News – Business & Economi

Camaieu reported Monday a net profit increase of 4.8% in the first half of 2010 to 379,000,000 euros, through improving its margins helped offset sales penalized by a late start balances summer.

The French distributor of ready-to-wear said it had an operating profit up 12.4% over the first six months of the year, to 54.3 million euros.

Its sales have in turn increased 9% to 379.2 million euros.

In its statement, however, stressed that Camaïeu same perimeter and exchange rates, turnover fell 3.9%.

"Business was badly affected by the summer sales period was extended by one week in July rather than June, but was offset by improved margins on sales," said Camaieu .

The group also said to have opened 39 stores since the beginning of the year, bringing its fleet to 894 stores including 342 abroad.

At the Paris Bourse, the action Camaïeu closed Monday at 158.48 euros, up 5.65%.

The Nikkei closed up 0.95% Friday, pending action by the Japanese authorities to stem the rising yen.

The Nikkei index closed at 8991.06 points and the broader TOPIX, took 0.96% to 819.62 points.

At midday, the Nikkei had yet descended to a lower conference room of 16 months.

According to Kyodo News, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan was to hold a press conference Friday to outline the measures taken by the government to control the sudden appreciation of the yen.

The exporters, who are particularly affected by the rising yen, have therefore taken the colors, Honda Motor TDK and Advantest winner respectively 1.63%, 2.79% and 1.72% at closing.

The U.S. markets have opened higher on Thursday, reacting positively to an unexpected improvement in the labor market in the United States.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones gained 0.28% to 10,087.98 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.38% to 1159.29 points and the Nasdaq Composite 2148.66 0.33% points.

The markets were reassured by a larger decline than expected enrollment in weekly unemployment in the United States during the week to August 21, at 473 000 504 000 cons last week.

As for values, Dell noted Thursday his company bid on the data storage 3PAR to 24.30 dollars per share, a superior proposal to that presented by Hewlett-Packard.The IT group has indicated that the Board of Directors 3PAR has accepted his offer.

Titles took Dell and HP respectively 0.8% and 0.75% at the opening, while the title 3PAR lost 1.9%.

Sanofi-Aventis could make a first offer around $ 70 per share to acquire U.S. biotech Genzyme, analysts said.

Some consider that the French pharmaceutical group may raise its offer to $ 80.

Under cover of anonymity, one analyst said that "70 dollars would be a first offer" and that "at $ 80 it remains a good deal for Sanofi.

Same story for another sector specialist who believes that $ 80 "operation creates value in three years that will follow."

Citigroup, meanwhile, said that Sanofi will likely be the only buyer of American specialist on rare diseases and will pay between 74-77 dollars per share, or 19.7 to 20.5 billion dollars (15.0 to 15 6 billion euros).

Citi analysts consider that "insofar Sanofi may be the only buyer, and that shareholders are aware that Genzyme may fall into the lower half of the range of 50-60 dollars, unless an agreement is not passed the matter will be at 74-77 dollars. "

They add that the French lab could launch a hostile bid if Genzyme resists and present its offer directly to shareholders.

The shareholder Relational Investors, Carl Icahn, who hold respectively 3.8% and 4.9% from Genzyme, could be satisfied with an offer around $ 75 since they bought at 61 and 54 dollars, says Citi.

Sanofi, an agreement would be $ 75 4% accretive in 2011 and 13% in 2013, analysts have calculated the Citi.

At Raymond James, Eric Le Berrigaud doubt that "70 dollars is sufficient.Starting at $ 70, is ready to go up to $ 80, "he notes." And at 80 dollars it is not certain whether all the guarantees of success since c is roughly the level or was action before Genzyme's production problems.

The biotech has enjoyed last year a series of production problems on its sites in the U.S., which continue to weigh on its business.

"SANOFI PREFERRED FINANCIAL LOGIC"

A fourth analyst insists that Sanofi is expected to launch its bid for Genzyme even if it does not create value for the group's objective is to increase its earnings per share.

"For the operation to bring value, it should pay less than $ 70 per share, or about 64 dollars," he says."If Sanofi launches operation beyond, is that the group favors a financial logic in the short to medium term to close down its results and not the logic of value creation."

For him, "the title Genzyme could return to $ 80 after the settlement of industrial problems, but very transient because its treatment of Gaucher's disease could soon be rivaled.

Sources familiar with the case, it said last week that Sanofi intended to send a letter to Genzyme with the terms of its offer.This offer would be like "bear hug", that is to say friendly at first but may become hostile if necessary.

The Board of Directors of Sanofi has authorized a $ 18.7 billion dollars, said last week, sources familiar with the matter. But Sanofi has financial guidelines allowing it to raise its offer, that is to say, to bring more than $ 70 per share, said a source.

The experts, anyway, that Genzyme is a suspect "white knight" to deal with Sanofi.

A spokesman for the Financial Markets Authority said that the French system which requires an initiator to declare his intentions in certain conditions if the rumors do not apply when the target is foreign.In this case, the law of the country in which the target company is applying, "she added.

The action dealt Genzyme Monday up 0.5% to 69.93 dollars in early afternoon on Wall Street. In Paris, the title Sanofi closed at 45.4 euros (1.88%).

Orpea announced Wednesday an increase of 16.3% of its turnover in the first half and confirmed its full-year 2012.

The manager of nursing homes and clinics completed a first half sales of 470 million euros, representing organic growth of 9.3%.

The group has enjoyed a growth of 17.2% in France, which represents the bulk of its sales.

"Orpea confirms with great serenity, its sales targets for the current year and for 2011 and 2012, respectively 960 million, 1.100 million and 1.225 million euros," says in a statement.

In the second quarter alone, sales rose 16.5%, giving an organic growth of 9.1%.

