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The hands of talented British singer and songwriter Eric Clapton, nicknamed "God" (God), she plays alone, the ultimate sound of blues and rock'n'roll. Renowned for its crystal clear sound, the American brand of Fender guitars now also shine on the market scene on Wall Street.

Founded in 1946 by Leo Fender, the legendary American manufacturer of electric guitars, acoustic amplifiers and a record filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to enter "as soon as possible" on the Nasdaq. The date of the introduction, the number of shares offered and their prices have not yet been disclosed.

The company, which will appear on the Stock Exchange under the symbol "FNDR", hopes to raise up to $ 200 million. The inventor of the Stratocaster, the icon of the electric guitar and one of the most popular models in the world, with "use about $ 100 million of revenue raised through this IPO" to repay a portion of its debts, whose amount is close $ 250 million. "In 2011 we were number one in terms of market share in the U.S. in the field of electric guitars, acoustic, and bass amplifiers and electric guitars and basses," the company said.

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owned by the Weston Presidio investment fund, has made 700.6 million dollars in sales in 2011 to a net profit of 19 million. Some 45% of its sales generated outside the U.S., mainly on the European market.

Also Eric Clapton, Fender has among its faithful ambassadors Keith Richards, Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Bruce Springsteen or Jimi Hendrix in 1967 who sacrificed his Stratocaster on stage in setting them on fire before smashing against the ground guaranteed approval cash loans.

The inventor of the Stratocaster and Telecaster, Leo Fender, a creative force unmatched, gave his company to CBS in 1965. Fender grew considerably in the years that followed, before passing through an air hole associated with a lower quality instruments. In the 1980s, CBS will sell all its non-media related. A group of employees and investors led by William Schultz and his family and buy Fender to CBS in 1985.

Started from scratch

The new company had to start from scratch, including the sale or factory or machine. The emblem of the American guitar succeeds, however, his recovery, extending its grip on trademarks Guild, Gretsch, Jackson and Charvel excluding professional sound equipment. In 2008, Fender acquired Kaman Music Corporation (KMC), the largest U.S. independent distributor of musical instruments.

Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with a production facility in Corona, California, Fender has continued to cross swords with Gibson, another giant of the electric guitar that Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, is one of the greatest followers. His fetish model, the Les Paul, was designed in the early 1950s. At its heavier and fatter than her rival Stratocaster, the Gibson Les Paul ignites always also rock the world stage.

"Whatever the horizon, the sun is unavoidable in our energy mix, as well prepared." Consultant with the firm Kurt Salmon, Celine Alléaume strongly believes in developing the sector in France and its performance on international markets, provided a policy and regulatory framework more stable and certainly more readable. A few weeks before elections, the firm Kurt Salmon and the think-tank France Monday Territory Solar publish the first edition of the Observatory for solar photovoltaics.

"This is an evolving tool, which will be updated and expanded every quarter. Relying on public data, our goal is to provide clear indicators that help to objectify the debate, "said Celine Alléaume.

The photovoltaic park remains marginal

The main finding of the observatory is hardly conducive to optimism: over the last two years, the French photovoltaic park has certainly developed to exceed the 2300-megawatt (MW) combined-connected power, but it remains marginal while digging its lag behind the most advanced countries. "The residential market, initial engine market and generates employment, came into decay since the moratorium of 2 December 2010. Other markets may follow the same trend in the next two years, "says this inaugural edition. According to several players, more than half the jobs in the sector (about 25,000 at the origin) have been destroyed over the past year.

For Celine Alléaume, the goal of the Grenelle Environment -5 gigawatts by 2020 – is already obsolete: "Other countries are growing so fast that the target should be revised upwards. If the government maintains, the French industry will not find that more difficult to place in world markets. Today, we talk a lot of sun in France but its weight is insignificant (0.29% of electricity production in 2011). "

Celine Alléaume still puts forward the statistics of the American NGO Pew Charitable Trust to attest to the weakness of the French position: "On some 56 billion invested in small solar projects in 2010, France has only counted a little over 3 billion. Similarly, while more than 22 GW were installed in Germany until 2011, our country has only one just over 2.5 GW. "Under these conditions, the whole" animation "of one sector and sectors that remains to be clarified: positioning research, choice of technology marketing, distribution of roles and responsibilities across the value chain

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White smoke comes not yet held Monday in Brussels, where a decisive meeting of the Eurogroup on Greece. It comes from the Italian Presidency in Rome, and the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

After a phone conversation with Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of Greece Lucas Papademos, Friday, Mario Monti issued a statement encouraging: "At the end of this conversation, which came in the details and which was conducted in a constructive spirit, three participants were confident that an agreement on Greece can be reached Monday, the Eurogroup. "

So far, mistrust prevailed. Especially since the previous Eurogroup, on Greece, was canceled Wednesday. "This time, an agreement is likely," said Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels. "Otherwise it's too late, there will master more technical details …", he adds.

