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It will be called Fantastica. The owner of Swiss-Italian MSC Cruises sign this morning at Saint-Nazaire, in the presence of Nicolas Sarkozy, the command of a cruise ship in shipbuilding group STX France (formerly Chantiers de l'Atlantique). The ship, the twelfth of its fleet, will be delivered in May 2012 for an amount of 575 million euros.

"Very stable, will ship with our other two ships, MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida, the biggest and most luxurious cruise ship ever commissioned by a European ship owner to sail the Mediterranean, Le Figaro said Gianluigi Aponte, founding president of MSC Cruises it controls 100%. It will be a VIP class, with 99 staterooms, butler service and placeholders: lounge, restaurant, pool, spa and gym. "Feature 333.3 meters and a width of 38 meters maximum, Fantastica can reach speeds of 23.7 knots.Sailing from Marseilles, he will have 1751 cabins and can accommodate 4,000 passengers. This will increase by 10% the capacity of MSC Cruises, carrying 1.4 million passengers in 2013. Count from 750 to 2000 euros per week all inclusive, with a stopover day.

A letter of intent was signed in early March for this order, which required the support of the State. For STX France is a vital site. His yards idling. To avoid the worst, the government had to mobilize the French bank (Credit Agricole CIB BNP Paribas and Natixis), who were reluctant to grant the necessary funds (our edition of February 18). "The president has made sure that the site did not stop," says Gianluigi Aponte.MSC Cruises and enjoys the support of Coface, the French agency for export credit, which guarantees funding.

Another optional command ship

The owner will pay his command five times in twelve years. It will first check today, amounting to 115 million euros. First client of Chantiers de l'Atlantique, to whom he has already spent 10 orders, MSC Cruises claims the second place cruise in France and number four worldwide. His boss was pleased to have the most modern fleet in the world: if the oldest ship date of 1981, all others were built after 2002. The owner has already made "an option" to purchase STX for the next ship, a steamer of the same scale as the Fantastica. "We continue to invest, because the cruise is well. The industry has felt only slightly crisis, says Gianluigi Aponte.The Italians and the Koreans are eager to work with us. But I'm faithful to STX for over seven years. When I get on well with a supplier, I did not change for a few million euros! "

Last year, MSC Cruises has increased by about 30% of its turnover to 1.2 billion euros. Its net profit reached 60 million euros. "With an average price of 1200 euros or so, the cruise excellent value for money," says Gianluigi Aponte. It attracts more and more. "The younger clientele: the average age is now about forty years.

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Axa Thursday completed the sale of part of its UK business group Resolution. A transaction for the equivalent of 3.3 billion euros, reflecting an exceptional depreciation of 1.4 billion euros in the accounts of Axa. The company, however, remain profitable in the first half. Its CEO, Henri de Castries, puts this sale as part of the strategy group.

LE FIGARO. – You transfer some of your activities in Great Britain. Would you withdraw from the country?

Henri de Castries. – No, no way. It is not out of the United Kingdom but we concentrate, as in our other markets, segments on the most strategic and fastest growing.Therefore we give only a part of our life insurance in Britain: the activities of traditional life insurance, as we had also stopped developing in 2002 because they no longer matched the expectations of our customers while being highly capital consuming. However, we maintain a portfolio of more modern products, whose growth prospects seem high and where margins are more consistent with the group average which is between 15% and 20%. Moreover, the operation does not damage insurance, or health.With this transaction for 2.75 billion pounds (3.3 billion euros), we derive the capital that we can redeploy where customer needs are the greatest.

Is this a turning point in your strategy? And should we expect AXA on acquisitions in emerging markets?

The crisis has caused a market decline and a new distribution of growth areas. It has not changed the major principles of our strategy, instead. We'll continue developing our core businesses for damages, life insurance, asset management through organic growth and, opportunistically, through acquisitions. The developed markets still have good growth prospects, even if only from the effect of demographic changes, but we work in parallel on an allocation of our resources to emerging countries in Asia, of course, but not only.There are actually three other major areas of expansion: the Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean area and Latin America. In Asia, growth is actually attractive. But the modalities of development of foreign players are still complex, especially in China and India. So do not confine our ambitions to these two major markets.

