My Opinions

Greece is on everyone's lips in Cannes, which should open the G20 summit on Thursday morning. The Greek prime minister was called to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday evening for a meeting including President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It must explain its decision to submit the agreement European referendum last week.

Paris and Berlin put pressure on Athens to advance that the referendum in late November, while January was first advanced. The two major euro-area warn that the disbursement of 8 billion euros in aid granted by the EU and the IMF has become uncertain.

In this context of uncertainty exceptional French interest rates soared in the morning, the gap is widening at a historic German rates.Potential victim of contagion, Italy tries to reassure her convene an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Wednesday night to adopt austerity measures guaranteed payday loans.

• Merkel wants clarity

"We have set up a program with Greece last week. We want to make this program and why we need clarity. This is what should serve the meeting tonight, "said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Cannes on Wednesday. It should meet in the afternoon Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, along with Nicolas Sarkozy, representatives of European institutions and the IMF BEYOND CEO Christine Lagarde.

The announcement on Monday night next to the organization of a referendum in Greece in the European aid plan has caused a panic in the markets and threatens the firewall in place within the euro area the last week.

There are some life insurance companies that offer a guarantee for the premiums only for certain number of years within the term.

The contenders are scrambling acquisition of Yahoo!. The U.S. internet group Google would consider helping a third company or a consortium to finance a takeover of its rival Yahoo!, a source close to the talks, quoted by Bloomberg. Google may not take part himself in a transaction and did not initiate serious negotiations with potential partners, the source said.

Yahoo! is looking for strategic direction since the forced departure of his former boss, Carol Bartz, who was landed in part because the group failed to catch up with Google on the advertising market in line. Google, meanwhile, is sitting on cash of $ 42.6 billion, hence its interest in helping a potential buyer of Yahoo!. And thus strengthen its dominant position.

Neither Yahoo! nor Google have commented on this information.The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier Saturday that Google would consider a takeover offer for Yahoo! and have begun discussions with two private equity investment to help finance the acquisition. However, any operation involving Yahoo! and Google would not fail to attract the attention of the U.S. competition. In 2008, they had already stopped advertising partnership between the two groups.

Chinese Alibaba on the offensive

For weeks, speculation about Yahoo!, which is valued at 20 payday loan online.35 billion dollars (14.5 billion) abound. Microsoft would be combined with the investment fund Silver Lake and a Canadian pension fund to file a joint bid.Several other potential buyers would have emerged, including KKR & Co. and Blackstone Group LP, or Providence Equity Partners, together with a former head of News Corp., Peter Chernin, according to recent rumors that boosted the stock market as Yahoo! .

The attraction of the group in Sunnyvale, California, is to China. Jack Ma, head of the Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, has reaffirmed its "strong interest" to Yahoo! Thursday. He announced that he would leave to meet American partners, in particular investment funds, with whom he could buy the Californian group. Jack Ma intends to soothe U.S. opposition to a possible acquisition of Yahoo! by a Chinese group. The first time he had expressed interest in the American group in early October, the owner of Alibaba aroused strong emotions in the United States.Associations for the protection of personal data concerned have to see the information of U.S. citizens go under foreign flags.

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The war of positions that settled for months at the head of Air France KLM, in view of the succession of the CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, should find its outcome brutal Monday.

Reportedly, the board will meet to start RECORDED Pierre-Henri Gourgeon. In office since 2009, the executive director of the group pays two things. On the one hand, his conflict with the chairman of Air France-KLM, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, and on the other hand, the disappointing results of the company. "He did not totally unworthy, but a change in governance was necessary at the time of uncertainty hovering over the company and the industry," says a close case. No comment was made Sunday at the headquarters.

Overhaul of the governance

The departure of Pierre-Henri Gourgeon will be accompanied by an overhaul of governance.Jean-Cyril Spinetta back in service by chairing executive of Air France-KLM. The owner of the historic French airline, the architect of his marriage with his Dutch counterpart, never far away from its management. In addition, Juniac Alexander, former chief of staff Christine Lagarde, will be named him CEO of Air France. A key post in the new organization which eventually opens the way for the management of all Air France-KLM.

After months of controversy within the Board and the Company, the Nominating Committee consists of four directors (Jean-Francois Dehecq, Patricia Barbizet, Jean-Marc Espalioux and Cornelis van Lede) has finally agreed on the name 'Alexander Juniac, under the watchful eye of the state, which owns 15.7% of the group.Ironically, the former right hand man was the candidate pushed by Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, opposite Jean-Cyril Spinetta, who advocated an internal solution. Indeed, this lively debate which had laid bare the tensions between the two leaders of the company.

