Posts Tagged ‘technology’

The French economy accelerates its recovery

April 9, 2011 - 9:24 pm Comments Off

Christine Lagarde is good news. The Minister of Economy announced Thursday evening that the forecast deficit of France for 2011 is reduced to 5.7% of GDP as against 6% previously. "We had committed to 6% for the year 2011 and I will announce tomorrow that the European partners have recalibrated our goal to 5.7%," she said on the eve of a meeting Budapest with its European counterparts.

Christine Lagarde also said it "maintains its forecast for growth to 2% for 2011, given all the indicators in manufacturing or in services."

Acceleration of activity

In his memo on the economy released on Thursday, INSEE rightly emphasizes that economic activity in France in the first half of 2011 will see an "acceleration"."In our scenario, the shocks go, resist the activity," summarized Sandrine Duchêne, head of the economic situation of the Institute.

INSEE, includes such an "acceleration of activity in early 2011 in France with a" rebound "of 0.6% growth in first quarter (compared to first quarter 2010), driven by manufacturing, followed by a "slowdown" to 0.4% in the second. France was well into mid-table European with Germany in pole position (1.1% in the first quarter, 0.6% in the second, according to INSEE).

To achieve the 2% increase announced by Christine Lagarde, France should show 0.7% in each of the third and fourth quarters, noted Jean-François Ouvrard, Head of Division cyclical synthesis.A new upturn in the economy would be necessary.

Rebound in exports

According to the institute, the French economy has benefited from a "rebound in exports early this year" in an international environment considered a "carrier". INSEE also relies on a catch-up "point" in public works, after a harsh winter. "A dynamic self-sustaining recovery has also been engaged for several quarters in France and consolidated, based on investment and employment," says Sandrine Duchêne.

Household consumption would be favored at the beginning of the year by the effects of "tail" of scrapping with the delivery of vehicles ordered before December 31, 2010.

The "shock" of food prices

Regarding the purchasing power of households, Insee said it would progress only (+0.1%) in the first quarter of 2011, before the second 0.3%.It would be sealed by the "resurgence of inflation" found after the oil shock of recent months. According to INSEE, inflation would be 1.9% year on year in June against 1.8% in December.

The "shock" to come will likely be about food. "Rising raw material was passed shortly, French singularity ', and its impact on consumer prices by distributors should intervene in the coming months.

Unemployment stabilized at mid-year

Regarding employment, the paper discusses the INSEE stabilization of unemployment by mid-2011. "On the horizon of the forecast, the unemployment rate would stabilize.It would amount to 9.1% of the workforce in France (9.5% including Dom), at the end of the second quarter of 2011, "INSEE said.

The increase in jobs in the first half of this year should be a little stronger than that of the working population (29,000 people) "supported" by phasing out the exemption from seeking employment. Because between January and June 2011, job creation would total 76,000 posts.

In the commercial sector (excluding agriculture), the most sensitive to economic conditions and has restarted last year, 78,000 new jobs would emerge, after 60,000 in the second half of 2010. 10,000 jobs would be created as non-employees.But in the non-profit, employment decrease of 7,000 positions, "because of declining admissions in subsidized contracts, while farm workers would fall by 5,000.

Through the mechanism of adjustment of wages to inflation, they should increase. But, despite this increase in nominal wages, real wages should remain stable in the first half, especially against the resurgence of inflation. "In Public, real wages continue early 2011 slowdown that began in 2010." The average salary per capita (SMTP) growth would fall by 0.9%.

No contagion from the debt crisis

Prudente, INSEE noted however that a number of uncertainties could affect its forecasts commme tensions on European sovereign debt."The current crisis seems to be very localized in Portugal," says Sandrine Duchêne, however, saying "the risks of contagion to all sovereign debt of the eurozone less important that a few months."