In Asia, the failure of the attempted takeover by Prudential AIA offers does it generate new opportunities?

Prudential was willing to put a price on the table that seemed very exaggerated. Our priority in Asia today is to conclude the transaction on Axa Asia Pacific. Then we'll see …

In Europe, the prudential rules could push banks to divest their insurance subsidiaries. Axa is he interested?

We observe closely what is happening.But no movement of magnitude is possible – for Axa as with all other major players – as we are not clear about what will be the regulation of the bank and the insurance. Then we will examine the opportunities. But I prefer to say at the outset that we, the insurers will not be easy these suppliers of capital as some might hope. We are ready to balanced partnerships with banks. But the distribution network – in this case banking – should not count on us to collect commissions unreasonable.

What about your thoughts on the construction of a new business plan?

It is actually an ongoing process, but we do actually re-adjustment of our business plan in light of the crisis, which has changed the level of our market and changed their dynamics.The result of our thoughts on our new objectives will be known early next year.

How do you rate prudential reforms as they prepare?

Insurers who had managed to remain faithful to their trades have weathered to the crisis. No European player has needed to raise capital. We agree with the economic approach to Solvency II proposes that risk, but be careful to calibrate as insurers meet an essential mission: they are long term investors, thus stabilizing the natural system. Nobody has an interest in an excess of zeal on the part of the prudential regulator activity handicap players like us. Therefore, the new standards should not result in additional capital needs. More broadly, these reforms raise a fundamental question: Europeans' appetite for risk.This is a new phase of debate on the precautionary principle: there is too much caution can be harmful. In this case, it can cause no growth. It must strike the right balance.

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Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the graphic

The euro zone growth will do better than expected this year, but then things could get tougher for weak links – including Greece and Portugal – which continue to frighten the markets with their debt problems. The European Commission has revised upward its growth forecast Wednesday in 2010, 0.9% (against 0.7% previously forecast). In 2011, the forecast remains unchanged at +1.5%.

"The improved prospects for economic growth this year is good news for Europe," said Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. But "we must ensure that risks to financial stability does not compromise this".These figures have initially supported the markets, before a relapse during the meeting.

Forecast 2011 decline

The Commission stressed that the pace of recovery could vary from one state to another. The Netherlands, Germany and France are expected to fare well in the game But in the South, we can expect a performance below average. Greece and could show a contraction of GDP – 3% this year and – 0.5% next year. Spain will be a little better, with growth expected to – 0.4% and 0.8% respectively. In Portugal, the Commission expects a GDP growth of +0.5% this year and 0.7% next year.For these three countries, forecast in 2011 have been revised downwards compared to the figures published in the fall.

The challenge for these countries is that they must serve their public finances without stifling the recovery. "Sustained growth requires fiscal consolidation efforts and specific reforms that improve productivity and employment", insisted Mr Rehn. The deficit is expected to reach 9.3% of GDP in Greece this year, against 9.8% and 8.5% in Spain to Portugal – the record being held by Ireland with 11.7%. But "if other measures sontentreprises farms (to clean up the accounts, Ed), we can expect that this will have an effect on growth," says one to the Commission.

While fears of contagion from the crisis scariest Greek markets, the EU executive wanted was reassuring."Greece is a unique and special," said Rehn, and "It's important to extinguish the brush fire before it becomes a wildfire in the European Union."

For its part, the head of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker, has ruled out any risk of contagion Greek, and any assumptions bursting of the euro area. As to former Commission President Jacques Delors, he expressed regret for lost time: "The firefighters are at work" to defend Greece and the euro, but "we must say they have been slow .

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just been presented with a request for assistance from Greece. Until now, the IMF provided only technical assistance to Athens. The team of experts is hard at work in the capital of Greece. "We are ready to act quickly in response to this demand," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn Friday, IMF Managing Director. And Youssef Boutros-Ghali, chairman of the board of the institution, recalled: "Aid to Greece will take time. This can not happen from one day to another. "Especially since the Papandreou government is engaged in negotiations on a plan" covering several years. "

So far, the IMF had not been involved in developing the plan of the European Union. This is not a member of the board of the fund. The proposals could therefore engage the IMF, said it does in Washington.It is expected to "several weeks" of negotiations. The amount of the full plan could exceed the record $ 58 billion set by Korea in 1997 with the conditions negotiated by the IMF.