The new organization, which will be confirmed Monday, also intended to bring Air France-KLM in a position to face its difficulties. The latest quarterly (April to June 2011) revealed an operating loss of 147 million euros. Back into the red after one brief year of profits. Since then, the situation was still tense, so that the group launched in early September a new savings plan. No figures have been officially announced, but it evokes a range of 700 to 800 million euros.The specific measures should be adopted at the end of this month.

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Convince donors of failing markets. That's what worked on Sunday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, bringing together an extraordinary Council of Ministers rather than submit to the UN forum in New York. After the cabinet meeting of three hours, the Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that "for the 2012 budget must take steps to reduce public spending, with the aim of reducing the public ".

The government needs to get results as soon as possible if he wants to convince its European partners to validate the new aid of EUR 160 billion, decided on July 21. Representatives of the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the troika in charge of assessing the progress of reforms, delaying their return ever in Athens.Their endorsement, however, is decisive that Greece can get the sixth tranche of the loan of 110 billion euros granted in 2010. "Without this payment of € 8 billion, the state coffers will not hold beyond the month of October," warned Filippos Sahinidis, Vice Minister of Finance. But Saturday, after their meeting in Wroclaw in Poland, EU finance ministers have postponed the go-ahead to October. This meeting produced no significant advance both in Greece as European banks face a new crisis of confidence.

Default

Pending the arrival in Athens of the troika, the Minister Venizelos talks with his representatives this evening by telephone business cards. It should detail the new economy measures.Among the efforts demanded by the creditors of Athens, are, according to a senior Greek, "the introduction of lay-offs in all public bodies, the freezing of pensions by 2015 and the merger or closure of a thirty agencies. "

Despite the urgency of more and more prevalent in the Greek situation, the Europeans always show their divisions. The Austrian government has again raised the possibility Sunday of a default of Greece. A way officially rejected by Paris, while in his interview on TF1, the former director of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn called for "taking his loss", ie to wipe the slate Greek.

In Wroclaw, the finance ministers also confirmed the need to strengthen the weakest banks. But they kept to evoke the injection of public funds in an emergency."We're not worried," or the liquidity or solvency, provides Baroin on his return from Wroclaw. This belief annoys outside the euro zone, especially after the warning issued to Europeans by the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. "The leaders of the euro area should be aware that time is running out," launched the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

Aircraft manufacturers stomp, the airline announced Friday morning the details of its major order long-awaited by the industry. Air France-KLM is in need of long-haul 110 and passes a total of 50 firm orders and 60 options. The total value of the order would reach $ 20 billion at list prices and about $ 11.3 billion in firm orders. Choices that are equally balanced between the pan-European group Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing.

The firm order for 25 Airbus A350 indeed-900 and 35 options placed on these devices against 25 B787 and 25 options. The slight advantage, theoretical, obtained by Airbus was offset by the secret location by KLM B787 10, said La Tribune short term personal loan. In addition, orders will not be included in the order books of manufacturers this year.

The announcement of Air France-KLM comes after a board of directors held Thursday in New York.

One hundred French deputies had launched a petition in June to urge Air France, which the state owns 15.7%, to choose the Airbus A350 instead of the Boeing 787 for its next command.

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Canal + has crossed the Rubicon and wants to become a major player in free television in France. Thursday, the group led by Bertrand Meheut announced the takeover of Direct 8 Direct and Star, two DTT channels free of the Bolloré Group. Initially, Canal + buys 60% stake in the TV division of Bolloré Media and awards it operational control. In three years, he may redeem the remaining shares. The operation was buckled in 48 hours! "I know and appreciate for a long time the leaders of Vivendi, Jean-René Fourtou and Jean-Bernard Levy, and Bertrand Meheut, CEO of Canal +. I am very pleased to be associated with such a good team, "said Vincent Bollore, Bollore Group CEO.

Gone are the days when the giants were the audiovisual respect the Yalta on TV: TF1 and M6 to the largest piece of the free TV, Canal + in the world of pay-TV and its 11 million subscribers. In France, the two families have substantially the same size: just over 3 billion euros for free TV financed by advertising and about $ 4 billion to pay.

After struggling for years to ensure a near-monopoly on pay TV (up to buy its rival TPS), it will not take long to Bertrand Meheut to tumble into force on the television commercial. Now a subsidiary of Vivendi will have three frequencies of DTT: iTV, Direct 8 Direct and Star. Be as much as TF1 and M6 more than the group which, in addition to the namesake chain, has only W9.For Bertrand Meheut, this operation meets the logic of "creating strong audiovisual groups able to defend themselves both on the live broadcast on the non-linear over the Internet. This will increase the value of our programs will experience an exclusive first exhibition in pay and free TV in a second. And pay-TV business is our heart. "

