International Business News

The Slovak government resigned and the main opposition party agreed Wednesday to support a strengthening of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) on the occasion of a new parliamentary vote by Friday.

The leaders of three of the four parties in the coalition government met with the leader of Smer, following the rejection by members of the EFSF reform and the resignation of the government of Iveta Radicova, which was liable the vote.

Of the 17 Member States of the euro area, only Slovakia has not yet ratified the plan that strengthens the powers of the EFSF to fight against the debt crisis.The green light 17 is required for its entry into force.

The Smer, which supports the EFSF in principle, abstained from the vote, causing the development of minority government. A new vote in Parliament to be held by no later than Friday, said the leaders of the majority party, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU), and Smer, Robert Fico and Mikulas Dzurinda.

"We decided that during the parliamentary session (Thursday), we will work on a proposal to shorten the election period to conduct an election on March 10.Immediately after, tomorrow or Friday, we will discuss proposals related to EFSF, "said Mikulas Dzunrinda, who was foreign minister of the government resigned, at a press conference.

"With this agreement, and the laws associated EFSF may be approved either tomorrow night or Friday morning at the latest," said Robert Fico.The vote, he added, "will take place immediately after the adoption of the constitutional law on holding early elections in March 2012."

The Smer remain in opposition until the deadline of March.

The increase in lending capacity of EFSF to 440 billion represents a contribution of 7.7 billion euros in Slovakia.

"RAPID ADOPTION"

The day after the rejection of the text, the presidents of the European Union and the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, urged Slovakia to approve as soon as possible the expansion of the EFSF.

"We call on all parties in the Slovak Parliament to overcome the short-term political considerations and use the next opportunity to quickly adopt a new agreement," they wrote in a joint statement.

"We remain confident that the Slovak authorities and the Parliament are well aware of the centrality of having a stronger European support fund to preserve the financial stability of the euro area.And this in the interest of all countries have adopted the euro, including the Slovak people. "

Under pressure from its European partners, President Ivan Gasparovic, who must nominate the next prime minister, cut short a visit to Asia and is expected to return to his country Thursday.

Iveta Radicova asked Mikulas Dzurinda, the head of SDKU, to initiate discussions also involving two smaller parties in the governing coalition.

The Freedom and Solidarity Party (SAS), the fourth component of the coalition that refuses EFSF, will not take part in the new round to break the deadlock.

The Sas had refused to ratify the European level, in accordance with the position of its leader, Richard Sulik, who estimates that less wealthy countries in the euro area do not have to incur expenses for the rich as Greece .

The Tokyo Stock Exchange finished up Wednesday modest, increasing only its rich gains yesterday, but investors have become wary about the willingness of Europeans to stem the debt crisis.

In addition, the stock market no longer had the support of procurement from the dividends that had enabled the Nikkei gaining almost 3% Tuesday.

Tuesday was for investors on the last day to buy Japanese equities and collect their dividend for the first half of the fiscal year.

Finally, the volume of business was low, suggesting that investors prefer to sit on the sidelines as the bargain hunting.

"Half or less of the shares of the Tokyo Stock Exchange were ex-dividend today, so there has been tying this, not to mention the uncertainty about the developments in Europe, it makes buyers cautious and it limits the upside potential, "said Yutaka Miura (Mizuho Securities).

The Nikkei gained 5.70 points (0.07%) to 8615.65. The Topix, broader, more compelling displays a gain of 5.52 points (0.74%) to 754.07.

Values, Japan Tobacco, the cigarette third world was a very popular time, the state has announced that it would sell its 50%. The action peaked three years to shift down and to include in closing down 2.86% to 356,500 yen.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) jumped 8.23%.The Yomiuri newspaper wrote that the government advise the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant to remove 14% of its regular staff, or 7,400 jobs, to participate in the repairs that followed the disaster of 11 March.

The restructuring plan Tepco be unveiled on October 3, the paper said, without citing sources.

JPMorgan, the second U.S. bank by assets, falling sharply Tuesday on Wall Street, as the entire banking sector, investors fearing prosecution series on the subject of mortgages sold to investors during the housing bubble.

The federal agency that oversees the mortgage market in the U.S. (Federal Housing Finance Agency) filed a complaint Friday against 17 major financial institutions, having sold more than $ 200 billion of bonds backed by home loans by presenting these operations in one day wrong.

