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The news is reassuring. With a large majority, the Bundestag adopted the new rescue plan the Eurozone. If the vote was little doubt that the amplitude of the majority was still uncertain.

Exactly 523 of 620 deputies voted "for", said the chairman of the meeting Norbert Lammert. Germany is the eleventh country to approve the expansion of the envelope and the powers of the European emergency fund created in 2010 to assist countries in the euro area in need. This will be the largest contributor.

The new rescue plan foresees an expansion of European powers of the fire in the euro area, the Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), and increased its capacity from 440 to 780 euros milliarsd.

Mont Saint-Michel, La Mère Poulard and neighbors start laughing … yellow. This gem has been moult attacks, "this fairy castle planted in the sea," as admired Victor Hugo, is the subject of a heated battle. Not that of the wind, which Unesco has asked in June to stop the work, but the tourists. Especially the Japanese, the abbey historic monument fascinates. The 300,000 Japanese visitors, a total of 3 million who visit the site each year, in fact, threaten to fall back on other destinations. In question, while the work that will enable the Mount become an island is accelerating: the conditions of reception of tourists, including the starting point of the shuttle 800 meters of the future parking. The owner of a tour operator, which only works with Japanese from Paris for the day, will meet Tuesday the mayor of Mt.This is to prevent its customers, who have three hours to visit, a walk of nearly two kilometers …

The association of tour operators Japanese in Paris also wrote to 24 local elected officials, recalling that a Japanese customer spends 80 euros at Mont-Saint-Michel, and a decrease in activity of 30% would represent a loss of 7 2 million euros per year for the rock …

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At dusk, fauna connected to press at the entrance of the Centre Pompidou, invitation registered by hand. An opening? Not quite. The April 7, the Beaubourg Museum in central Paris, was privatized by Coca-Cola. The capital city hosts every week a handful of marketing events like this, but this one is unique, hence the exceptional affluence.

More than for the unlimited drinks and canapés, all are there to see Karl Lagerfeld. The artistic director of Chanel designed a collection of three bottles of Coca-Cola Light, launched with much fanfare on the terrace of Beaubourg. TVs have come from all over Europe, on the promise of a few minutes interview with the star. Magazines have published photos of the evening across the continent.A promo for gold Coca-Cola Light!

Since its appearance in a graceful Road Safety campaign in 2008, where he was wearing a fluorescent safety jacket ("It's yellow, it's ugly, it's not going with anything, but it can save your life ", he said it), Karl Lagerfeld multiplies contracts with brands. Most of the time fixed fee paid by classified top secret, sometimes a percentage of sales generated.

Steinway piano to the Yule log Lenôtre through a limited edition of the Petit Larousse, a pair of Repetto shoes and outfits for Barbie, the designer is able to affix his signature everywhere you least expect it.In recent months, he created an eyewear collection Optic 2000, played in a Volkswagen ad, directed the 2011 Pirelli calendar, shot commercials for the launch of Magnum ice in the United States and developed a mobile hairdresser Schwarzkopf. The back looks just as prolific. The U.S. department stores Macy's will distribute a collection of ready-to-wear scratched Lagerfeld, who just draw a new limited edition shoe Hogan, a variety of ST Dupont lighters and pens and Orrefors crystal glasses.

All this, without tarnishing his own image nor nor that of its major employers, Chanel and Fendi, which could hold your nose when they saw him commit themselves with consumer brands and, worse, the smaller competitors.

Review of each project

The success of this tightrope follower of the great discrepancy is due to "system" Lagerfeld.All through the partnership (SNC) Karl Lagerfeld, owned by investment fund Apax Partners. This relates in particular to social "research and development of any product bearing the trade name of Karl Lagerfeld."

"Karl has such an aura that many brands want to associate with him, says Christian Stahl, Partner at Apax Partners payday loans direct lenders. It is able to spend the most exclusive luxury brands for cheap. "But as talk of selling p Karl Lagerfeld as a common license to groups and advertising agencies who would do what they want. Karl Lagerfeld is Pierre Cardin.