(With agencies)

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Procter & Gamble sells Pringles crisps

April 6, 2011 - 4:52 pm Comments Off

What was even Pringles Procter & Gamble, one might ask? The famous canned chips, which can be enjoyed in over 140 countries, were the last food brand – apart from the dog food – including shampoos, detergents, batteries and other razors marketed by P & G.

Pringles has found its place in the U.S. food group Diamond Foods, which will triple its snacks segment with the operation. This specialist snacks spends $ 2 saving account pay day loan.35 billion, including $ 1.5 billion in shares, and also takes over a debt of 850 million. Diamond Foods has made several acquisitions in recent years, especially from General Mills, who comes to him, to enter the capital of Yoplait.

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The improvement is confirmed for the industry

March 25, 2011 - 6:28 am Comments Off

Even Eric Besson went there for his comment: "The industrial morale improved in March (…), reaching its highest level since late 2007, welcomed on Thursday the Minister of Industry, who "production prospects point to a growth above the long-term average." He rarely says Bercy indicators as technical as those on the industrial morale.

But figures published by INSEE actually quite surprising: despite the crisis of the euro, the earthquake in Japan and soaring oil prices consecutive revolutions in Arab countries, the French industrial morale was set at 109 points this month, 3 percentage points higher than February. A trend confirmed by the publication, in the wake of the PMI purchasing managers, stood at 56.6 points, up significantly, too, compared to February.

After a blip in the third quarter of 2010, both of these indicators are returned to levels close to their highs. Levels consistent, according to analyst firm Markit, which produces the PMI, "with growth of 0.7% in the first quarter, or more, possibly around 0.9%. "The French economy seems to have ended the first quarter on a not particularly fast," said Chris Williamson, economist at Markit.In detail, new orders sent to the industrial and service companies are growing at their fastest pace since September 2000.

"Positive Outlook"

France is no exception: "The global industrial production continues to grow and in January it exceeded by nearly 4% above its early 2008 high point observed, within the Group of Industrial Federations (GFI) and WCC Rexecode in their memorandum of industrial economic spring cash advance now. If production is still lagging behind its pre-crisis levels in Europe, especially France, but the gap is expected to reverse in the coming months.

"The investment industry could rebound 14% in 2011," predicts WCC Rexecode.Especially as the financial capacity of companies have improved overall, as evidenced by the low percentage (11%) of industrial enterprises face today acknowledging cash flow problems. They were 25% in this case at the height of the crisis. Overall, "the intensity of the recovery in France is comparable to that of American industry, but less strong than in Germany," says Peter Gattaz, president of GFI, who said "this positive outlook should be accompanied a stabilization of industrial employment. " In fact, with 3.56 million employees identified by WCC Rexecode late 2010, the industrial workforce grew 0.2% last year.

An encouraging sign, although since its highs in late 2000 (4.4 million jobs) sector has been hit hard.All these signs bode well when the GFI will launch on April 4, his first week of the industry to develop this sector with French, and especially young people.

SeLoger.com will emerge from the Paris Bourse

March 23, 2011 - 5:24 pm Comments Off

The German publisher Axel Springer has gained control over 95% of the company of small ads on the Internet Seloger.com from the extension of its tender offer (OPA) announced the Authority Financial Markets (AMF), confirming a report from Reuters. "It (score) Stalinist," said one of those people.

The success of this operation means that SeLoger.com may soon bid farewell to the Exchange. Indeed, the French stock exchange law authorizes the issuer of a tender offer to delist its target if he can control at least 95% of its capital at the end of its range. The results of the extension of the tender offer to 38.05 euros per share is expected to be formally announced Wednesday by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF).

A company owning more than 95% of another listed company for the possibility to via IPO Squeeze (OPRO), to redeem all shares on the market. Investors then have the obligation to tender their shares to the offer as opposed to a takeover bid. This procedure is also called "squeeze out". Specifically, the delisting occurs most often in the form of a Public Buyout Offer (OPR) followed by a takeover of Squeeze (OPRO, which will compensate the shareholders of the company Payday Loan for Bad Credit.

