News – Business & Economi

Right in the debate on greater involvement of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the rescue of the euro, the institution claimed to have bought nearly 8 billion euros of bonds fragile last week against four, 5 billion the previous week. ECB

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced Monday that it bought nearly 8 billion euros of government bonds on the secondary market over a week against nearly 4.5 billion euros over the previous seven days. The total purchases of the ECB as part of this program, which began in May 2010 when the emergence of the Greek debt crisis, this is close to the threshold of 200 billion euros (194.5 billion euros).

The ECB never gives details of its operations, to know which country and how much it bought the debt.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirmed Saturday that his ministers would visit in the evening at the Quirinal Palace to tender his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano, we learn by a government press release.

"Il Cavaliere" thanked his "co-government" and sent a special thanks to the Under Secretary (Chair of the Council) Gianni Letta "during a meeting lasting 35 minutes.

Silvio Berlusconi is expected to 8:30 p.m. at the Quirinal, according to political sources.

Former Vice President of the ECB Lucas Papademos on Thursday arrived at the presidential residence where met party leaders charged with finding a new prime minister after the resignation of George Papandreou. It may be designated in the day. Lucas Papademos.

The former vice president of the European Central Bank Lucas Papademos, tipped to become the next Prime Minister of Greece, arrived Thursday at the presidential residence, where were gathered the leaders of parties responsible for appointing a successor to George Papandreou. The grand bargain between the Greek parties to designate a consensus prime minister who is the patience of the country's creditors to end, resumed Thursday morning, when right, and right-wing socialists found themselves trying to get out of a political imbroglio .

After a series of twists, the former vice president of the ECB and former Governor of the Bank of Greece Lucas Papademos, 64, was again the favorite in the press Thursday to succeed the Socialist Georges Papandreou resigned. The Orthodox archbishop of Athens Archbishop Ieronymos, head of the Church of Greece, has canceled a trip and was prepared to answer a summons to any oath as president, has also said the Greek news agency Ana, semi-formal. The leaders of three parties, George Papandreou's PASOK (Socialist), Antonis Samaras of New Democracy (right) and George Karatzaferis (far right) met again for the presidency of the Republic at 8 am, after the failure of a first meeting Wednesday night.

Mr. Papandreou spoke by telephone Wednesday with Mr. Papademos, 64, it was said a source close to PASOK.

PPR reported Wednesday a very strong sales of its luxury brands in the third quarter, while its retail brands have suffered from the deterioration of the economic environment in France and southern Europe.

The group, which owns Gucci, Puma, Fnac and Redcats, saw sales grow by 8% to 3.86 billion euros, higher than the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters (3.8 billion).Organic growth stood at 7% instead of 5.4% expected.

Especially, the group surprised by organic growth well above the expectations in luxury (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga), where it reached 25% (23% after the first half) instead of the anticipated 19% .

The only Gucci brand, which accounts for nearly 60% of operating profit of the group, grew by 21% (22% in first half).

The Chief Financial Officer, Jean-François Palus, said during a conference call that the dynamics remained equally strong in luxury in October and was confident for 2012.

In contrast, the performance degradation of Fnac and Redcats has accelerated.Sealed by the drop in consumption in France and Southern Europe, the distributor's sales of cultural products were down 4.2% on a comparable basis. Those of the cluster distance selling (La Redoute, Vertbaudet and Cyrillus) fell 5.6%.

PPR, which wants to focus on luxury and sports fashion by selling its retail brands, was forced, with the deterioration of access to credit due to the crisis, to postpone the sale of Redcats.

The group, which has designs on Brioni, continuing discussions with the Italian tailor, said Chief Financial Officer without elaborating.

The sporting goods company Puma, which released its figures on Tuesday reported a 10% increase in sales in the third quarter.

Seb SA said Tuesday it had been allowed to increase stake in its Chinese subsidiary Zhejiang Supor Co, which will allow the French leader of small appliances to enjoy strong growth in Asia.

The group, which had signed a contract with the founding shareholders of Supor last February, will raise its stake from 51.3% to 71.3% in Supor for about $ 400 million.

The family kept a 12.5% ​​stake, the balance comprising the float.

The Board of Supor, which will remain publicly traded, will not change, headed by Su Xianze.

Seb, entered the Chinese capital in 2007, having realized the operation in the coming weeks.The green light for the operation followed a period of review conducted by the CSRC (Authority of Chinese stock market).

The action of the French group has closed up 1.07% to 59.41 euros on the Paris Stock Exchange, giving a market capitalization of 2.97 billion. It was down 23.6% since the beginning of the year.

Erste Group Bank said on Monday forecast a loss of 700 to 800 million euros in 2011, due both to past depreciation of the Romanian and Hungarian subsidiaries and reducing its exposure to the euro zone, which makes plunge under the Austrian bank.

By 10:30 GMT, action Erste Group fell by 13.07% to 17.99 euros while the index grouping the European banking stocks were unchanged.

The number two industry in Central and Eastern Europe also said that postponing the repayment of public funds and that it would pay no dividend for 2011.