"We receive every week a number of proposals around the world," said Pier Paolo Righi, CEO of the company. All are reviewed by a committee of five people around Karl Lagerfeld."Only 40% of the proposals are accepted, ensures Sophie Delanglade, director of the studio, which, among other things, denied a proposed umbrella. The project must be sufficiently creative, inspiring the team and match what fun Karl. "

For collections of ready-to-wear and accessories projects co-signed by Karl Lagerfeld and a registered partner, the designer engages the same team as its own line, to be released next spring on the Internet. "It is essential that projects are complementary and not competitors," said Pier Paolo Righi.

Far from any delegate to the studio, Karl Lagerfeld, workaholic and perfectionist, is personally involved in each project. Her photo shoots are always performed with the same assistants, and with models that selects itself. To begin with, often by his male muse Baptiste Giacobini.His clients can afford a reference to the universe … For Chanel campaign Dom Perignon, Karl Lagerfeld has ensured that a few years ago shooting, shooting sessions were held in his mansion at the time … "With furniture specially down from the attic," recalls an officer of the brand. Same organization for shooting the 2011 Pirelli calendar, made in his photo studio staff, with jewelry and cabinets designed for shooting …

Communication millimeter

Karl Lagerfeld's team takes great care to communication operations around partnerships. The step is essential for brands: even more than the turnover by product designer Lagerfeld, the launch campaign is allowing them to benefit from their association with the stylist. But the personal image of Karl Lagerfeld, demanding and a perfectionist, is at stakeOnly around him is entitled to control this crucial phase, press kits to the organization of events, always assigned to the same agency. For the evening Coca-Cola, it recruited the young models, revamped to Karl Lagerferd wearing a white wig with ponytail. Lagerfeld's house, the business contributes to the maintenance of the myth, and vice versa.

Click the preview to enlarge the graphic.

Three stars, "samsung" in Korean, were on the first devices from the brand that were sold in Europe in the 1970s. It was the microwave low-end a few dozen francs apiece. This product of Appeal allowed the group to make a name and win in other markets, becoming the world leader in electronics and 19th marks in all categories.

The chaebol (Korean conglomerate), height of 6.2 billion euros in cash, has the means of its ambitions. And they are clear: to be number one everywhere. This is done on the TV market. To achieve the first place, the group has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising around the world. He did not hesitate to cut prices, which allowed him inexorably to nibble market share.He fears, however, LG, another Korean, which, by betting on a technology other than his own in the 3D threatens his leadership.

In the area of ​​mobile, Samsung is the group that made the most progress over the last 12 months, according to IDC. In the last quarter, the Korean group has moved closer to Nokia and is expected soon to become the world's leading brand for mobile phones. While in smartphones and tablet, Apple seems unbeatable.

The finest PC market

There is also high ambitions in the PC. For now, the chaebol has only 3% of the world, behind industry giants, HP, Acer and Dell guaranteed payday loans. But this hides another reality: in 2010, Samsung sold 10 million computers. That's twice in 2009.Korean plans to increase its presence in this field by making efforts in all areas, including the design, which has long been its main weakness. Earlier this year, Samsung introduced the PC's finest on the market.

In keeping with the policy of expansion that has been in place since the early 1990s, the company also addresses the appliance market, where he is currently a relatively marginal player. Now, the time of cheap microwave is over. Place in washing machine and refrigerator art.Samsung is heavily loaded with LED lighting, his mastery of electronics, a way to give a serious and consumers to benefit from the reputation it enjoys in televisions and other devices, though far removed .

The group is also one of the largest manufacturers of memory cards for computer, LCD screen TVs … and provides many of its competitors, including Philips, Toshiba or Apple. This sometimes leads to complicated situations: the American and Korean competitors in smartphones and tablets, are engaged in trials crossed. They accuse each other of patent infringement, a real shadow on the balance sheet of the Asian giant.