The delisting is not excluded

Axel Springer has not formally ruled out making a "squeeze-out on SeLoger.com, but also said he has nothing against the act of keeping one of its acquisitions listed, as is still the case for Aufeminin, another French star net bought by the German publisher.Out a group of stock and raise its stake to 100% allows the shareholder to make a tax consolidation and reassembling easier dividends to the parent.

For its part, SeLoger.com announced Monday that he expected a double digit growth of its key financial indicators in 2011 thanks to record levels of hearing and that he intended to double its dividend . After a fierce battle market, Axel Springer was able to convince management and major shareholders of SeLoger.com. After his first offer, the publisher of the German tabloid Bild controlled nearly 75% stake in the company.

(With agencies)

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Wall Street ended the week on a positive note

March 19, 2011 - 11:00 pm Comments Off

The NYSE has ended as it began, up on Friday, continuing its progressive movement initiated Thursday. The Dow Jones advance at the close of 0.71% to 11,858.52 points, the Nasdaq by 0.29% to 2643.67 points and the S & P 500 by 0.43% to 1279.21 points. The increase was however somewhat blurred throughout the session.

If fear of a major nuclear disaster in Japan seems to retreat somewhat, the environment remains nervous, with investors again worried about the risks of a rise in crude oil prices, while on Friday evening, Washington , Paris, London and the Arab League have issued an ultimatum to Libya. A barrel in New York is always worth more than $ 100 to 22 hours.In addition, Bahrain's continued repression and puts the gold noi pressure.

In Tokyo this morning, the Nikkei has returned 2.72%, supported by the announcement of a joint G7 intervention on the foreign exchange market to counter soaring yen. On the foreign exchange market, this decision was immediately able to return to the dollar above 80 yen in Tokyo, a day after a record at 76.36 yen. In early afternoon in Paris, the greenback was trading at 81.69 yen.

Moreover, today's big news overseas, the Fed said Friday it allowed some of the nineteen largest U.S. banks to pay back dividends or increase them, after new tests of resistance banking .

Several U.S. banks immediately announced Friday increases the compensation of shareholders, after the green light from the Federal Reserve, including JPMorgan Chase (2.42% to 45.64 dollars) to quintuple its dividend and launching a multi-year redemption shares of $ 15 billion. Wells Fargo (+1.41% to 31.80 dollars) for its part announced that it was his first quarter dividend from May to December dollars per share.

Meeting of the "Four Witches"

On the macroeconomic front there is no major indicator on the agenda of U.S. investors on Monday. The market will however be many technical movements on Friday, sitting in this so-called "four witches."An appointment is the quarterly expiration of four simultaneous types of options and futures for stocks and stock indexes.

The values ​​listed after the close of Wall Street yesterday, the American General Mills (+1.41% to 36.64 dollars), owner of Häagen-Dazs, entered into "exclusive negotiations" to buy more of the half (51%) of the number two worldwide in fresh dairy products, French Yoplait, for over 800 million euros investment fund PAI Partners payday advances.General Mills' Yoplait is the franchisee in the United States and as such greatly expanded the brand to the little flower on the market.

Boeing (1.11% to 69.06 dollars) for its part, announced the arrival of Mark Allen, currently vice president for worldwide legal affairs as president of Boeing China, following the retirement of David Wang .

Also after the close of U.S. markets, General Motors (1.27% to 31.84 dollars) announced it would suspend production at its plant in Shreveport, Louisiana next week due to a disruption of supplies of spare parts from Japan. The other plants in North America will continue to operate normally. In addition, GM expects a 10% decline in production in Korea in March, also due to supply problems.

The Microsoft IT group (+0.08% to 24.80 dollars) has announced the dismantling of a "complex" of sending billions of spam (spam) daily on offers to buy fake drugs.

