News – Business & Economi

France is open to the entry of Japanese group Mitsubishi in the capital of Areva, said Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

"I told the Prime Minister of Japan its wish, the desire to see (…) strengthen the association between Areva and Mitsubishi for the realization, inter alia, a new reactor, the reactor ATMEA and I indicated In particular, France was open to input from Mitsubishi capital of Areva, said François Fillon during a trip to Japan, according to a text sent to the press.

The French nuclear expert working on the implementation of a proposed capital increase of three billion euros, which should mark the entry in its capital of international shareholders.The operation aims to secure funding for an investment program of nearly ten billion euros by 2012.

Sovereign wealth funds from Qatar and Kuwait, as well as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, are anticipated to participate in this fundraising.

Noting a marked turnaround that after months of sluggish demand, Lufthansa is optimistic about his chances to reach its profit target by 2010.

"Despite the first negative quarter and the closure of airspace early April, the developments in recent months has reinforced expectations of a higher operating profit in 2010 than last year," reads a statement released Monday by the airline before a meeting with investors.

In May, Lufthansa had already confirmed its 2010 target of a higher operating profit to 130 million euros generated in 2009.

The company also revised up slightly its forecast for the fuel bill this year, seeing now to 5.3 billion euros against 5.2 billion previously.

About 10:40 GMT, Lufthansa advanced 1.10% to 11.91 euro, making a little more than the index values involving the airline and travel industries (0.57%).

Sales of new cars in France have continued to rise in April, to 1.9% from April 2009, but at a much more slowly, reflecting an impact of declining car scrapping and leaving the uncertainty about the rest of the year.

"This figure is normal. We see a gradual reduction of the effects of scrappage" observes François Roudier, spokesman for the Committee of French car manufacturers.

The spokesman noted "a decline in registrations and orders on new line", small cars that benefited most from the car scrapping. Meanwhile, "we see a rise in average range on some models," he adds.

Carlos da Silva, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, a judge even when the result of April "a little surprising" and speaks of "semi-surprise"."The compact segment is doing rather better than what we expected" while "small cars to fall again mechanically," he notes.

Moreover, "manufacturers have continued to put much money on the table to try to compensate" the premium reduction. They have indeed offered to their customers numerous discounts and promotions. In this context, May will be "a little month of truth," said Carlos da Silva, who expects a decline it expected in April.

"I do not see how that can withstand much more, plus there is not really new models," he said.

French manufacturers are considering a European market decline 9 to 10% this year.1,000 euros last year, the scrapping bonus increased to 700 euro from 1 January, but for vehicles ordered before December 31, the premium remained at its former level for deliveries until the end of March.

This measure was prompted a boom in orders at the end of the year, registrations recorded in the first quarter up 17%. In the first four months of the year, the increase was 12.9% compared to the same period of 2009.

The Minister of Industry Christian Estrosi welcomed in a statement of "the good performance of the market", which "demonstrates the effectiveness of the government strategy of gradual withdrawal of the scrappage scheme".

On 1 July, the scrappage decline further, to 500 euros.

The month of April has been more favorable to French brands, up 8%, as foreign brands, down 4.9%.Of the 190,986 new cars registered last month, the French brands accounted for 56.1% of the market.

The increase was 17.2% for the Renault group and 7.3% for PSA Peugeot Citroen. At Peugeot, we judge that "the effect of scrappage continuous" and "concerns an order for two 206 + and 207," the Director of Commerce France, Olivier Veyrier, said in a statement.

STMicroelectronics announced Wednesday that the federal district court in New York confirmed the arbitration in his favor in February 2009 against Credit Suisse for more than 431 million dollars (322 million) including interest.

The maker of semiconductors said this new court decision confirmed "the validity of an arbitration decision made unanimously in his favor by the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) in February 2009.

"The decision of the federal district court in New York rejected the motion of Credit Suisse to set aside the arbitration award, announced the Franco-Italian in a statement.

The U.S. court has "also given the right to request STMicroelectronics to obtain confirmation of the arbitration decision and order Credit Suisse to pay the company the balance of the amount due," says he.

Based on this decision, STMicro will receive about $ 354 million, which includes about 23 million dollars in interest to date, in addition to nearly 75 million received last December from the sale of a part of the obligations ARS (Auction Rate Securities).