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American financier Guy Wyser-Pratte does not disarm in the folder Lagardère. Almost eighteen months after the general meeting of 27 April 2010 during which the two resolutions he had proposed were rejected at 76% and 78%, Guy Wyser-Pratte against attack. Wednesday, August 3, he sent a letter to the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), in which he contested the vote count at the meeting of shareholders of the group.

The American activist took some time to gather evidence to support its contention. Today, it provides the AMF documents showing that the ten funds managed by AllianceBernstein (a subsidiary of AXA Group), a leading shareholder group Lagardere with 10% of the shares, would have voted for he had presented two resolutions.

For investigation

A resolution was to appoint him to the Supervisory Board of Lagardère.Resolution B was to amend the prerogatives of-stock by requesting that the general partners do not vote more consistently before the sponsors. Guy Wyser-Pratte also produces documents from two firms specializing in proxy voting investors (ISS and Broadridge). They would have gathered the voices of various U.S. institutional investors in favor of two resolutions A and B. Finally, he instructed the firm McKenzie to a total of U.S. investors vote in favor.

"In total, we can demonstrate that counting only the votes of shareholders represented by American myself, AllianceBernstein, Broadbridge and ISS, my application to the supervisory board received 44% of the vote of the quorum present at the meeting. In addition, it is likely that other European shareholders have also voted in my favor.I therefore request the AMF to conduct an investigation to understand the origin of the discrepancy between the results of the AG and the counting done by us, "said Guy Wyser-Pratte. In 2010, the AMF had already audited BNP Paribas, which had been in charge of counting votes at the annual meeting of shareholders.

Returning to the issue today, Guy Wyser-Pratte hopes remobilize American and European shareholders for the next general meeting of 2012.

In March 2010, Guy Wyser-Pratte had burst into the capital of Lagardère by buying up 0.53% of the shares. He then publicly criticized the governance of the group protesting against the existence of a partnership limited by shares and had criticized the lack of strategy of management.The tone was mounted and Philippe Camus, a member of the sponsorship of the Lagardère group, the AMF had seized a few days before the general meeting, marveling at the distortion between saber rattling by Guy Wyser-Pratte and the reality of the impact of the two draft resolutions.

Strategy of focusing

Arnaud Lagardère had benefited from the rostrum of the General Assembly to address the critical Guy Wyser-Pratte. Some time after the general meeting, it had sold substantially all of its shares, pocketing a nice way to gain. Today, he is left only about 100,000 titles.

The tension had fallen, but after this episode heated, the Lagardère Group has implemented a strategy of refocusing on its core businesses – publishing, distribution, media and sport – and the country where he holds a position leadership.Suddenly, the group undertook to sell all of its minority, especially in Canal + France, the Amaury group and the group Marie-Claire. For now, these sales have stalled. However, Lagardère Active has led to the charge of selling most of its international press center to the American group Hearst, to 654 million euros. This represents a hundred titles in a dozen countries.

The luxury is doing well. PPR and the results exceeded expectations after the first half. Over the period, net earnings excluding items of luxury group and distribution rose 24% to 466 million euros against 440 million euros expected on average by analysts. Current operating income has increased it from 14.5% to € 749 million while gross margin was 10.4%, an improvement of 0.7 points.

As for income, they have soared from 7.3% to 7.2 billion euros, a figure in line with analysts' expectations. The activity of the house owner of Gucci, Puma, Redcats and Fnac was supported by the luxury division posted organic growth of 23.2% and 24.4% in the second quarter alone, where analysts had forecast an increase of 19%.In contrast, the distribution center, to be sold by the group, saw its sales fall by 1.4% semi-annual (in like), hit by poor performance of FNAC (-3.2%) to facing an extremely difficult environment in France, while Redcats, the specialist distance sales fared better, with revenues up 0.8%). For its part, the sporting goods company Puma has seen its sales increase by 9.4%.

Based on these results, the group says "confident" to get the second half of "sustained growth in sales and financial performance over 2010."