For its part, Nike (-9.23% to 77.53 dollars) has reported a net profit of $ 523 million in the third quarter increased 5% over a year and a turnover of $ 5.1 billion, up 8% excluding currency effects.

Moreover, the manufacture of the tablet 2 Apple iPad (-1.19% to 330.67 U.S. dollars) is threatened by the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which could lead to "logistical disruptions" and disruptions in component supply, according to research firm iSuppli IHS.

Groupon valued 25 billion

The platform for financial exchanges and Nasdaq Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) are struggling to agree on an offer on the cons exchange group NYSE Euronext, under a merger with Deutsche Boerse, said Thursday the Wall Street Journal.

Also note, the U.S. computer security firm RSA announced Thursday that hackers had penetrated into its systems and retrieve information that might allow them to circumvent the defenses of companies equipped with its technology.

Finally, according to The New York Times, the American website Groupon, which enables the faithful to receive coupons on their purchases, could be valued near $ 25 billion at its upcoming IPO, a higher price that Google had obtained at the time of its development.The new rising star of the internet, dismissing the fall of an offer to buy this same Google $ 6 billion, could make his case for IPO this spring, the paper said on its website.

China ready to help European countries

March 12, 2011 - 11:20 am Comments Off

While China has already provided support to European countries struggling with debt problems, such as Spain or Portugal, it could again give them a boost. The central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said on Friday that "despite difficulties in some European countries, China supports strong to overcome their budgetary difficulties and succeed in their economic recovery."

Moreover, Zhou Xiaochuan said China is "very confident in the euro area and its ability to overcome the crisis. What about European countries in difficulty, the governor said: "We have confidence in their economic prospects." A response to the wave of downgrades by Moody's sovereign these days, that hit Greece and Spain.

China pledged last year to support the euro zone countries face the rising cost of sovereign debt, worsened by U.S. rating agencies. The Spanish daily El Pais had reported in early January that the Chinese government planned to buy six billion euros of debt in Spain. In December, the Portuguese daily Jornal de Negocios wrote that Beijing was ready to buy five billion euros of debt Portuguese. At the end of last year, the chief economist of the bank Natixis, Patrick Artus, had considered buying Chinese Greek debt to several hundred million euros. Beijing has never confirmed any of these amounts.

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Sony Ericsson signs partnership with Canal +

March 10, 2011 - 10:12 pm Comments Off

"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.

Faurecia advantage of the recovery of the automotive sector

February 8, 2011 - 1:36 pm Comments Off

Supported by the scrapping and recovery measures, the automotive sector rebounded in 2010. The French automotive supplier Faurecia has benefited from the market recovery in 2010 and ended in the green: the net profit amounted to 202 million euros against a loss in 2009 and for the fifth consecutive year of 434 million.

Faurecia and exceeded all its goals with an operating profit of 456 million euros last year, representing a margin of 3.3% of sales, a figure higher than the target set by the OEM (over 400 million euros).

The group also exceeded its goal of net cash flow (net cash flow) of 100 million euros for 2010, reaching 222 million.

Turnover has also risen sharply, from 48% to 13.79 billion euros.Group sales 57.4% owned by the manufacturer PSA were fired by several areas: parts and components manufacturers, the monoliths, tooling and prototypes. In all geographical areas where the group is present, sales are also well made, with a leap of particular products in North America and Asia. Faurecia strengthened its activities with the acquisition of American Emcon Technologies, specializing in technologies to control exhaust emissions, and that of Plastal Germany, specializing in automotive exterior parts.

Faurecia could "seize opportunities for consolidation"

In terms of outlook, the supplier is confident for 2011, especially since it garnered last year a record number of contracts (13.1 billion euros) to "ensure the group's growth."Therefore, it is a turnover of between 14.8 and 15.3 billion euros this year, an operating margin of between 580 and 640 million and net cash flows in excess of 200 million.

Faurecia will also continue its expansion in Asia, especially China with the construction of seven new plants and intends "to exploit future opportunities for consolidation."

