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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."

The Paris Bourse started the week with no major trend. After an opening down slightly from 0.29% to the image of Asian stock markets this Monday morning, the Cac back in the green but very moderately. At mid-session, he won 0.10% to 3954.86 points. Today, the London hotel market is closed while Wall Street will not open either and will celebrate Memorial Day (as every last Monday in May). The Cac 40, which had ended the week on a nice increase of 0.86%, managed to climb to 3950 points on Friday night.

This Monday, we will particularly impact that will follow the announcement by Germany to close its last nuclear reactors by 2022. The country became the first industrial power to abandon atomic energy.Already in China, the values ​​related to coal soared when he appears as the best vehicle for investment, better than solar or wind power in the future.

European side, the news is charged. The Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said was confident Sunday in the payment of the next tranche of EU-IMF loan to avoid bankruptcy for rejecting an article of the German weekly Der Spiegelmettant doubt this release. Note that the Athenians flocked in their thousands on Sunday night in the central square of the capital, before the parliament, the fifth day of a successful mobilization against austerity, modeled on the Spanish "Indignant".

Ireland, she may have to request a new loan to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund if it fails to return on the bond market to raise funds next year, said Minister of Transportation the columns of The Sunday Times.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro retreated slightly against the dollar Monday in a quiet market due to the closing of financial centers in the United States and England. Around 0900 GMT (1100 Paris), the single European currency was worth 1.4291 dollars against 1.4317 dollars on Friday night.

Values ​​on the forehead, that Monday is the day of commencement of trading of shares of Areva. The beginning of the session is particularly volatile for the action that keeps change from red to green and almost abandoned from 3.47% to 29.20 euros.

The group's president, Anne Lauvergeon, also believes that the nuclear reactor projects under consideration will be delayed by about 6 to 9 months because of the review of data on plant safety, said Monday its president .

Renault leaves% to 0.18% 38.99 euros while known to be the name of the successor of Patrick Pelata to senior management. Portuguese Carlos Tavares, 53, an avid sports car and head for the Americas of the Japanese Nissan, Renault's affiliate, should be named the number two automaker French.

Dexia advance of 2.03% to 2.467 euros. The Belgian-French group will pay no dividend for 2011 due to the cost of asset sales announced Friday, said its chairman Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian daily L'Echo.

EADS gained 0.29%.Its executive chairman Louis Welsh said that he supported the introduction of a veto in the defense sector to prevent hostile takeovers, in an interview with Focus magazine. "It's not about bags and luxury goods, we are in an area of ​​national interest," he said.

Technip advance of 0.12% while the group was selected by Samsung for its Floating Shell gas extraction.

Total (-0.04%) acquired 25% of an exploration license offshore Qatar for an offshore field that extends over 5,600 square kilometers.

Petroleum.The Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said Sunday that the government could impose on oil to reduce fuel prices at the pump if they do not justify the price drops enough found so far by the administration.

Hermes pressure

Hermes was down 1.17% to 177.2 euros while the group holds a very important meeting on Monday. Saddler said the appeal: the voice of Hermes family shareholders, Bertrand Puech denounces "attempts to destabilize" the company by LVMH. The Adam, she filed a lawsuit that the family can not merge into a holding company.

L'Oreal (0.43%).Daughter of Liliane Bettencourt, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, June 6 to ask the investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal of Bordeaux to cancel all records Bettencourt, citing a procedural issue attributable to the prosecution Nanterre.

Trading in Meetic is suspended while his American counterpart Match.com Announces Intention to bid for all outstanding shares of the French site. Internet dating site offers 15 euros per share in cash offer for its competitor.Its parent company said already hold 27% stake in Meetic.

Medica (-0.63%) announced Monday it had signed an amendment to the credit agreement that was signed in June 2010, taking advantage of favorable conditions in the debt market to increase its financial capacity.

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The chic below Chantal Thomass change hands. The Sun Brand Apparel Group, its owner since 1998, sells the brand premium to the group Chantelle. Works just be informed and that of Sun reported Monday a favorable opinion. Only remains to finalize the signing of the founder, Chantal Thomass, who holds 34% stake. It is currently negotiating an agreement to continue to oversee the creation and an option to sell its shares in the next few years. The transaction price is estimated at 6 million.

