News – Business & Economi

The German government is preparing to take a stake larger than expected 12% stake in EADS, parent company of Airbus, said on Friday German government source, sign that Berlin intends to defend its interests within the European aerospace group.

The German state, through the state development bank KfW, would take over the holdings of automaker Daimler and several private banks, the source said, confirming a report in the German press.

"The draft supplementary budget foresees 1.6 billion euros for this purpose," the source said.

Germany had already indicated that it would buy 7.5% of EADS Daimler. The additional 4.5% will be purchased from the banking consortium Dedalus.

Around 10 am at the Paris Bourse, EADS gained 1.29% to 30.63 euros.

EADS is currently controlled by a partnership between Daimler, the French Lagardère and the French state.

The approach of Germany could weigh in the debate between Berlin EADS on the location of production sites, while the group has already warned Germany against any attempt to engineer ; reference.

The CEO of EADS Louis Welsh defended the project in early March of his designated successor Thomas Enders to domicile a greater number of group activities in Toulouse, where the headquarters of Airbus, attracting criticism from Berlin. 

A spokesman for the German Economy Ministry had refused Thursday to comment on the information on the purchase of greater participation by the state revealed by the Financial Times Deutschland, while a representative of EADS also refused to do so.

Union representatives of PSA Peugeot Citroen and Opel / Vauxhall, the two European brands of General Motors, will meet in April to discuss the social implications of the alliance between the two automakers , said Friday FO.

A central works council (EAC) on the alliance is scheduled for April 5, said his side the CFDT. It will follow a meeting of the European group committee of PSA scheduled for 23 March.

"Union representatives French, German and English PSA / OPEL / VAUXHALL exchanged Thursday, March 15 during a conference call coordinated by the EMF (European Federation of Metallurgy). They decided the establishment of a European cooperation and a meeting in Brussels liaison committees of the two groups, under the auspices of the GEF, in April " , said in a statement

. FO PSA and General Motors have announced a strategic alliance in February through the pooling of their purchases and preparing a common platform by 2016

. Both ensure that the alliance has no impact on the issue of overcapacity of the European two groups, that they should be treated separately. But unions are questioning the social and industrial benefits of the project as PSA and Opel ranges were very similar cars.

Together, they produce cars and light trucks in 20 plants in Europe, including 16 in Western Europe: France, Spain, Portugal and Italy next PSA, and Great Britain, Spain and Germany Opel side.

GM and the German trade union IG Metall to have an agreement excluding any job cuts on German soil until 2014.

The European group committee of PSA was originally scheduled for this Friday, but the meeting between unions and management has been postponed due to the absence of the Chief Executive Philippe Varin. 

Representatives of the management of PSA are currently "road show" to provide investors the capital increase of one billion euros to finance planned investments as part of alliance, after which GM will become the second largest shareholder with PSA 7% stake behind the Peugeot family. The capital increase, opened on March 8, runs until next Wednesday.

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.

The unemployment rate in France in late 2011 now stands at 9.8%, up 0.1 points over one year. A total of 3.4 million people are seeking employment. Agency employment center in Nice

The unemployment rate in France rose by 0.1 points in the fourth quarter 2011 compared to the previous quarter to 9.4% of the workforce (9.8% overseas departments included), announced the INSEE Thursday. This rate, calculated according to the standards of the International Labour Office (ILO), was also up 0.1 points versus the fourth quarter of 2010, INSEE said.

In France, 2,678,000 people were unemployed on average in the fourth quarter. But in total, 3.4 million people were unemployed and wanted to still work, or not available for this within two weeks and looking for work or not. This is the third consecutive increase, after the unemployment rate in the third quarter (9.3%) and second quarter 2011 (9.1%).

Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand noted but noted that "France has fared better than its main partners to the global crisis" between the second quarter 2007 and third quarter of 2011, citing OECD data. Unemployment among 15-24 year olds, great concern of the government, rose by 0.8 point compared to the previous quarter and by 0.2 percent yoy. The youth unemployment rate rises from 21.6% to 22.4%, or about 626,000 people.