With this publication, the group will propose a dividend of 0.25 euro per share at the next general meeting.

Shortly after opening, the title Faurecia flies nearly 7% and signs the largest increase in the SBF 120. In its wake, all the cars ahead values: Valeo rose 4.1%, Peugeot and Renault by 3.1% to 2.1%.

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The IMF wants to regulate capital flows

February 4, 2011 - 10:32 am Comments Off

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is considering measures to regulate international capital flows, without deciding in favor of a "code of conduct" as proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy, in charge of the Presidency of the G20.

"We see really a case-by-case basis to determine what steps countries should take," said yesterday, Thursday, the Director of External Relations of the Fund, Caroline Atkinson. IMF confirms having received from the French president, who has made the framework for capital flows a priority of the G20 proposals for a firm line from the States, but said his conduct own thinking in parallel.

Tuesday in Singapore, Dominique Strauss Khan had recognized the need for capital control measures for countries that receive "destabilizing flows and short-term" capital payday loans."In this case, it is our opinion, even if it's fairly new to the IMF, capital controls may be provisional in place." But he stressed the need for these measures, would be to keep capital within the borders, are "temporary", thereby guard against any financial protectionism.

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Vivendi, Messier sentenced to three years probation

January 23, 2011 - 12:36 am Comments Off

The case takes us back to the 2000s, when Jean-Marie Messier (J2M) reigned supreme on the Vivendi Universal empire. The French court ruled on Friday about the fate of the businessman, spent two years at the helm of a group, Generale des Eaux, which he turned into a media giant, and led to almost bankruptcy in 2002. After eight years of investigation and trial bankruptcies on one of the hottest and most publicized in recent years in France, the court sentenced him to a term of three years suspended sentence for embezzlement in her in managing the media and communications group. For his part, Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive of Warner, was sentenced to fifteen months suspended sentence and five million euro fine for insider trading.

More charges weighed on J2M.The first is the "dissemination of false or misleading" about the financial health of Vivendi. In fact, Jean-Marie Messier, Vivendi Universal said that was perfectly healthy even though the group was awash in debt, nearly $ 20 billion in 2002. The former officer is also suspected "abuse of social good" in connection with a golden parachute negotiated $ 20.5 million, but not touched. Finally, he is alleged to have manipulated prices by buying securities in order to do so artificially.

Messier admits mistakes but no offense

The latter acknowledges having made mistakes, but no crime. The former boss, 54, concedes, the Wall Street Journal: "I was young, I've said too much and I became a symbol." Whatever the Horns of Canal + J6M nicknamed (for Jean Marie Messier, Myself Master of the World) even regretted his "arrogance" at the time.But beyond its mismanagement, Jean-Marie Messier also challenges a softer environment cheap credit report. He recalled that the bursting of the dotcom bubble and September 11 were particularly devastating for the values of the new economy traded.

He especially insists he did not deliberately sought to mislead analysts and shareholders. "Some of my decisions in the management proved wrong, but a fraud? Never, Never, never! "He says. And he points out the flaws in the file. The indictment for abuse of social good based on a negotiated golden parachute … but never touched. As for price manipulation, it acknowledges the massive purchase of Vivendi shares after the attacks of Sept. 11, but in order to protect the business speculators.

Relax expected

And his defense seems to have already convinced: the prosecution has demanded his release, he believes did not deliberately sought to mislead analysts and shareholders.

Already in January 2010 as part of a class action lawsuits (class action), a U.S. court did not accept the accusations of lies about the group's accounts. However Vivendi had been convicted. This time, Jean-Marie Messier in theory liable to five years imprisonment and heavy fines.

And small shareholders of Vivendi who cheated were the spearhead of the French criminal investigation, hoping to get their side of the damages and see recognized the responsibility of the former management team in the failure group.After eight years of waiting, the last hours might seem like an eternity!

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