News – Business & Economi

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 Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the U.S. economy had recorded a moderate growth in recent weeks, while emphasizing that the recruitment remained rare and that the housing market showed little signs of improvement.

In its "beige book" summary of economic conditions in the 12 districts of the U.S. central bank, the Fed also notes that the pressures on consumer prices remained moderate and some cost pressures had decreased.

This finding is likely to give more leeway to the Fed in terms of monetary easing if growth were to weaken in early 2012 because of the consequences of global activity in the European debt crisis.

For now, the report confirms what had already been said in the latest "Beige Book" dated: the growth of the economy is not threatened, but the conditions underlying depression can not lower the unemployment rate, currently 9%.

"Overall, economic activity grew at a slow to moderate pace since the last report (…) except the district of St.

France will nominate Coeuré Benedict, number two in the Treasury, the Executive Board of the European Central Bank to replace Italy's Lorenzo Bini Smaghi. ECB

Benedict heart, which should become the representative of France to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), is a senior specialist in international finance, who was previously the number two position of the Treasury. Coeuré Benedict, 42, was appointed Thursday by Paris to serve on the Executive Board of the ECB, which will replace Italy's Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, who resigned.

This brilliant economist and author of numerous articles and a graduate of Japan, has spent most of his career at the French Treasury. He led a parallel career as a teacher and researcher in the circle of economists, an influential economic think-tank. From 1997 to 2002, he holds the office of Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury.Heart is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole National Statistical and Economic Administration (ENSAE).

Antonio Borges, director of the Europe Department International Monetary Fund (IMF), has resigned with immediate effect, the Fund announced Wednesday.

The IMF notes that the Director General intends to appoint Christine Lagarde Reza Moghadam, Director of the current strategy to succeed Borges, effective Thursday.

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.

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 Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 1.04% Monday, reaching a closing low of five months, fears of a possible relapse of the global economy overshadowing speculation about a new intervention by Japanese authorities against the yen strong.

The Nikkei lost 91.11 points to 8628.13 points from its lowest level in five months to hit 8656 points on August 9.The Topix, broader, sold 8.85 points (1.18%) to 742.84 points.

"The next goal would be down 8600 points, but we do not see big movements in recent days, investors remain cautious," Judge Nagayuki Yamagishi, strategist at Morgan Stanley Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

The entire session, the market has been closely monitoring the currency markets to try to detect signs of an intervention of Japanese authorities.

Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he continued to monitor the movements of foreign exchange and he was ready to take firm action on the markets.

But some investors believe that even in case of intervention, the effects on equity markets, including export values ​​would be short-lived.

"If the government acts unilaterally on the foreign exchange market, the Nikkei goes back about 100 points, but the efforts of Japan alone will not change the fundamentals," Judge Mitsushige Akino, fund manager for Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

Values ​​highly dependent on exports, such as Toyota Motor and Honda Motor ended down respectively 2.46% and 2.54%.

China's central bank said Friday it wanted to maintain a relatively stable exchange rate, but the announcement has not been enough to calm the speculation that Beijing would consider letting the yuan rise further to better contain the inflation.

In a quarterly report, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced that it would employ "many tools" including interest rates, exchange rates and bank reserve requirements to try to control rising prices.

It recalled that it would maintain the yuan's exchange rate relatively stable at a "reasonable and balanced level."

But the noise is spread in the markets, however, the PBOC preparing an intervention currency.Local newspapers related to the central government suggested including it would rely on a stronger yuan to try to curb imported inflation in China by the weak dollar.

It remains to ascertain whether the report of COPD was written before or after these press articles, published Friday.

"We will use reasonable tools (regulatory) price as interest rates adjust to the demand for capital and savings behavior, and manage our investment and inflation expectations," said the PBOC.

The monetary institution noted that it would not drop the guard against inflation, although many economists believe that it peaked in July.

"Price stabilization is not yet firm enough and the situation is not optimistic," said the PBOC.

Beijing is regularly subjected to international pressure, including from the United States and the International Monetary Fund to allow the yuan to appreciate faster.

The yuan was stabilizing Friday around 6.39 to the dollar on the spot markets, pausing after a sharp rise this week.

The Chinese currency has appreciated about 6.7% since the abandonment of its indexation to the dollar in June 2010 and 3% since the beginning of the year.

Unlike other more conservative cities, China has reacted angrily Saturday to the lowering of the sovereign rating of the United States from Standard & Poor's, criticizing the economic policy of the "world's only superpower."

"The U.S. government must resign himself to a painful state of affairs: the good old days when all he had to borrow to get out of trouble he had himself created is over," said the official agency Xinhua particularly virulent in a comment.

As the largest creditor of Washington, China, which holds more than one.000 billion dollars of U.S. debt, "is now in its right to require the United States they face the problem of debt and ensure the structural safety of Chinese assets in dollars," the agency said.

"There is a need for international monitoring on the issue of the U.S. dollar and a new reserve currency, stable and secure, can also be an option to avoid a disaster to be caused by a single country," added Xinhua.

Russia, the third holder of gold reserves and foreign currency in the world behind China and Japan, by contrast into perspective the decision of the rating agency S & P.