Involuntary part-time increases

The unemployment rate for seniors is improving slightly on the contrary, down 0.1 points from the previous quarter. It remains up (0.2 pt) to the last quarter of 2010. Some 485,000 people aged over 50 were looking for a job in the last quarter of 2011. The employment rate of older, more and more likely to stay in business with the successive reforms of pensions, continued to grow (a point on the previous quarter, 1.6 points over one year). The increase was pronounced for those aged 55-64 (1.4 pt in the quarter, 2.8 points over one year).

The employment rate in permanent contract (CDI) is stable in the fourth quarter of 2011, to 48.7% of the population aged 15-64. Rate for those employed in CDD / Acting rose slightly and stood at 6.8%. Partial unemployment, the government and social partners come to reform to facilitate its implementation, down 0.3 percentage points and stood at 0.2% of employed persons. Involuntary part-time increased slightly to 5% of people with jobs. Finally, the unemployment rate is declining in women (-0.1 pt the quarter, -0.3 pt yoy) as he progresses on the contrary men (0.4 pt the quarter , 0.6 pt yoy).

Fiat-Chrysler is working to find new partners in the automotive industry, said Tuesday Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Italian carmaker and CEO of its ally im Rican.

"We took action," he said in Brussels at an event organized by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. "We can be an active partner throughout the world."

Sergio Marchionne has long argued already for reconciliations of carmakers to reduce their development costs and production.

Asked if he was looking for a European partner, he replied that "there are a lot more."

"I'm interested in everybody," he added.

With regard to Asia, especially Suzuki and Mazda, he said that there were "many opportunities to explore, including the following."

Sergio Marchionne has also reacted to the announcement of a possible alliance between General Motors and PSA Peugeot-Citroen.

"It is crucial that the European situation is treated. If the hypothetical alliance materializes, I hope he will consider the issue of overcapacity. "

The action of TNT Express flew more than 50% Monday on the exchanges of Amsterdam, beyond the purchase price offered by the American UPS, indicating that investors expect a proposal for enhanced .

UPS said Friday it had offered € 9 per share to buy the Dutch group messaging, valuing it around 4.9 billion euros. TNT Express has rejected the offer, but discussions are continuing between the two groups.

The action was traded to TNT 9:50 GMT around 9.80 euros, up 54% from its closing price on Friday night (6.343 euros).

PPR said Thursday a sharp increase in its annual results, driven by the brilliant performances of its luxury brands, and was confident for 2012.

"The results of PPR are excellent and we are confident for 2012," said chief financial officer, Jean-François Palus, during a conference call.

The group that owns Gucci, Puma, Fnac and Redcats, saw sales increase by 11.1% last year to 12.23 billion euros, a figure slightly higher Interior to the Reuters poll of 12.13 billion. At constant exchange rates, sales growth stood at 9.3%.

The increase in turnover has been hampered by the poor performance against the Fnac, whose sales fell 3.6%, while those in the luxury division jumped 22.2 % and that of Puma significantly accelerated (10.5%).

On luxury, the CFO said that January sales were as good or better than those of the fourth quarter, which signed an organic growth of 18.6%, significantly exceeded expectations of analysts polled by Reuters (17%).

The annual operating profit rose 17% to 1.60 billion euros, slightly above consensus ($ 1.55 billion). 

For 2012, the group said anticipating growth "supported" by its turnover and a further increase in its results.

PPR accounts no longer include figures of Redcats, a subsidiary of distance selling, nor those of FNAC in Italy, these assets are to be sold and which, under accounting standards be deconsolidated from the perimeter.

Net income, up 26.4% in spring 1.05 billion euros and the proposed dividend is unchanged at 3.50 euros.

European stock markets have reduced their losses Tuesday after the session to finish close to balance, investors hoping for a swift agreement on Greece's second bailout of the country .

In Paris the CAC 40 index managed to stay above the threshold of 3,400 points, taking 0.14% to 3,409,90 points after spending much of the session negative territory. In Frankfurt the Dax gave 0.16%, while the FTSE in London lost 0.03% Pan-European and Euro Stoxx 50 index has been 0.25%.

A Greek government official reported that Athens was finalizing a document that outlines the reforms demanded by its lenders in exchange for the payment of the second plan bailout of 130 billion euros.