The challenge of this size Eurogroup is: give Greece its private creditors and the green light to launch the second bailout of Greece, estimated at 130 billion euros, to avoid a default in Greek debt falls from 14.5 billion euros on March 20.

That Greece is committed to the reforms demanded by the troika, beyond the April elections, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands had planned mid-week to split the bailout to not pay, firstly, that the sum needed to rescue private, or 30 billion euros. 

Exchange of debt

But this scenario is complicated, difficult to read for the markets, has been criticized by the IMF and European lawyers, who see it as a source of additional blocking with private creditors, asked to relinquish 70% of the value of their securities. "This option is no longer on the table," said Deputy German Finance Minister, Thomas Steffen. "We are ready to have a solid basis for a decision Monday," says the German Finance Ministry in Berlin.

The European Central Bank has brought his stone to an eventual agreement. Its chairman, Mario Draghi, submitted Thursday night, the vote of the Governors, the exchange of 50 billion euros of Greek bonds, which should allow eventually to redistribute 12 billion euros to Greece, which allocated to debt repayment countries. For its part, the IMF would be willing to contribute to the new rescue plan by a loan of 13 billion euros, reported last night the Wall Street Journal on its website.

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Nicolas Dupont-Aignan pulls no punches. "EU leaders are economic criminals" who are trying to rush the Greek people in a "total chaos," he said Wednesday, during the presentation of its 37 proposals for the 2012 presidential election. Before adding that Greece is doomed to leave the eurozone such as Spain and Portugal. "The euro is dead and the cumulative recession policies can only lead to disaster."

Based on this observation, the candidate intends sovereigntist "reorient Europe on a sound footing." How? By extirpating the France of the single currency as soon as possible "to move to the euro-franc". And hopefully get it "more flexibility" to allow the French economy and to "restore the competitiveness of our businesses are no longer aligned with a German euro". And for good reason, "the problem of France is not budget, but commercial," he insists. Restore the trade balance through a devaluation of 15 to 20% of the euro-Swiss franc against the euro mark.

Nationally, "the heart of its economic program," it is the financing of public investments by the Bank of France at rates of 0%. Nearly 500 billion euros and will be monetized over five years to reduce debt burdens. "At the end of this exceptional program, there will be more 49 billion of interest charges, but 30", approximately 19 billion of additional revenue to fund "investments for the future."

"Protectionism smart"

The downside, this printing money would generate, according to him, 3% inflation per year in 2013 before declining to 2% thereafter, on the grounds that there will be no private money creation one hour payday loan. Priority will also be given to the massive investment in research and education. "Globalization is the rivalry to conquer the great innovations of tomorrow," he said. With all these measures, the applicant does not intend nothing less than to relocate a million jobs in France.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan also advocated the establishment of a "smart protectionism" by taxing products that do not respect certain social and environmental bases, while wishing to halve the tax for companies that reinvest their profits on the ground French.

Finally, he lashed out strongly in finance, "this crazy industry ruining Europe", and called for the establishment not of speculation, thanks to the introduction of the Tobin tax should report "21 billion in full years."

"Sarkozy, Bayrou or Holland offer all programs suicidal for Europe". As for Le Pen, it "distributes purchasing power by magic." In other words, the "only true anti-system candidate," it's him. Confident, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan says also that in terms of signatures, it is "very close to the goal."

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From our correspondent in London.

Welcome to the UK! Passengers arriving today in the country's airports may have to wait until noon to cross the border, prevent the authorities, because of a strike of public service followed by immigration officials. In an attempt to avoid chaos, the government has asked airlines to cancel or divert flights. For several days, in the form of disaster volunteers and employees of departments of the military at passport control to take over the strikers.

The strike of civil servants to the call of 30 trade unions against the pension reform is already billed as the largest since the 1970s. More than 2 million people could stop work and attend one of the 1000 events in the country. Nine out of ten schools should remain closed payday lenders.Thousands of canceled operations in the hospital for lack of nurses. Garbage will not be collected. After a day walkout in June to the call of four unions, today is the biggest challenge faced by David Cameron since he arrived in Downing Street there eighteen months.

The Prime Minister described the strike as "irresponsible." "I call, even at the last minute, the union leaders to give it up. This does not solve anything and it's going to hurt our economy, "said Cameron, whose government Tuesday announced measures to counter the worsening crisis. After months of fruitless negotiations, the unions are protesting against pension reform officials that provides increased contributions and lower pensions.