"It's been ten years that Sun is planning to separate from the brand but had always hitherto encountered opposition from Chantal Thomass, says Luc Genet, elected at Sun CFDT Our group realized that the Luxury was a world apart from ours and not as profitable as retail.They have not occupied the brand and let it sink. "Turnover Chantal Thomass would be increased from 14 million a decade ago to 8 million last year, with a loss of 2 , 1 million. According to the union, the shareholder of Sun for five years, the U.S. fund Sun Capital Partners, "undressing the bride to return the cash before selling the group."

With Chantelle, Chantal Thomass is a partner of choice Faxless payday loans. It is indeed one of the last French lingerie that has not resigned to suffer the inexorable decline of the sector. Employing 6,200 people for a turnover of 340 million euros, he went all-out on the distribution and brand while keeping both plants in France.Together with its claws Chantelle and Passionata, he developed the brand Darjeeling (126 shops in France) and acquired in 2006 Orcanta group Pinault (56 stores), which are already sold products Chantal Thomass.

Private name

The designer to the eternal dark fringe is about to write a new chapter in the eventful life of its brand. After having sold the Japanese group in 1985 World, she had been dismissed and deprived of her name. Then the company was liquidated in 1996. Chantal Thomass was then able to redeem his name and raise its claw with the Sun group, then in the hands of the U.S. Sara Lee. 42 employees will be included by Chantelle as part of the redemption. The elected Dim worried about the activity of other employees who worked in part for Chantal Thomass, one year after the restructuring, the group also Sun, the Playtex brand.

The euro has dropped by nearly 5% in a week. Such depreciation on the foreign exchange market in such a short time is rare. If some investors have been illuminated reap gains from the sacred, others had to lose a lot!

The euro rose against the dollar over from 1.49 to 1.42 in one week. (Chart from the trading platform of Saxo Bank)

Difficult to assess the fortunes of Osama bin Laden, as the opacity of its funding sources has always prevailed. Before the attacks of September 11, 2001, the financial empire's founder and leader of al-Qaida announced until his death last night, was estimated between 30 and … $ 300 million. Only certainty, the first pillar of the wealth of terrorism based on the legacy of his father.

Mohammed bin Laden, Osama's father, made his fortune in construction and public works. At the latter's death in 1967, the leader of al-Qaeda share the inheritance with her 54 brothers and sisters. In all, Osama Bin Laden "received between 12 and 15 million dollars" between 1974 and 1994, according to Yeslam bin Laden, one of his half-brothers.

Present in 35 countries

Some of the funding received has been reinvested in other companies in Saudi Arabia or Sudan, thereby making a profit.Osama bin Laden had created a parent company, Wadi al Aqiz, head of a network of numerous legal societies and implanted in nearly thirty-five countries.

The Ladin International Company, an import and export, Taba Investment and Hijra Construction Company, specializing in construction are among the largest subsidiaries of the businessman terrorist. But these companies also served as cover for militants of al-Qaida. They fund training camps or buying weapons and receive "gifts" from Islamic banks branched through accounts and offshore tax havens.

From multinationals to SMEs

With the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, and the installation of U.S. bases on Saudi soil, Bin Laden decided to conduct a holy war against the United States. Replica of Washington and its alies: its funds are now tracked.Bin Laden fled to Sudan from 1994 to 1996. He bought land, invested in small business. Like the international financial network created in the 1980s, these companies often have two facets. Peanut farm houses a terrorist training site.

Managed well, business does not rotate at best. Bin Laden is forced to lower wages and to sell certain subsidiaries. No matter: "Terrorism is a low cost business," writes the Wall Street Journal in September 2001. The attack against the World Trade Center in 1993, would cost only $ 10,000.