"It's obviously disappointing news.We believe today's announcement is likely to trigger a cycle of lowering note and renewed concerns about the capital, in the light of the deteriorating business environment in Eastern Europe " commented GFI Research Institute.

Erste said that Hungarian law allows customers to repay loans taken in foreign currency at lower rates than the market would result in a loss of 500 million euros for its local subsidiary, which will thus 600 million euros of fresh capital.

The other Austrian bank Raiffeisen also plans to inject new capital into its Hungarian subsidiary as a result of legislation passed in Budapest.

In Romania, an economic recovery slower than expected will have the effect to Erste impairment pre-tax 700 million.

Erste also said to have reduced its exposure to sovereign debt of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy at 600 million euros at end September, 95% of its exposure was valued at market value.

She said its Tier 1 ratio "core" would remain unchanged at 9.2%, operating income contributing to the compensation of special items.

The group's management said they do not need to raise additional capital or to receive from the State to ensure its compliance "Basel III".

In Berlin, the worlds of energy and finance very seriously discuss the creation of a foundation that would take over the management of German nuclear power plants to improve the investment capacity of major operators in the renewable. A nuclear power plant in Bavaria.

The revelation of the existence of a project to create a "bad bank" to manage public the twilight of the 17 German nuclear power plants causes a controversy surrounding the funding of the output of nuclear power. In its edition of Friday, October 7, the business daily Handelsblatt confirmed that it held the plans for such a project. Developed by the investment bank Lazard, it is currently under discussion between government and big energy companies.According to the newspaper, the Bad Bank would take the form of a foundation to which we would transfer the management of power plants owned by EON, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW, the four major German operators of nuclear power. The ultimate goal would be to delegate the responsibility of dismantling the foundation to restore financial credibility of their owners and thus increase their ability to invest in renewable energy.

The dismantling will cost 28 billion

The plan, which is still called "secret", poses the problem of financing the abandonment of nuclear energy in Germany. This abandonment, which requires to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix currently 20% German and 35 in 10 years, should cost around 250 billion euros, according to estimates by the state bank KfW.In ten years, Germany will therefore have to adapt its grid to the mode of decentralized production of renewable energy. Expensive sites such as strengthening the north-south but also the construction of many regional lines to low voltage are on the program, as well as the construction of new gas power plants and cogeneration and the erection of multiple wind farms and PV. Meanwhile, companies but also individuals should invest more in equipment and housing less voracious.Moreover, the cost of phasing out nuclear power plants was assessed at least 18 billion euros, which will add at least 10 billion for reprocessing and storage of radioactive fuel not included.

The development bank KfW has provided 100 billion euros over the next 5 years to meet the needs of corporate finance. But they and their shareholders, will also participate to a large extent these investments. However, the financial position of the four major energy producers in Germany has not improved since Angela Merkel urged the country to the output of nuclear power. The cessation of all nuclear power plants by 2022 will deprive them of lucrative profits. They also will have to invest heavily in non-polluting power plants and the production of renewable energy.

A very controversial Bed Bank

The predicted fall in profitability is not made to attract investors. Already, rating agencies have downgraded to EON and RWE, which in future will have to pay more for the money. Hence the idea of ​​the foundation. In the scenario described, operators freely transfer their plants in the foundation. It would become responsible for their management and their dismantling and storage of fuel. In return, the Foundation would benefit from the income generated by the plant operating until 2022. Nearly 15 billion euros. Or 13 billion euros less than the cost of decommissioning.The difference would be borne by the state in exchange for a recognition of debts that can not be deleted if these companies are investing in renewable much higher.

This is only for the moment that the outline of an unofficial plan but some find difficult to avoid. Michael Vassiliadis, president of the powerful union IG BCE Energy, believes it will be difficult to meet the challenge of phasing out nuclear power by passing capacity of large energy companies. But Ms. Bärbel Höhn, vice president of the Bundestag parliamentary group environmentalist, does not share this view: "I have rarely seen a plan as naive and transparent.This project led to the foundation of the risks that outsourcing will return to offer a lot of money to EON and RWE, "she said by stating that the plant operators had long been provisioned as are needed to decommissioning. As for Hermann Albers, President of Federation of the main companies in the wind (Bundesverband Windenergie), it considers that these plans are outrageous because again, "they are negotiated in secret" and "it is the consumer who will costs ":" The turning point energy can do without monopolistic structures. Its interest lies in the fact that it will promote a decentralized supply and promote competition, "he said.

The deficit in Social Security should be reduced to 14 billion euros in 2012 due to the impact of pension reform and new conservation measures planned for the health branch, said Thursday Valérie Pécresse, the Minister of Budget .

The government on Thursday to present the draft law on financing of Social Security (PLFSS) 2012.

In June, the Commission on Social Security accounts were reduced to 19.5 billion euros deficit in its forecast for this year.

"Our forecast for 2012 is 14 billion deficit.Fourteen billion euros when it was scheduled for 2015, so we have two years ahead, more than two years ahead, "said Valerie Pécresse on France 2.

"For the health sector, the deficit will be less than six billion euros, while we were at 12 billion in 2010," she said.