Two regional leaders of Lidl Ile-de-France – Nord were placed under judicial supervision. They are suspected of discrimination in hiring, reports Le Parisien. They have ordered the makers of their 70 stores not to recruit persons of foreign origin in residence with "privacy and family life." A woman dismissed on this ground a complaint. The trial will be held August 18. The accused may three years in prison and 45,000 euros fine.

Refuse these cards have been living as a principle in the network Ile-de-France – Nord "at least six store managers will spread to the investigators," said Le Parisien. The staff representative UNSA, Fatiha Iraki, would have met "some thirty CV repressed," she told the newspaper.Lidl Why would he conducted such a wage policy? Residence cards "cost several hundred dollars per year per employee," said the steward.

Lidl's lawyer denies the charges: no guidance was given. There are many foreign candidates in the regional management, it is normal that some owners do not see themselves hired, he explains.

The tension escalates between Carrefour and Casino in Brazil. While the first confirmed on Tuesday had "received a proposal from major strategic partnership in Brazil," he sharply replied Casino "power to oppose this project."

Gama Brazilian society had proposed to merge the Carrefour group's Brazilian assets with those of the French retailer CBD group Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA). They thus constitute an equally owned company. CBD had previously merged with Gama.

But the case is the most sensitive.Right in the legal showdown with Carrefour, Casino contests this possible merger with CBD, "it is the largest shareholder, which it provides the co-control with Abilio Diniz and which it acquired in 2005 from Abilio Diniz and his family the right to become the sole controlling shareholder in 2012, "says the company in a statement issued in the wake and that sounds like a declaration of war.

The group Etienne, who now owns 37% of GPA, is indeed bound by a shareholders' agreement with the businessman Abilio Diniz, who owns shares in the holding company of GPA. Their agreement provides that neither party can negotiate a development project with a third party without the consent of the other. In late May, took the Casino Chamber of Commerce to arbitrate the case.

Referring to "a material financial transactions and prepared for a long time illegally by Abilio Diniz and Carrefour" and "illegal and secret negotiations," Casino accuse both parties have "ignore [d] deliberately both the law and ethics elementary. "

"Casino will consider in the coming days how to best defend the corporate interests of CBD and its shareholders that seems compromised by this project very complex and financial," says Casino, recalling that "it has the power s to oppose this project in terms of existing agreements and that no negotiations on the future of CBD can not be conducted without his consent and without prior discussion of this project to the Board of Wilkes, holding control of CBD. "

Clear benefits for Carrefour

Brazil is a strategic market for the two French groups, "the third world market in terms of food expenditure" the statement said Carrefour there realizes 12 low fee pay day loans.3% of sales. If the proposal is accepted Gama, the new joint venture would represent "the main actor in the distribution in Brazil," said Carrefour.Its turnover pro-forma is estimated at over 30 billion euros for 2011.

Gama has in turn shown to benefit from a capital investment of 2 billion and funding of 500 million euros.

"The benefits of the transaction are clear to Carrefour," noted analysts at Natixis, "the benefit to his credit in Brazil, which leaves just one major accounting scandal, the expertise of CBD; gain size of a key market , realize significant synergies with CBD and strengthen its long-term shareholders. "

Gama: up 6% stake in Carrefour

After OPERATON, Gama become a shareholder of the French distributor. The Brazilian could acquire additional shares Carrefour market of up to 6% stake in Carrefour.It would be represented by two members to the board of the French group, whose vice president, and three from 2013.

"Gama sign a shareholders' agreement and act in concert with Blue Capital LLC, Colony Blue Investor LLC, and Groupe Arnault SAS, which now jointly hold 14.1% of the capital and 20.2% of the voting rights of Carrefour , "the statement said. Together they would hold up to 30% of share capital and voting rights of Carrefour.

The board of Carrefour will meet in the coming days to discuss the proposal of Gama. Following this announcement, the Carrefour share jumped by more than 3% to 27.250 euros, while the title unscrews Casino: it yields about 5% to 62.63 euros.The CAC 40 in advance for its share of 1.08%.