On currency markets, this information has boosted the euro, which reached its highest since mid-December.

The Stoxx Europe 600 bank of erased its losses to finish up 0.47%, with gains between 1.2% and 2.1% for BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.

Conversely, UBS fell 1.44% in volume fed. The Swiss bank fears a difficult start after reporting lackluster figures for its fourth quarter 2011.

Swatch has lost nearly 4% after announcing an operating profit of 1.61 billion Swiss francs in 2011, slightly below expectations.

On Wall Street, the Dow, the S & P and the Nasdaq composite earn around 0.2% to 1630 GMT.

Bunds have erased their gains on the information of progress towards a political agreement with Greece on the financial rescue of the country.

The Euribor fell to new lows of 11 months in prospect of another massive injection of liquidity into the banking system by the European Central Bank, at its next auction paper to three years scheduled for late February. 

The euro has climbed more than 1% to 1.32708 to the dollar on the electronic platform EBS, its highest level since mid-December.

"The information from Greece to Athens remove an obstacle to alleviate short-term and massive credit risk, which is positive for the euro," noted Boris Schlossberg director of currency research at GFT.

Brent crude rose around 116 dollars a barrel, still carried by the cold wave in Europe, tensions on Iran's nuclear program and turmoil in Syria.

Altran Thursday confirmed a large increase in operating margin for 2011 following growth of 7.2% of its turnover for the year, and said he was "reasonably confident" in 2012 despite ; economic uncertainties.

Sales of specialist technology consulting totaled 1,419.5 million euros last year, growing "economy" of 8.1% (on a comparable basis excluding the impact of exchange and changes in working days).

This publication dope title to the Paris Bourse, where the action is gaining 4.18% to 3.96 euros, shoulder to shoulder with Plastic Omnium top of the largest increases in the SBF 120 (+ 0.35%). 

"We are convinced and seduced by the strategy and decisions implemented by the new management group," says a note in CM-CIC Securities, the purchase value.

"Certainly, the current should not favor the rapid improvement of the fundamentals of Altran, but we believe that the work done by the new CEO of the group should begin to bear fruit in 2013, both in terms of operating performance and cash as corporate culture, "said the intermediary.

The fourth quarter alone, sales of Altran amounted to 370.6 million euros, increasing by 6% and an "economic growth" of 8, 6%. 

"Despite an uncertain macroeconomic environment, the Group is reasonably confident for 2012," he said in a statement its CEO, Philippe Salle.

Philippe Salle had told Reuters in October Altran, a deficit in 2010 would remain negative in 2011 but would profit in 2012.

The new car registrations in France in January will charge lower double-digit annual rate, officials said Tuesday the source of the sector, a result of lackluster growth and the unfavorable comparison with the dice 2011 goal. </ p> Final figures for car registrations for the month ending will be published Wednesday by the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA). Several manufacturers have already said to expect a contraction in sales since January 2011 had been supported by the effect of 'scrapping'. </ P> "The trend will be negative overall, with double-digit declines, "the source said, adding that it refers only to cars and not to registrations of light commercial vehicles in the Hexagon. </ p> Asked if the double-digit decline would apply to the entire market, the source replied "yes." </ p> <p > In December, the French car market fell by 17.8% year on year. Vans had fared better, rising 1.6%. </ P> The business daily La Tribune Online, quoting unofficial sources, wrote Monday that the brand Renault in January would record a decline of 45% of its registrations, Peugeot and Citroen (PSA) declines of respectively 37% and 31%, and Dacia, the brand Renault's low cost, a decrease of 18%. " / p> The two French manufacturers have refused to comment. </ p> "These figures do not cover the last days of the month and are compared to calculations extrapolated back 're marketing services, "he told Reuters François Roudier, spokesman for the CCFA. "It is far less reliable than the actual count of sales to be published tomorrow." </ P> According to La Tribune, German Volkswagen would still pulled out of the game in January with up 23% of car registrations in France. </ p> In exchange, after signing a time the largest declines in the CAC 40 in the morning, Renault took the action 0.76% to 32.95 euros and the title PSA yielded no more than 0.32% to 14.055 euros. The sector index values ​​gained 1.2% European cars. </ P>