These bonds are now owned by the giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

JPMorgan gave the title 3.5% by 1700 GMT, Bank of America gave 3.4% and 2.8% Citigroup.The banking sector index fell by his side at 1.97%, underperforming the S & P 500 down 1.8%.

Analysts said investors feared a flurry of lawsuits related to the identification of mortgages become toxic.

The title of Bank of America reached $ 6.80 during the session. Its course is returned to a level below the closing price recorded just before the billionaire Warren Buffett announced the acquisition of five billion dollars of preferred securities.

This transaction, announced Aug. 25, the title was boosted by 26%.

France rejects currently a Swiss proposal to tax the assets of French citizens hidden in Switzerland on the model of a recently concluded agreement with Germany, a source said Thursday the Department of Budget.

Germany and Switzerland have in fact agreed to implement a tax on assets held by Germans in secret accounts in Switzerland.A similar agreement is about to be concluded with Great Britain and could be considered by other countries of the European Union.

Paris, which seeks to substantially reduce its budget deficit, estimated not to be able to accept such an agreement at this time.

"We see what our European partners and we study the compatibility of this proposal with our principles," said the source.

According to Le Monde, which was the first to reveal that France has declined this proposal, Paris considered that it amounted to drop the charges against the tax evaders and therefore it was inconsistent with the policy in recent years.

According to the agreement with Berlin, the existing assets in Switzerland and held by the Germans will be taxed between 19% and 34%, in particular according to the duration of concealment of assets.

The French government and parliamentarians are working to define an exceptional contribution of the wealthiest French next year to fill a small part of the budget deficit.

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%.

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."

Suzuki, who formed in late 2009 an alliance with Volkswagen, laments the influence that the German automaker intends to exercise his opinion on him, said Monday a senior officer of the Japanese group.

In December 2009, Volkswagen had acquired nearly 20% of Suzuki for $ 2.5 billion.The operation was welcomed by investors, who hoped that VW would benefit and the small car segment of the Japanese, which in turn would benefit from advanced technologies, including hybrids, German.

Eighteen months later, no progress appears to have been recorded, according to executive vice president of Suzuki, Yasuhito Harayama, responsible for relations with the European leader in the automobile.

"It was clearly said at the alliance with Volkswagen as we did not want a building that we wanted to remain independent," he said to the press.

"We feel it is necessary to return to the starting point, including with respect to the rate of equity participation.The idea that we are independent businesses and equal partners is the fundamental prerequisite to any specific cooperation. "

Other manufacturers are willing to cooperate in a relationship of equals with Suzuki, which has operational pursue reconciliation with a wide range of companies, continued Yasuhito Harayama.

"Currently, no joint development project is under way with Volkswagen."

According to the Japanese context, Volkswagen ranked Suzuki in its annual report as a consolidated group, following an accounting process that would allow him to exercise over him a "great influence".

At the time of the rise in the capital of Volkswagen Suzuki, the director general of Japan, Osamu Suzuki, had emphasized the relationship of equality that he intended to preserve and limited the participation of VW to 19.9%.

Since then, through a shareholding agreement, Suzuki has gradually acquired stock Volkswagen.

In a recent blog note relayed by the site's business daily Nikkei, Osamu Suzuki deplored had already been around the relationship between the two groups.

"Both companies are of very different sizes, and perhaps with the passage of time, they had the wrong impression of having placed their flag Suzuki," said the leader of 81 years known for its fair speak.

The four main French banks, BNP Paribas, BPCE (People's Bank, Savings Bank), Credit Agricole and Societe Generale have passed the stress tests conducted by the EBA (EBA), said Friday the Bank of France.

Of the 90 institutions subject to tests to check the strength of the European banking sector in the scenario of economic shocks, only eight banks have failed and will therefore increase their capital to the tune of 2.5 billion euros.

There are five Spanish banks, two Greek and one Austrian.

The Bank of France said the four main French banks had a capital ratio "core tier one" aggregated from 7.5% to end 2012 in the worst economic scenario selected by the EBA (EBA), is above the minimum level of 5% required.

"Their level of capital is appropriate since in the end allow them to finance the economy even in the most degraded scenario," said Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France.

In detail, Societe Generale shows the lowest ratio of four French banks with 6.6%, while the Crédit Agricole group shows with the most comfortable ratio of four to 8.5%.