Expelled from Sudan in 1996 under pressure from the Americans, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan. This second exile seems to coincide with increased financial difficulties on the ground. The branch of al-Qaida in London would have experienced problems paying their phone bills.For many decades, "Bin Laden has engaged in activities that eat money, but do not create," says the Saudi dissident Muhammad al-Massari, quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Still, bin Laden also benefits from the charity to Muslims around the world, but that they know so far that their donations would be used to finance terrorism. Moreover, according to a diplomatic report from 2009 revealed by Wikileaks, the Americans suspect of private foundations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to finance terrorism without limit. The villa in which Bin Laden has spent his last days, near Islamabad, is estimated at nearly one million dollars.

The order of keys on computer keyboards is now the last vestige of the era of typewriters. In India, the last factory in the world still producing the devices on which generations of typists have damaged their nails, just down the curtain.

The Daily Star has revealed that, without controls, the group Godrej & Boyce, based in Bombay, not surprisingly, decided to cease production after more than half a century of production.The fault, of course, the irresistible rise of the computer, which has reduced from 50,000 units in 1990 to only 800 in 2010, the number of units produced annually by the conglomerate of the subcontinent.

The Indian government has given the coup de grace by deciding to gradually move to IT, to the chagrin of officials who say old type faster on a machine.

To liquidate the latest machines in stock, Godrej & Boyce shakes the rope speculation. "This is the last opportunity for fans of typewriters," said the Indian press one of the leaders of the group.

Accuracy before rushing to Mumbai: Most of them are intended for texts in Arabic.

The law on the reorganization of the electricity market is now back on track. Tuesday morning, confirming the information of Figaro, Eric Besson, Minister of Energy, said the sale price of the EDF nuclear power to its competitors would rise to 40 euros per megawatt hour as of July 1 next, then 42 euro from 1 January 2012.This device, designed to boost competition in France will be considered in a fortnight by the Regulatory Commission (CRE), which must render a reasoned opinion.

Meanwhile, the government clearly adjudicated in favor of electrical lights: it was still estimated at 42 euros per MWh the full cost of nuclear power (operation, maintenance, future investments …), while its competitors, GDF Suez head, had set the bar at 35 euros, in line with the current regulated rates.

The reaction of GDF Suez has been immediate. The other French energy giant said that "this election will penalize customers who will experience increases for electricity prices." Convergence expected by 2015 between regulated tariffs and prices Arenh (restricted to nuclear power history) will increase mechanics first.The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir dread even price shock, "a rumor, according to Eric Besson, which I would like to help twist the fact."

Also in the eyes of GDF Suez, the high level of Arenh prevent the establishment of effective competition in electricity supply in France no fax payday loans. In these circumstances, the group will study the consequences of that decision and the possible ways to overcome the narrowness of the market opening in the short term induced by the choices of government. "

Another competing operator EDF, Direct Energy (which serves over 600,000 clients), however, shows less severe. Its president, Xavier Caitucoli welcomes first that law enforcement has not been postponed, as had been discussed earlier this month. "After several years the French market was locked, the start of the competition has really come.At 42 euros, it is possible for a competitive operator, although it will be difficult, "he says.

Seasonality

Xavier Caitucoli, it should also not focus too much on the price of Arenh: "The product is also very important and the fact that the volumes of energy vary according to seasonality will make it attractive." Sub- understood: in winter, when electricity prices are very high on the wholesale market, Direct Energy will be able to provide through Arenh on much more interesting.

In this issue, which collects opinions shared, all players meet at least the fact that the accident Fukushima weighed a heavy weight."Somehow, the government has anticipated that the audit of EDF plants could lead to huge additional costs of maintenance and needed to be reflected in the selling price of electricity."

Changes to the capital in the Jean-Paul Gaultier. Hermes acknowledged Friday in a terse statement, it was in talks to sell its 45% stake in fashion house, without naming names. In addition, the group does not specify whether this item is a part or all of its shares.

Entered the capital of Jean-Paul Gaultier in 1989, Hermes has recently distanced himself from the fashion house. A few months after the death of Jean-Louis Dumas, Jean-Paul Gaultier has indeed been replaced by Christophe Lemaire at the head of the Hermes collection ready-Wear he drew for seven years. "No synergy has been cleared between the two companies," says Les Echos published on Friday.