The effect of the crisis was immediate for the television market and particularly for TF1. The first French commercial channel just announced for the first nine months of the year, a decline of 1.6% of its advertising revenue to 1.054 billion euros. The decline is even more pronounced for the third quarter, which ends, as advertising revenue in the chain were down 3.2% to 296.6 million compared to last year at this time.

An equation that TF1 attributed to "a macroeconomic environment less favorable than expected, especially from September." This "economic uncertainty", leads the group also anticipated for the year 2011 "a withdrawal of consolidated turnover of about 1%."

However, if the proceeds of the TF1 channel degrades, the group announced a turnover in nine months, up 0 paydayloans.7% to 1.826 billion euros.Other activities of the group saw their income rise by 3.9% over the same period to 784.4 million euros, while in the third quarter of 2011, this position is up 12.6%, to 264, 6 million euros. This is due, according to the broadcasting group, "the increase in sales related to the acquisition of TMC and NT1 and the performance of subsidiaries of diversification." In fact, the first nine months of the year and all antennas together (TF1, TMC, NT1, pay channels), the advertising revenue rose 2% to 1.494 billion euros. In the third quarter, it rose from 424 million a year ago to 442.3 million in 2011.

After suffering a decline of more than 3% yesterday, the Paris Stock Exchange on Tuesday recidivism holiday. The CAC 40 began the session on a sharp decline from 1.89% to 3185.30 points before to increase its losses. He plunged from 3.09% to 3142.59 points in the opening minutes of the transactions. In its wake, the Dax in Frankfurt was down 3.37% and the FTSE-100 in London lost 1.71%. Madrid plunged by almost 3%.

Traders are not present reassured by the fences down Asian markets this morning and those of the U.S. financial markets yesterday. They are again assailed by doubts about the debt situation in Europe. Operators including questioning the ability of banks to recapitalize.They also seek to know whether additional funds will be allocated to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).

In short, "investors are becoming aware of the lack of details in the agreement reached at the EU summit last week," said Michael James of Wedbush Securities. "Reports suggest that the plans for the EFSF were not easy to sell to China and Japan," commented on his side Patrick O'Hare of Briefing instant payday loans.com site financial analysis. In addition, "there is a growth problem, a very bad direction of unemployment, inflation at 3%, so no rate cut, and now Germany has a real growth in retail sales by 0.3% so she is not going to save the euro area ", listed his side Evariste Lefeuvre, an economist at Natixis."Without real support of the economy, the Agreement on Greece will not have any real effect," said Michael James.

Greece still worried

Greece, in fact, placed his fate in the hands of the people by deciding to hold a referendum on the decisions of the European Summit of 26 October. "The will of the Greek people be binding on us," said Prime Minister George Papandreou, who will also seek a confidence vote in Parliament on the agreement on debt. If 'no' wins, the Greek Constitution mandates the holding of early parliamentary elections. "This will plunge the country into an economic downturn and unprecedented political," says a member also left anonymously. The news was greeted coolly by the markets on Tuesday.

The future of Standard Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 predict a small increase in opening of U.S. stock markets on Friday. Thursday already, the New York Stock Exchange ended without direction.

U.S. investors, like their counterparts in Europe and Asia, should be particularly attentive to the development of the debt crisis in the eurozone. They should avoid taking risks when to begin a crucial summit on the debt crisis this weekend. Paris and Berlin have announced that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel would speak well Saturday in Brussels to prepare an "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis. Concrete measures will be considered Sunday to be adopted during a second peak "no later than Wednesday."

Discussions will focus on how to increase the capacity of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), but also on the rescue of Greece.Meanwhile, in Greece, the anti-austerity continues. A new law has been de rigueur in the Greek Parliament voted Thursday.

Summit high risk in Europe

For many observers, however, profound differences remain between France and Germany. "There is no joint proposal" European at the moment, has acknowledged Thursday the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. For his part, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso called on Europeans to "compromise" to reach decisions "resolved" and "immediate."

Another failure might further undermine investor confidence in the ability of Europeans to fight effectively against the debt crisis.They would now have a highly sensitive situation at the G20 to be held in early November.

Pressure rating agencies

Rating agencies are increasing the pressure on the euro area. After Moody's, S & P raised doubts about the AAA rating of the long-term debt of France. The agency suggests a probable degradation of notes France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal according to economic conditions no fax pay day loan.