The multilateral institution also assumed that the share of aid to Greece will represent one third of the package agreed by the other countries of the euro area. But this figure could possibly change after the verdict of the negotiators of the fund. The absence of a margin for adjustment by devaluation, however, seriously complicates the terms that the IMF should negotiate with the Greek authorities.This is not entirely without precedent: for example, Latvia has received 1.7 billion euros from the IMF in 2008, as part of an international package of 7.5 billion, while keeping its currency indexed euro.

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77% of turnover is generated abroad, including 11% in Asia.

The turnover of automotive operations increased by 53.4% over the first three months of the year, to 605.6 million, a level comparable to the turnover of the fourth quarter of 2009 (594 million euros).The environment of the activity rose 4.1% to 104.2 million unsecured personal loans.

In 2009, the automotive supplier has made an annual turnover of 2.459 billion euros, down 8.8% and a profit of 63.8 million against a loss in 2008.

Boosted by new models

The activity was supported by the rebound in production in North America and Europe, by continued strong growth in Asia, especially China (152%) and by new model launches in Germany BMW X1 and X5 in the U.S., the Citroen C3 and DS3 in France and the Opel Astra in Germany.

The turnover of the second quarter of 2010 should be similar to the First and growth pole Environment, started in Q1 2010, is expected to accelerate throughout the year, the company said in a statement.

The title, which has a market capitalization of 570 million euros, has already increased by nearly 75% since 1 January after a gain of 160% in 2009.

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End of turbulence for the advertising of France Televisions? The group's board decided on Tuesday morning to suspend negotiations with the consortium formed by Publicis and Lov St?phane Courbit, confirmed by France Televisions in a statement.

Discussions were already sealed since Frederic Mitterrand has reported an "ethical problem" for potential buyers. Jean-Francois Cope said his contribution to the debate by expressing support for the maintenance of advertising day after 2011, the date fixed by law to decide the future of advertising on France Televisions.The decision of the board of directors is therefore in the direction of the leader of UMP.

This decision takes into account "the substantial uncertainty surrounding whether or not to advertise before 20h," the statement said the leadership of France Televisions, which states that the "exclusive negotiations in progress is intrinsically linked to the assumption of suppression of advertising before 20 hours on the antennae of the group. "

A result in ahead of schedule

The management team at France Televisions has another reason to rejoice. According to the Tribune on Tuesday, she managed to exit the group's public accounts in 2009, making him reap a profit of 19.6 million against a net loss of 78.4 million in 2008. The performance is surprising in light of the deficit of 135 million originally budgeted. All indicators are also green.Operating income also goes a loss of 101.2 million to a profit of 68.7 million is one year. A result that the State had not expected before 2011 pay day loan lenders.

Net revenue available group also rose to 2.497 billion against 2.263 billion a year earlier. This result is explained partly by an 8% increase in advertising revenues for 20 hours (405 million euros), and secondly, by a government grant of 405 million euros expected to offset the stop advertising after 20 hours in 2009 which resulted in a shortfall of 383 million euros to France Televisions.

The cost of programs increases

The results show an increase in expenses of 3.2% to 2.45 billion euros. Since the cessation of advertising, France Televisions was indeed invest heavily in its production.The group would also step up its commitments in the sector of cinema

These new standards imposed on manufacturers led to an increase of 4% of program costs to 1.94 billion euros. The savings from the reduction of staff (120 positions at least 10,350) are not sufficient to compensate. Hence the current plan of internal synergy.

Confusion surrounds the departure of Carolis

These results sow disorder while rumors of departure of Patrick de Carolis at the end of his term in August amplified since Saturday. Alexandre Bompard, 37 years and current CEO of Europe 1 appears to be the favorite to take the head of France Televisions. His appointment could even intervene Tuesday on the sidelines of the meeting of the board of directors of France Televisions or Wednesday in Council of Ministers.The information is currently denied by the Elysee.