She said the announced reduction of the deficit by increased revenues related to pension reform and a halving of the deficit of sickness, thanks in part to new savings measures.

This savings plan should include new delisting for about 40 million euros and 600 million in savings on drug prices through price reductions negotiated with pharmaceutical companies.

It is "imperative" to implement the decisions taken by Heads of State and Government of the euro zone in July to resolve the debt crisis of the Greek said Monday Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the Central Bank (ECB).

European stock markets were down sharply again Monday because of growing doubts about the application of the support plan for Greece developed at the summit on 21 July.

"It is clear that we absolutely need an immediate and imperative that all these decisions are implemented immediately," said Jean-Claude Trichet at a conference of the Institut Montaigne, a "think tank" in Paris.

"One of the strongest recommendations," he said, "is to implement the most comprehensive and rigorous as possible, so no doubt, decisions which have been taken."

The plan of July 21, supposed to give the euro area financial and institutional resources that would enable it to avoid contagion Greek throughout the euro area, must, to come out, be ratified by parliament each of the signatory countries.

But the political obstacles to such ratification have multiplied in recent weeks.Finland wishes and its contribution to the plan is guaranteed by Greek and Athens, Slovakia, the vote of the parliament could only take place in December.

These uncertainties prevent an immediate strengthening of the financial resources of the European Financial Stability (EFSF), which must be able to buy government bonds to support countries in need.

"WE ARE HALFWAY"

Jean-Claude Trichet said more broadly in the global goal to increase "resilience" of individual entities, financial institutions, banks and financial system, "we are half way" .

"We see that we have made significant progress," he said, citing the progress made in the G20, the Financial Stability Forum and the Basel rules on capital III of financial institutions under discussion.

"All our experience leads us to believe that we must implement what was decided and certainly not think that could shake the hand, it would probably be the biggest mistake we can do," he said.

"There are still many things to do, particularly at the Basle Committee, the Financial Stability Forum and the G20 level, particularly with regard to systemic global institutions and national and non-banks."

Jean-Claude Trichet referred again to the slopes for the medium-and long-term European governance.

It is thus, in his opinion, possible to imagine the future that decisions are taken "from the center of the single market to single currency" when a country is unable to implement the recommendations persistent.

Even further in the future, it is possible to imagine the creation of a European confederation, with a confederal government, including a European Minister of Finance.

Jean-Claude Trichet on the other hand raised the issue "important" the need for continuing structural reforms in Europe to increase the growth potential of the continent, citing in particular the Lisbon agenda for growth.

European banks fell Friday to their lowest level stock since April 2009, 29 months ago when the financial crisis was still felt nothing from curb investors' concerns about their short-term financing.

The European banking index lost 9.26% on the week, its fourth consecutive weekly decline, and abandons 21.85% since the beginning of the month.

In the context of economic slowdown and debt crisis, analysts and managers question the ability to rebound in the short term European bank stocks despite the collapse of their course. So much so that the value of the index that measures the 32 largest banks in the euro area currently flirting with the level of the single market capitalization of Apple.

"We do not know exactly what is a bank.We do not know the extent of the default rate that they should take in their accounts according to the scale of the crisis, according to the magnitude of the risk of peripheral countries, "said Philippe Delienne, president of Asset Management Beliefs.

Among banking stocks, Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo fell Friday by more than 5%.

The British Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds dropped respectively 5.38% and 4.78%.

In Paris, BNP Paribas fell 4.27%, 3.38% Societe Generale and Credit Agricole 1.7%.In contrast, Dexia, which fell by nearly 14% yesterday, ended on a slight rise of 0.13%.

"Markets are concerned because of liquidity problems," said Sebastien Barthelemy, credit analyst at Louis Capital Markets, which is "a lot of elements concomitant raise the specter of inter-bank crisis in 2008."

"The U.S. money market funds are under pressure in the two major asset classes, the T-Bill (U.S. Treasury bond, Ed) and banks in the euro area, they have chosen to reduce (…) their positions in the European paper and particularly French banks, "said Christophe Nijdam for his part, an analyst at AlphaValue.

The appeal Wednesday to ease dollar of the European Central Bank, for the first time since February, had also contributed to frighten the market Thursday, causing the diving banking stocks as Barclays, Dexia or Societe Generale.

"THE CRISIS IS POLITICAL"

In a note, Deutsche Bank believes, however, that concerns about the level of liquidity are exaggerated, but stressed that the risks to bank profits had increased.

Rates on the interbank market also seem to suggest that the financial system does not flu as the main governing Euribor lending between banks fell slightly Friday.

The dollar Libor three-month reference measurement unsecured interbank lending in the euro area, is 0.29%, still far from the 4.8% level it reached after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 when banks no longer willing to lend to each other.

"As the European crisis is political and that the policies do not go to the rhythm of the markets, there is concern that this crisis lasts several months," said Philippe Delienne, beliefs AM.

"The banks are 'casual victims' (victims of natural, Ed) of all this fear macroeconomic and political uncertainties," said one London-based analyst, who declined to be named.