The house Jean-Paul Gauthier seeks to raise funds to finance its development, also understands Les Echos.The lighthouse designer, owner of the remaining 55% stake, has a mandate to store consultancy M & Finance Aforge for "a mission of reflection on strategic developments of the group.

Hermes, PPR and foreign groups in the breach

Among the options considered, the designer might also, lowering its stake but it should keep the artistic direction of the house he founded in 1982. French houses as PPR might be interested, according to Les Echos, but also foreign groups that would facilitate the strengthening of the brand internationally, particularly in Asia.

Recovery discussed

The valuation of the house Gauthier is discussed: from tens of millions and hundreds of millions.The house would have recorded a total turnover of 22.5 million euros in 2009, a fall of 19% over the previous year. The decline was particularly strong internationally (-31%). The house has recorded an operating loss of 3.6 million euros, against a weak positive result of EUR 271 645 in 2008.

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"Sony Ericsson will partner with the biggest names in entertainment," explains director France, Pierre Perron. Illustration of this strategy, the partnership between the phone manufacturer and Canal +. The platform will be available on some smartphones range from the month of April. The application will be embedded directly on phones. The offer is decorated with three months free trial on all of Canal +. Then, without subscription, only emissions will be available in clear.

The announcement came while the group wants to make her comeback on the smartphone segment. Outpaced the market, Sony Ericsson has added four new references to its Xperia range, with the ambition to sell 2 million units in France this year.Currently, he weighs 10% of this market, which stood at just under 8 million units in 2010.

To do this, the brand mobile phone, a joint venture equally owned by Sony and Ericsson, placing more than ever on his Japanese parentage. Sony Ericsson has taken its technology to Sony Bravia Engine that its TV crew to offer a "better signal processing, richer colors …." For the photo, Exmor R is directly inherited from the image capture developed for ranges of SLR cameras and compact Japanese. With Xperia Play, the smartphone-game console, the brand has pushed the logic of convergence to a climax.

The convergence between television and the phone does not stop there. Connected to a TV with an HDMI cable, a smartphone brand makes "any connected TV."Indeed, it is possible, from its smartphone view photos, videos on his TV and even surfing. Everything is even easier when the TV is also a Sony, with a dedicated menu. But Sony TVs are themselves connected. "We are number two on TV in France and number one for sales of TV connected with 50% market share at the end of 2010," says Philippe Citroën, managing director of Sony France. A quarter of owners have actually connected their television. "They use it mainly for the TV catch up, Sony has a partnership with M6 Replay or visit community sites like Dailymotion," added Philippe Citroën.

Remains whether this marriage of the "best of both worlds", will be sufficient to allow Sony Ericsson to regain lost market share in mobile telephony.

It's another year of strong recruitments in France that EDF plans for 2011. The group announced this morning that 4600 recruits (including 1,500 management posts), mostly young people, against 4300 last year. Meanwhile, about 3,800 departures were recorded last year at EDF and ERDF and 3750 are expected this year, giving a net job creation of 850 jobs.

The energy giant is facing a dual challenge: firstly, it must accompany the resumption of nuclear development in the world, extending the life of plants, and new construction projects of thermal power plants or hydraulic. On the other hand it must deal with a pyramid that will lead to retirement from 25 to 30% of workforce in France by 2015.A proportion that rises to half the actual maintenance and operating in the fields of manufacturing, engineering and distribution.

"We are since 2007 on the movement of medium and long term, with an increase in growth rate of our assignments. Over a period of five years and by 2013, the group has recruited 15,000 people in France.Increase the lifetime of nuclear power plants involves indeed predict trades at 15, the profiles necessary to recruit and train, "said Marianne Laigneau, HR group EDF.

Hiring energy group – which currently has 170,000 employees worldwide and 240 jobs – mainly concern the nuclear pole (engineering and operations), with around 2440 vacancies, but also R & D (70), the hydraulic (300), thermal (100), while that ERDF (the distribution center) will proceed to 1400 hires.

Marianne Laigneau also confirmed the group's commitment towards alternation. EDF is proposing this year 2400 offers alternating at all skill levels. Including personnel already in training in 2010, "more than 4,700 staff are currently in the group," she recalls.