News – Business & Economi

Salzgitter, the second German steelmaker, on Monday issued a pretax profit increased fourfold, as expected by investors, but warned that the year 2012 would not as favorable as 2011, a forecast that is significantly reducing its share price.

The title fell by 5.16% to 42.97 euros at 8:22 GMT, while the Dax gave up 0.69% and the sector index Stoxx 600 Basic Resources yielded 1.47%.

Salzgitter said he expects this year to at least stable sales and a positive taxable income, while explaining that it would be "difficult" to do as well in 2011.

Last year, pretax profit rose to 201.6 million euros against 49 million in 2010, a result consistent with its forecast in Reuters poll, which gave 196 million . 

ThyssenKrupp, the German number one steel, has plunged into the red last three months of 2011 and was told last month unable to provide reliable predictions for all of its 2011 fiscal year -2012, which ends in September, due to economic uncertainties.

Out of nowhere, the new plant of Renault Morocco where a minivan will be produced cheaply dubbed "Lodgy", is facing several challenges, starting with the recruitment of local staff in a countries with no real experience of the automobile.

Illuminated only place several miles around nightfall, the site whose inauguration has sparked controversy on Thursday in Paris on the "Made in France" pushed in the hills stripped of the northern tip of Morocco, poor agricultural country without industrial past.

"Here everything is greenfield," says Paul Carvalho, director of the Renault Tanger fabrications, using the term used to designate a project set up from scratch on a greenfield site. "The plant is greenfield, the fabric supplier also, and even people!"

Paul Carvalho is part of the French expatriates on site to accompany the Moroccan teams that will soon turn the chain of the minivan. "The level of education in Morocco is very good, but the country has no technical knowledge of self," he adds.

Most future senior Moroccan crossed the chain still running have never worked before in the area. Everyone is deputy head of his department, under the command of a French he is called to replace.

"Apart from the small factory Somaca Casablanca, Morocco has no automotive history," said Moulay-Youssef Sbai.

The deputy director of the Institute for training in the automotive industry, funded by the Kingdom of Morocco and installed at the entrance of the site Renault-Nissan, knows whereof he speaks He worked over 15 years in IT, but never in the industry.

CARAVAN OF RECRUITING

If all goes well, soon lead Benmbarek Abdelmoula department assembling the first production line of the plant, although the engineer has made a career in the cement and paper. But at age 43, this jovial big guy here realizes a childhood dream. "My first motivation is the car, I am expert on the history of brands of cars," he says. "Once I knew that a car factory would see the day, I made contact."

Nasro Allah, 37, deputy head of department sheet metal, is one of the few to be of the profession. "For me, this is a new experience," adds this former employee of a subcontractor specializing in automotive wiring around Tangier. "Renault is very experienced and offer career opportunities." To prepare for their positions, both have spent six months training in France at the Flins plant (Yvelines).

Nasro is also part of the minority – 30% of plant personnel – recruited in the vicinity of Tangier. To supplement the workforce – 2,500 employees hired to date, 4000 to the end of 6000 and by 2014-2015 – the leadership has had to expand his research to throughout Morocco with a lot of ads or recruitment caravans that traveled the country to Fez, 300 miles away.

The 70% from other areas sometimes struggle to stay on site, and some have even hired waive sit the plant on the first day of their contract.

"It's a bit difficult, we share a home," admits Sufian, 21, who is destined for the paint shop. At his side, Mohammed, 23, and even white suit, was able to move more easily because it has powerful friends in Tangiers.

Just like Soufian and Mohammed, the strength of the Tangier plant is very young, only thirty years. The average age falls even around 20 years for the only operators, called to work on an automated line with very low – low cost requires – after three months of training .

DISCONTENT ON THE CONTROVERSY IN FRANCE

The vast 300 hectare site is brand new. Align the parking lot of Renault and Fiat in emerging special version not found in France, which will not be the case Lodgy, mainly for export, particularly to Europe.

The land of beds that separate the large premises is freshly turned white and in administrative offices, grouped under the mysterious name of "Building X", the blinds are still missing fene ; very. Homman Mokhtar, executive secretary of Renault Morocco, likes to point out that the bays were clogged with a lot of paper. "It is the building that was done last because there were other priorities," said he, smiling. The training institute and the chain went before.

Asked about the controversy that accompanied the opening in France by Renault, 14 kilometers of European coastline, a plant where the net pay starts at 250 euros, Moroccan future managers are uncomfortable. "I have not followed, I can not say," whispers a deputy head of department before disappearing, reprimanded by his superior French.

Sunday again, Francois Hollande, the Socialist candidate for president, said the French government, which controls 15% stake in Renault, should have objected this project.

On site, the concerns are different. The plant is warming up and getting ready to go in time dramatically. Once the final adjustments on the molds and machines made, stored procedures and actions that should be repeated 44 hours per week under control, the site will spend three months in a rhythm almost motionless for 30 vehicles per day to 30 per hour. Next year, a second line will spit out 60 vehicles per hour, one minute.

"The central Paris – Mr. Carlos Ghosn – gives us a fairly large tolerance to boot properly," said Tunç Basegmez, Turkish director of the Tangier plant. "The creation of the brand 'Made in Morocco' passes by."

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.