The Franco-Belgian bank Dexia in turn displays a ratio of 10.4%.

"The French banking system is a confirmation, is solid," said Baroin, the Minister of Economy, during a press conference.

"We need to see the result of a rigorous risk management by the French banks and it confirms the solution of the universal banking model."

In a separate statement, SocGen has responded by reaffirming its confidence in its ability to achieve a capital adequacy ratio "core tier one"-at least 9% in 2013 as part of the new banking regulations of Basel III.

Forget the fiasco of 2010

After the fiasco of stress tests last year, who did not identify the weaknesses of the Irish banks before their rescue a few weeks later in Dublin, European regulators have decided to toughen the exercise by holding the shock scenario Economic tougher than in 2010.

"We took into account criticisms of fiscal 2010 had been, we have focused on complete transparency," said Baroin.

In light of the public debt crisis, which this week surpassed Europe to reach the United States, critics have however been made on the criteria.

Moody's particularly regretted that the EBA did not take into account the assumption of a default on sovereign debt of a member state so that the risk, according to the rating agency increased in recent weeks in the euro area.

Analysts have also complained that the tests do not assess the liquidity of banks.

"We find that European banks are dependent on height of about 20% of U.S. money market funds for their refinancing needs in the short term interbank markets and wholesale," notes Christopher Nijdam, an analyst at AlphaValue.

"This underlines their vulnerability vis-à-vis the U.S. Investment Company," he says.

The release of stress tests also allowed to review the exposure of European banks to sovereign debt of European states.

French banks and post a cumulative exposure of 9.55 billion euros to the Greek sovereign debt and 41 billion public debt in Italy.

The Greek debt crisis and fears of contagion to other countries in the euro area as Spain or Italy, weigh heavily on European bank stocks.

The Stoxx European banks index was down 12.5% ​​since the beginning of the year.

In Paris, French banks, which are foreign banks most exposed to Greece and Italy, are punished by investors.BNP Paribas gives up almost 5% since the beginning of the year. Credit Agricole and Societe Generale retreating almost 13% and 11% respectively.

Pensioners could be the first victims of a failure of public accounts in the United States, Barack Obama said Tuesday in an effort to increase its pressure on elected officials with whom he negotiates raising the ceiling of U.S. debt.

The president has received for the third time in three days the representatives of parliamentary groups in the White House to try to break the deadlock the negotiations before August 2, when the government will be insolvent, according to the Treasury .

However, no progress was made and a new Town Hall meeting was scheduled Wednesday at 16h00 (20h00 GMT).Barack Obama has promised to bring together leaders on both sides every day until they reach a solution.

The Republican Party refuses to raise the debt ceiling in the absence of agreement on the reduction of public spending.Mitch McConnell, chairman of the Senate, expressed doubts Tuesday that a "real solution" can be found as Barack Obama will be in business.

The president, who has put his remarks on account of "political competition" was meanwhile expressed concern for the beneficiaries of the retreat of Social Security, which he said could not get their check early August because of agreement to Congress.

"THE DEBT CEILING IS HIS PROBLEM"

"I can not guarantee that these checks will leave on August 3rd if we have not solved this problem.It may simply not be enough agent into the coffers to do, "he said.

John Boehner, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives held its own responsibility to find ways to raise the debt ceiling before the United States have exhausted their financial capabilities.

"The debt ceiling is his problem," he summarized.

Paralysis of public finances raises the specter of a return to recession, economic activity has slowed markedly since the first quarter.

Barack Obama has a deficit of 4.000 billion over ten years involving higher taxes to which oppose the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.This tax increase would be accompanied, according to the president, budget cuts and a reform of health insurance Medicare and Medicaid that the Democrats fear.

The latter consider that higher taxes on higher incomes should help solve the budget equation, but the Republicans do not want to hear about it.

The Casino has tried again Tuesday that the project of his rival Carrefour in favor of a merger of the Brazilian subsidiaries of the two groups was hostile, while rival claims to the contrary.

"The character of the hostile attitude of Carrefour is established by the fact that Carrefour has been conducting secret talks for months that seek to capture control of the Brazilian society CBD (GPA) Casino said in a statement.

Hours earlier, Carrefour had assured to have no hostile intent against Casino.