For the second half, the group, which had in March 28.073 beds, expects the opening of many schools.

The shares closed Tuesday at 31.2150 euros, giving a market capitalization of about $ 1.2 billion.

Philips has released better than expected results for the sixth consecutive quarter and raised its margin target, but not so far succeeded in convincing the market hoped for more.

Around 9:15 GMT, the Dutch electronics group fell by 2.91%, to 24.175 euros after plunging 4.3% in the first exchanges to form when the largest decline of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

Victor Bareno, an analyst at SNS Securities, said that the published results did not reflect "the significant increase that Philips had reported in previous quarters.

The group recorded a profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITA) of 527 million euros in the second quarter, against 118 million euros last year and 486 million euros expected.

Its turnover stood at 6.2 billion euros and net profit to 262 million euros, higher than the 241 million euros expected.

Analysts had warned before the publication of Philips that investor expectations may be too large.

"The magnitude of the excess (of analysts' forecasts) compared to the previous five quarters is somewhat less strong," said Jan Hein de Vroe, an analyst at ING.

Eleven of 13 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimates lowered on average by 22.6% their earnings expectations over the past 30 days, while the stock has gained almost 7%.

The Dutch consumer electronics was confident of being able to exceed its margin target of 10% EBITA before exceptional items this year, while previously thought just to reach this goal.

The European leader in consumer electronics has reduced the cost during the crisis and the beginning of economic recovery, which helped to generate profits even in difficult times.

Philips has hoped to exceed its savings target on its structural costs in 2010 to 700 million euros.

The U.S. recorded a budget deficit of 68.42 billion dollars in June, the 21th in a row, the Treasury announced.

But the deficit is down by 27% compared to 94.33 billion dollars in June 2009.

Over three quarters of the fiscal year ended September 30, the deficit amounted to 1.004 billion dollars against 1.086 billion in the comparable period of fiscal year 2009.

The latest projections for the deficit in 2010 will be given by the White House July 23 normally. In February, it expected a deficit of 1.600 billion dollars against 1.400 billion in 2009.

The Paris Bourse is stabilized in early trading Monday, after making its biggest weekly rise in a year last week.

The sentiment in the markets is nevertheless supported by the publication of a better than expected trade surplus in China and the prospect of good results season, which begins tonight in the U.S., with Wall Street after Alcoa.

Around 9:32, the CAC 40 index showed a decline of 0.14% to 3549.44 points, after opening at 3562.70 points (0.23%) and increased by 6.16% last week.

Banks weigh on the trend with a decline of 2.5% of Dexia, Credit Agricole 1.7%, 1.6% of BNP Paribas and Societe Generale 1.3%.

Zodiac Aerospace wins 1.85% to 40.520 euros after rejecting a merger offer from Safran (-1.7%).

Seb largest increase SRD wins 5.8%, while Goldman Sachs raised its recommendation from neutral to buy.

Other major European markets are closely irregular: London lost 0.02% while Frankfurt gained 0.12%. As for the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 yields 0.15% and 0.11% Eurofirst 300.

The Euro drops to 1.257475 dollar against 1.2639 the day before the end of the day, while a barrel of U.S. light crude yields 52 cents to 75.57 dollars.

Airbus and Boeing are competing on public aid for the next generation of commercial aircraft in Europe after the decision by the World Trade Organization (WTO) over European subsidies to Airbus.

The two aircraft manufacturers have each claimed victory by highlighting their points favorably in the review of 1,000 pages issued Wednesday by the WTO, which ordered the European countries to remove certain subsidies provided to Airbus for its A380 superjumbo .

The organization also criticized other government aid, a lower amount, in favor of other models produced by Airbus, but rejected several points raised by the U.S. side.

The United States believes that the opinion of the WTO shows that the states of the European Union (EU) should not offer more loans to development for the future Airbus A350, which are central to the initial conflict .

Boeing also believes that his competitor must repay about four billion dollars (3.2 billion euros) in loans for the A380 or restructure them into commercial loans.

Airbus rejects these two points.The European aircraft manufacturer said that the WTO panel that made the report did not indicate the amount of subsidies to readjust, or accused the European Group for hiding the EU funding system as a whole, only certain details.

AIRBUS: "BOEING TAKES HIS DESIRES FOR REALITY"

"Boeing is its wishful thinking (…), the A350 is not affected by the outcome of the WTO.Together with the four states (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), we move at full speed, "said Rainer Ohler, communications director of Airbus.

Boeing believes his side a legal principle has been established.

"The continuation of projects to provide four to five billion dollars of public money to Airbus for the A350 to different conditions from those of the market is not only unacceptable but prohibited by the WTO ruling," said a Spokesman for the U.S. group.

"It is really time that Airbus soars with his own wings.It is a company ripe, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft with cash of nearly nine billion euros, "he added

"He is perfectly capable of using its own cash and to use commercial loans to finance development of its aircraft."

In its report, the "special" WTO said Wednesday that Airbus could launch a series of civilian aircraft thanks to subsidies from the EU and member states as France, the Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Without this aid, Airbus has been a very different company and much less powerful, the report said.

The United States believes that loans to Airbus were with special rules and illegally export related, which belies the EU.

The issue of reimbursement of past public assistance is a sore point – the question is whether the WTO decisions are truly authoritative.

No funding has never been repaid, underscore lawyers.In principle, business decisions are not retroactive.

Nevertheless, the EU should use the WTO ruling within 30 days.

"We're pretty optimistic that an appeal from the EU has a good chance to succeed and resolve the many issues that we do not understand in the current report," said Rainer Ohler.

EADS, Airbus's parent company, closed in fall of 2.87%, to 16.385 euros, while around 16:00 GMT, Boeing yielded 1.4%, to 61.87 dollars.