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This is the axis of the policies of Nicolas Sarkozy: officials fewer but better paid. In principle, state officials are granted wage increases in half of the savings generated by the non-replacement of retiring in two in their own departments. Problem: once again, this rule was not followed in 2010.

According to the rapporteur UMP budget to the Assembly, Gilles Carrez, it is actually two-thirds (67.3%) of savings were spent on categorical measures. Specifically, the 31,013 job cuts in 2010 were 808 million savings to the state. But 544 million is left up wages.

Results vary from one department to another. The rate of return to public officials is low for Foreign Affairs (42%), Agriculture (41%), Education (37%) and consistent with the defense (54%).However, it exceeds the target for the Budget, the Economy (64%) or culture (68%). Worse, wage increases were higher than the economies of Ecology (24.7 million against 21.9 million), Labour (16.3 million against 13.9 million) and especially the Interior (149 million against 116 million)! Gilles Carrez even noted that the departments that make the least effort on their staff are often those where economies are most reassigned officers cash advance no faxing.

Good and bad students

Example: "Culture is the department in which the application of the rule of one in two is less strict, while the cost of measures categorical 68% savings." Conversely, "the ministries for which the rule is stricter, such as Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Health, are those for which the categorical measures are less than 50%. "In short, there are good and bad students. These slips will pay dearly as they explain the fact that retirements have been less than expected, the increase in the payroll of the state in 2010. The latter (82 billion) grew by 0.7%. To achieve its goal of reducing by 2012 the state will give less to their agents …

The Court of Auditors in a report that pointed the slippage of the wage bill, advocated a strict framework for categorical measures and a freeze of the index point (which is the basis for the remuneration of officials) until 2013 included.

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In Athens

It is now the strongman of the government just revamped George Papandreou: Evangelos Venizelos. Imposing, talkative and impulsive, professor of constitutional law of 54 years did not mince his words when entering his new office as Minister of Finance: "I left the Department of Defense to enter a war", has he said. And for good reason, this war is that of the economy. He is determined to carry out reforms and has a good chance to convince members to vote in favor of the second austerity plan on 28 June. Observers say it is the ideal person to mitigate the discontent within the party.

The entire political class recognizes Evangelos Venizelos his intelligence and his status as a pillar of the new government.Gathering his majority was a priority to calm the ardor of the critics of the Greek Prime Minister.

But for some experts, this man from northern Greece be too wet to agree with the Europeans. "It is the one who said the Council of Ministers last week, the country was under occupation administration. How Brussels will trust him? "Assen there be in the ranks of the Conservative opposition. For political analyst Giorgos Kirtsos, "Evangelos Venizelos wants to be Prime Minister. It has a very social discourse and is highly regarded by the barons of the press. He will use his gift as an orator to get the reforms in the population, "said he. "When he was at the Ministry of Development, he has managed the beginning of the privatization of the Greek electricity utility by arranging their own way.Now, decisions are more difficult, especially since it's not a reformer, "says Giorgos Kirtsos. The new "czar of the economy" as it is called the Greek press has an agenda of the busiest on the European stage. He will travel to the meetings of the Eurogroup and has make a difference with his predecessor, Giorgos Papaconstantinou, became Minister of the Environment.

Control social discontent

According to Petros Doukas, an economist and former Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos must quickly make proposals to the Europeans to save the country from bankruptcy. This could be a takeover of the Greek debt, "which currently is sold off at least 40% on the secondary market," said he. "Once acquired, they can erase part of our debt and other loan us again as a loan at 4% for twenty-five years.This is the ideal model for the second funding of 100 billion euros, "explains the former Conservative minister.

Meanwhile, Evangelos Venizelos will also control the rising social discontent in the country, especially as the indignant and unions are willing to take it a turf war without thank you. Rallies and demonstrations are scheduled from Sunday until Friday next European Council.