On the macroeconomic front there is no any major indicator on the agenda of U.S. investors on Monday.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro retreated slightly to 1.3741 dollars against 1.3772 dollars on Thursday night. Oil prices were, themselves, up in the wake of the announcement of the disappearance of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.The barrel of "light sweet crude" for December delivery gained 71 cents to 86.78 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange while in London, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was appreciating eight cents to 109.84 dollars on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

Earnings up for Microsoft

The side of values, after the close, Microsoft released the first quarter, revenues of $ 17.4 billion, up 7% year on year. Net income reached 5.74 billion, up 6%, while earnings per share rose 10% to $ 0.68.

Sandisk has reported a turnover in the third quarter of $ 1.4 billion, up 15% year on year.Earnings per share were $ 0.96 against $ 1.34 last year.

Altera has recorded sales of 522.5 million dollars in the third quarter, down 1% year on year and down 2% from the previous quarter.

Capital One Financial has released the third quarter net income of $ 813 million against 803 million last year and 911 million in the second quarter.

Chubb Corp in the third quarter earnings per share of $ 1.04 against $ 1.8 last year.For the full year, the U.S. insurer expects operating earnings per share of 5.1 to 5.2 against the dollar from 5.55 to 5.85 dollars in a previous estimate.

Note also, from Monday, October 24, the company Groupon, which specializes in online distribution of discount coupons for shopping in local markets, should do its IPO on the basis of a valuation from October to December billion. However, it is far from the capitalization of 15 to 20 billion, of which Andrew Mason, founder of the company was still dreaming in June.

Jean Lesieur, head of the drafting of the news channel France 24, sent his resignation by e-mail to Alain de Pouzilhac, CEO of Audiovisual outside France (AEF).

To explain, the leader does not hesitate to copy the entire wording of the news channel continuously, reflecting his refusal to make budgetary decisions required by management and which for him would be only " maneuvers that prevent me perverse to maintain the cohesion of writing and reward they deserve all those who make France 24 what it is payday loan. "

This new twist extends the open crisis in the news channel continuous with the departure of Christine Ockrent, six months ago.

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French bond yields increasingly deviates from the reference German. And if the price that France has to pay its creditors rises relative to that payable by the neighbor across the Rhine, is that the repayment capacity is considered less French.

This distrust on observed past few days has increased further this Tuesday morning, after a warning from the rating agency Moody's. The French rate to ten years and have removed more than 1% (100 basis points) German rates, which are the reference unwavering in terms of sovereign bonds in Europe.

A disturbing record since the introduction of the single currency. On the London market, the French rate to ten years in the early morning reached 3.04%, while its German equivalent, the "Bund", down 9 basis points (-0.09%) to 2%.

At the same time, insurance (CDS) against a default on the obligations of the French state have seen their costs rise significantly. CDS to five years in France and were up 10 basis points shortly after 9:40, to 194 basis points according to Markit data. In other words, it costs 194,000 euros to insure against exposure to 10 million euros of bonds.

The gap could widen further

"We must relativize the gap (called the" spread ") bond rates between France and Germany: the level of French is extremely low rates, grade Cyril Regnat, strategist at Natixis. The ten-year French course is slightly above 3%, but the last five years, it stood at an average of 3.75%.In these circumstances, the spread can still dig a little. "The analyst believes, however, that the cost of debt already includes a breakdown of the French note one notch to AA +.

On this point, however, opinions differ. "The decline of the note is not yet in the curves: the rate could still rise from 30 to 50 basis points, that is to say 0.3 to 0.5% in the worst case, and reach a rate differential with Germany of 150 basis points, or 1 guaranteed cash advance.5%, "calculates Norbert Gaillard *, consultant to the World Bank and specialist rating agencies.

Why the interest rate differential between France and Germany increases

The rising cost of the French debt occurs observed Tuesday morning despite the fact that Moody's has taken more precautions than ever to launch his warning."She chose a time when the stress in the markets was relatively peaceful and has added a step ahead of the traditional reporting system in three stages," Norbert Gaillard analysis. Usually, the agency established the first note of the country "negative outlook" and then put the note "under review" before degrading it if necessary.

"It is very likely that the next move by Moody's, provided in three months, or to place a negative outlook on the rating of France," said Norbert Gaillard."How the country can indeed solve the three problems it faces: slow growth, deficit reduction and the difficulties of Greece and its banking system?"

In this context, "the Moody's decision means that the French can not help itself with its banks without risking his note: it has more room for maneuver necessary," Judge Cyril Regnat. "If the banks recapitalize without the state, then the fears will be evacuated on the AAA market and we should see an easing of interest rates." Investors have already understood: after the warning from Moody's, French banks have dropped the stock market.

* Author of "A Century of Sovereign Ratings", ed.Springer (USA), 2012

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