Around 1135, under the STM, which was briefly stimulated by this information came around previous levels (2.09% to 7.05 euro).

STMicroelectronics has launched action against Credit Suisse for the reimbursement of the amount he deemed "unduly invested" in bonds risky ARS, contrary to his instructions.

The Franco-Italian chip, headquartered in Geneva, had given more than 450 million dollars to the Swiss institution with a mandate to invest the money in safe securities.

In February 2009, Credit Suisse had been sentenced by a New York court over $ 406 million dollars of electronic components for fraud.

According to the ruling last month, the money had been invested in the market for "subprime" and then lost.

This decision was highly anticipated because it could encourage other groups suffering from mismanagement to imitate STMicroelectronics.

Roche has also filed a complaint for the same reasons last October against Credit Suisse before a New York court.

The Swiss bank had invested 545 million dollars in securities to financial risk on behalf of pharmaceutical, despite her having asked to make investments safe.

While the station had generated a profit of 575 million euros in 2008, she recorded for 2009 a net loss of 980 million. Explanations.

The economic crisis worsens the crisis of cargo

Last year, rail freight has made a negative operating margin of 337 million euros. The area subject to competition since 2006, was rolled in 2009 by the slowdown in trade, which affects large customers, such as automotive or steel. "But it's time that business is not flourishing," said Eric Falempin, general secretary of FOR Railwaymen. The causes are multiple. On the one hand, the group acknowledges that it focuses too much on its strategy the only passenger traffic at the expense of transporting goods.On the other hand, to compete and offer better rates, "the station offers its clients not to work with Fret SNCF but with its subsidiaries, or as Geodis UFLI! Accuses unionist. After should not s 'surprising that the turnover of the freight station down … "

Many plans (Veron, Marembaud, Nadal …) have succeeded in an attempt to revive the business. The latest one was presented in September by the SNCF. But the opinion of the union, it is precisely this kind of plan that participates in the destruction of cargo, since it leads by example "abandonment from 50 to 60% of car traffic alone. The government simultaneously announced a comprehensive plan for development of rail freight, with the key, 5 to 7 billion investment by 2020.But until that plan is bearing fruit, the deficit in the freight business has not stopped widening.

The travel industry no longer compensates

Unlike previous years, activity on passenger lines (Coral, TGV, Thalys, Eurostar) did not offset the discomfort of cargo in 2009. Its margin is down 27% to 1.15 billion euros. The TGV activity in particular, which had allowed the accounts of beneficiaries from 2003 to 2008, suffer in turn in 2009. "Hit by the crisis, businesses save on transportation. Executives only travel first class," says Eric Falempin. Management also mentioned the increase in tolls that the group must pay to Network rail of France (RFF) to run its TGV. In one year, they jumped 10.9%, while the number of trains has increased by only 1.9%.Between 2008 and 2013, the bill charges expected to increase by more than 900 million euros, according to Voices. Eric Falempin recalls that if the RFF and the increasing rates, it's because "when the split with the station in 1997, the RFF, which inherited the bulk of the debt that she must pay as it can. "

Nearly one billion of write-downs

In practice, the station must, as an issuer of debt securities in financial markets, presenting the accounts in IFRS, and this since 2007. These rules require that assets be valued at their value in use, ie the amount of cash flows expected from use of these assets. Now the group has depreciated to 245 million in infrastructure and 721 million euros of assets in the cargo, or one third of the locomotive fleet. Translation: The industrial tool is not able to generate profit.A message that does not like unions, who fear that justifies expedited freight subsidiary, seen as a first step towards privatization of the industry.

Furthermore, the timing of this operation "clean" balance sheet is not trivial, while the public company is preparing to compete. Indeed, the partial liberalization of international guidelines has been effective since December 2009. "In depreciating assets cargo to 0, it eliminates the future depreciation on the cost of locomotives, said Olivier Grivilliers, a partner at Crowe Horwath International. This is loaded 2009 with all the expected losses in the future to preserve the group's future results "..

In painting too dark a picture of the financial group, SNCF hopes that perhaps the state will give him a boost."After all, said Eric Falempin, the government has the final word on the toll increases of the RFF.