticipated by financial analysts on its increasing strength in online games and its focus on higher quality games, the French publisher said it had generated 30 million euros in revenue through "online" in the first half , an increase of 85% for a segment usually very profitable group which was until recently absent.

"We are on track (…

Theolia is now ready to consider acquisitions of wind farms with actors who would experience financial difficulties, said Friday its general manager, Fady Khallouf.

Operations could be done at reasonable prices given the current economic environment, said in an interview with Reuters the owner of the French specialist in wind, on the brink of bankruptcy in 2010 and during recovery.

"A number of actors have tried to develop parks and reaches a certain point, but are weakened by the current economic climate.We have the ability to take over projects and to accelerate, "said Fady Khallouf.

"There are a number of new opportunities from the current crisis (…) We look at a number of topics, it can be small things or things more consistent."

The uncertainties surrounding global economic conditions even strengthen the group's strategy.

"When there are economic difficulties and a number of concerns, both in terms of energy, environmental or financial, I see them as opportunities for us," said Fady Khallouf.

"The fundamentals are stubborn"

"The fundamentals are stubborn. In Europe, production capacity and an older (…) we will have to invest.Whichever way you look at the production, there will be an increase in electricity prices.From there, the wind can no longer be considered a subsidized activity but to be sufficiently close to the market price trend, "said Fady also Khallouf.

"Instead of pretending not to see and panic in a few years, I think all actors – authorities, industrial and financial – have an incentive to engage in reasoned dialogue (…), even if the energy renewables will not displace completely the traditional means."

Fady Khallouf further indicated that his group was about to welcome a new partner in the investment vehicle Theolia Utilities Investment Company (tuica), he has established with the Swiss electrician IWB Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB) to finance wind projects in France, Germany and Italy.

"We are finalizing the entry of a new actor of the same size qu'IWB (…). It is a 'utility' Europe is the 'cross-boarder", he said, considering a deal "imminent".

"This vehicle is intended to go perhaps in other European countries as opportunities (…).It has been so successful that I am asked by various stakeholders who wish to enter, "said Fady Khallouf, which emphasizes, however, at first a round of stabilization and effective launch of its business.

POSSIBLE INCOME IN 2013

Tuica, for producers and distributors of electricity, will have 100 million of capital invested and may use project finance, with the aim to invest over 300 million euros.

Held so far to 70% and 30% Theolia IWB, it will acquire wind projects with the French group, which will ensure the development, construction and operation of the life of the parks and collect a fee for each of these benefits.

Theolia has been profitable than in a single year, in 2010, the mechanical effect of the capital increase, but could generate a net profit in 2013 if the crisis does not delay some of its projects said Fady Khallouf.

"As and when we succeed in achieving the goals I set, we will also have the ability to attract more investors and in that time, the question will arise whether to increase capital or not, or some other scheme that could be to expand the investment vehicle, "he said.

"It will not arise in 2012, we have sufficient cash resources and a very healthy."