"In the short term, this will not affect us," said Vice-President of the Bank of Russia Sergei Chvetsov the RIA news agency, adding that Russia did not intend to proceed in the immediate adjustments to its reserves of gold or foreign currency denominated in dollars.

The Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, 'sherpa' Russian international summits, for his part felt that the one notch downgrade of the American note was a "moderate correction can be ignored by the terms of managing long-term investment. "

"KEEP A COOL HEAD"

First state to react in Europe, France has affirmed its "full confidence" in the strength of the economy of the United States, the sovereign rating was downgraded by Standard and Poor's, and the ability of the U.S. government out of "this bad".

The French Minister of Economy and Finance, Baroin, spoke on several media to hold reassuring face to the first in the history of the United States.

"I recall that, even under (Bill) Clinton, the U.S. budget was declared in default for a few days.So do not dramatize, keep a cool head, we must look at the fundamentals, "said Baroin on iTV.

Baroin stressed the need to give time to political time.

"The time of democracy, the time for government action, the time of acceptance by the population as those plans that are difficult by definition is not the time for market participants, investors or speculators or even the time it seems a few rating agencies, "he said.

The minister and questioned the relevance of the initiative of S & P. "It begs the question of how an agency like that can make that decision based on numbers that are not consensual.So there will certainly be a debate in the United States, "he noted.

In Berlin, Norbert Barthl expert in budgetary matters to the CDU, the Christian Democrats in power, has in turn "surprised that for weeks, rating agencies have focused their attention on the situation sovereign debt in the euro zone countries without addressing the United States. "

India, an emerging major power likely to be affected by the decision of S & P, has found the situation "serious".

"We will have to be analyzed (degradation). This will take some time.The situation is serious and we have nothing to gain by making comments off the cuff, "said Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Indian news agency Press Trust of India.

The government will soon close 4500 accommodation places for the benefit of emergency housing. A bad strategy as associations, however, who approve its policy of "housing first". A homeless man is housed in a center of the Samu Social de Lille.

The resignation of Emmanuelli served as trigger. Wednesday, the former secretary of state slammed the door of the Samu Social de Paris, which he founded in 1993. "The social emergency, no one believes it is more manageable," he said. In May, the government announced a 3.3% decline the funding of accommodation, to 1.204 billion euros. The association also denounced a drop of the resources allocated to marauding, the day care and the number 115. In late June, the Samu Social even had to close its only center of Paris.Directly affected by the various criticisms, the Secretary of State for Housing, Benoist Appeared, held the same evening to respond on the board of France 2.

But instead of appease stakeholders, it has rekindled the flames by announcing the elimination by the end of the year 4500 hotel accommodation places, replaced by housing. "We have families with children, single women, for whom the care places are not appropriate, because the accommodation yes," he said.

Benoist Appeared in fact follows a strategy launched in autumn 2009, the "housing first". Its principle focus on access to ordinary housing, avoiding as much as possible the transition from shelters.For the National Federation of Home and Rehabilitation (Fnars), it also amounts to saying that housing stability is a condition "prior to the required insertion", not the culmination of a long journey in accommodation, as previously envisaged.

No debate on the merits

This policy would "not necessarily fully shared by Xavier Emmanuelli," said Secretary of State for Housing. His philosophy, at least, is not affected by most organizations, aware of the economic and social costs of accommodation. "The principle of 'Housing First' is not controversial.Now everyone agrees to say yes, with support from hotel 17 euros per night per person more than 1500 euros per month for a mother and two children-hotel accommodation cost more expensive than housing, which is absurd, says Juliette Baronet, head of research expert on housing consulting firm Fors-Social Research.

But replace accommodation places for housing can not be decreed. "Today, we did not, especially in areas where the rental market is very tight as the Ile-de-France and Paris.This policy can be set up on the long term, "said Juliette Baronet.

Benoist Appeared attaches yet to replace 4500 accommodation places by the end of the year, betting mainly on "intermediation rent", to which the state will spend 30 million euros this year: association serve as a third between landlords and tenants, and the state covers the difference between the rent paid by his last and the market price. In 2010, around 5000 homes were affected, and only 1500 are now available, according to the Fondation Abbé Pierre.

Rationalisation costs

"In this context [of lack of affordable housing], it is outrageous to cut the appropriations for hotel nights," complains the executive director, Christopher Robert, interviewed by Les Echos. For several other associations, the government seeks mainly to save money.Representatives of the State "seem deflected in a logic of cost efficiency, providing temporary housing solutions and support small," the worried Fnars in April.

The shortage of accommodation places, however, leads to absurdities, and additional expenses. Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) has revealed that 111 families without homes were sheltering emergency between mid-May and early July. "In the long run, their living conditions are even worse than they were at the hotel and the cost to society even more important," observes Juliette Baronet, the bureau Fors-Social Research.

The government portrays him on his positions.The budget allocated to only emergency housing, shelters and rehabilitation has increased from "670 million euros in 2007 to 933 million euros in 2011, and should be at a similar level in 2012, an increase of 39% over the five year period, "reported the firm Valérie Pécresse, the budget minister. But the needs have also exploded. More than 680,000 people still do not have a home personnel, including 133,000 homeless.