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Atmosphere tense in this weekend at the Porte de Versailles in Paris. While Friday is usually translated by a certain relaxation in the aisles of the Salon of Agriculture after the parade policies during the week this year, the reverse occurs. The farming community was mobilized for the coming of the President of the Republic. Unable to come Saturday for the opening, a gesture understood by many farmers, Nicolas Sarkozy came close this morning 47th. All responsible booths are still there to be present during the presidential transition. It should arrive Saturday around 9 hours for a quick round half past one in the aisles of Hall 1, the animals, and those of Hall 2. That housing actors in crop production.He must then lead a roundtable with all unions representing farm: FNSEA in mind, the Coordination Rurale and the Confederation Paysanne (Conf '). On this occasion the Head of State who will not come empty handed must disclose his actions to inflate morale. This is the lowest after declining average farm income of one third in 2009, following a decrease of 20% a year ago. "The head of state is expected to announce additional measures in terms of emergency support to agriculture last fall, the Figaro says a union official. This could result in an extension of almost 500 million euros for loans subsidized about 1.5 billion euros and also relaxation of agri-environmental measures, "he says. A meeting should end around noon. One thing seems certain already.The atmosphere should not be that of the previous day, when Jacques Chirac, still as passionate about agriculture, was cheered by the audience after a visit of 3 hours.

As for attendance – for the common man the show remains open as usual until Sunday evening – Organizers are hoping now over 20 000 visitors less. "But this should remain a good year this year we will exceed the 600,000 visitors mark, says Juana Moreno, Director General of the International Exhibition of Agriculture. But we will only probably not the 670,000 visitors last year at the current rate of admissions. " Three major explanations for this. The storm last Sunday slowed the enthusiasm of the visitors that they are provincial or Parisian.Moreover, events like the milk of the Apli (Association of Milk Producers independent) or Conf 'have also dampened the enthusiasm of visitors. Finally the prospect of a presidential visit in a tense atmosphere does not help for parents with small children. Still, the pride of exhibitors is still there and read on their faces passionate.

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STMicroelectronics sees his horizon emerge somewhat after a particularly troubled. The results presented in the fourth quarter by the group on Wednesday showed a recovery of its activity at the end of 2009, which remain generally a bad thought. On the quarter, earnings per share are below expectations, however the sales turn out better than expected. Its net sales in the fourth quarter has indeed reached 2.583 billion dollars, up 13.6% from the previous quarter.In one year, the group's net loss was significantly reduced since it has melted by 80%, from $ 366 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, 70 million dollars over the last three months of 2009.

But for all of 2009, net loss of STMicroelectronics reached 1.13 billion or $ -1.29 per share, up 43.9% compared to the loss recorded on the the year 2008. On the whole financial year, its turnover amounted to 8.51 billion dollars, down 13.5% over 2008 free credit report online . Its gross margin in 2009 amounted to 30.9%, against 36.2% in 2008.

Expected decline in sales in first quarter 2010

In 2010, Carlo Bozotti, group general manager, said he was "excited about the many opportunities that await us."According to him, STMicroelectronics began the year with "a solid backlog. He said provision "in the first quarter 2010 a decrease in our revenues between about -7% and -13% compared to fourth quarter 2009, which corresponds to a positive growth of between 35% and 45% relative in the first quarter of 2009. "

As for gross margin of STMicroelectronics, emerged at 37% in the fourth quarter of 2009, as planned, it could grow to 37.5% in first quarter 2010.

In the eyes of analysts, these projections appeared less confident than those revealed yesterday by the U.S. Texas Instruments. Trade-offs could be made this Wednesday, to the detriment of Title STMicroelectronics.

It's already Christmas in the Paris Bourse. At the close, the CAC 40 rose 0.76%% to 3905 points, posting its highest in a year. Yet Moody's has today reduced the debt rating of Greece from A1 to A2. The prospect remains negative.

In terms of economic statistics in France, the producer prices rose 0.2% in November according to Insee, against 0.8% in October. In one year, producer prices have declined by cons of 4.5%. La France has increased its emissions program debt in the medium and long terms for 2010 from 175 to 188 billion euros, said Tuesday the Agency France Tr?sor (AFT).

But investors were reassured by the information on resales of new housing across the Atlantic.

More information from 18 hours ….