465 million for Bolloré

If this sounds like a declaration of war groups TF1 and M6, the marginalized, at the same time, the few independent French media landscape, and BFMTV NRJ12. With the launch of DTT in 2005, the Higher Audiovisual Council wanted to bring new players in the PAF: Bolloré Group AB, NextRadioTV and NRJ Group. But since the first two have sold their frequencies. Claude Berda NT1 and TMC has given its ally TF1.Bolloré sells Direct 8 Direct and Star in Canal +. The two remaining independent are the big losers. For its part, Bolloré Media made a good deal. Since 2005 he has invested hundreds of millions of euros in Live 8 and 70 million euros for the acquisition of Direct Star. Five years later, it enhances its flagship TV to 465 million euros! The channel Direct 8, mini-general, would be about 350 to 400 million euros. Direct Star would be a hundred. "We have successfully completed the first phase by creating Direct 8 from scratch and placing it among the first of TNT. But for the second phase, which will see all the media groups to engage in significant competition on the content, we decided to partner with a large broadcasting group, "said Vincent Bolloré.The myth of an audiovisual largely open to competition turns into a clash between three private-TF1, M6 and Canal + – and a public group, France Televisions. With their financial firepower, the first three will fight a war without thank you for the acquisition of content.

Add to this a sharp competition for advertising. Canal + now has a board weighing 400 million. Bertrand Meheut is trying to calm things down by stating that "this partnership does not change the industrial landscape, since we are in the continuity of existing channels. We are small in this market for free TV. " He recalled that "TF1 and M6 are, conversely, present in the pay television."It is unclear whether this is enough to calm things down, because, at the same time, the president of Canal Plus says it does not want to "abandon its free channel Canal 20" under channel offset. In this case, Canal +, which exceeds the number of authorized frequencies (maximum seven), should sell two. "It will sell certain frequencies paying," he says. The chain may be referred planet, present on the DTT.

This comes on the eve of the presentation of the report of Michel Boyon, president of CSA, the future of DTT. It is now a fait accompli. The media landscape is recomposed without him. If Canal + bought Direct 8 Direct and Star, the future of DTT is widely drawn. The TF1 group is in a strong position to demand not only the transfer of its news channel LCI of DTT (where it is marginalized) to DTT.But Nonce Paolini, CEO of TF1, claim compensation as a string, which should be TV Breizh. For its part, the M6, if he will not be weakened, will support its claims. He also wants to transform its pay DTT channel Paris Première chain free. And he also wants compensatory chain among its two projects WikiTV M6 family.

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The Paris Bourse is expected to remain in the red on Wednesday. As Wall Street and the Asian markets this morning, investors should not be reassured by the propostion made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday on the governance of the euro area. These include notably the establishment of a "real government of the euro area", the adoption of a golden rule of balancing the budget by the seventeen members of the euro area and the introduction of a tax on financial transactions. The French president and German Chancellor did not, however, proposed to increase the European bailout fund not to launch Eurobond market as hoped.

If these proposals were welcomed by governments, many analysts believe, therefore, they lack the substance to calm global stock markets.Sony Kapoor, the think tank Re-Define, based in London, believes that "economic government's proposal, which may be an important step towards an even tighter union, is of little use to address the most urgent" . "The meeting between the German and French leaders failed to alleviate concerns about the debt crisis in the euro area," adds Ker Chung Yang, an analyst at Phillip Futures Oil in Singapore.

The euro weakened, gold sought

The most tangible sign of the disappointment of markets: the decline of the euro. It was worth 1.4365 dollars in Tokyo Wednesday, against 1.4406 dollars in New York the night before. He came down to 1.4352 dollars in Tokyo. Against the yen, the European currency was also down at 110.22 yen against 110.67 yen in New York."The Franco-German meeting did not result in clear solutions and this has caused sales of euros," said Nobuyoshi Kuroiwa, a leader in foreign exchange Hachijuni Bank.

Gold, a refuge in times of crisis, was worth 1786 dollars on Wednesday morning in Hong Kong, 1780 against the dollar the day before closing.

Oil prices showed an increase for their part unconvincing in morning trading in Asia: a barrel of "light sweet crude" gained 17 cents to 86.82 dollars while that of Brent North Sea took 10 cents to 109 , $ 23. These courses may again change after the release of weekly oil stocks in the United States.

Also on the agenda of the consumer prices in July in the euro area and U.S. index of producer prices.

Values ​​to follow

The banking sector

Franco-German proposals for the creation of a common tax on financial transactions were announced Tuesday evening after the close of European stock.As Wall Street and in Asia, French banks could react badly.

Lafarge

The cement manufacturer announced Wednesday the sale of the autralien Boral's share in their joint venture LBGA (Lafarge Boral Gypsum Asia) for a total of 429 million euros.

Renault

The South Korean subsidiary Renault, Renault Samsung, Wednesday denied news reports suggesting its possible initial public offering of Seoul.

Edenred

The group announced the sale of its Australian subsidiary Trahaire Davidson, a consulting company in human resources, specializing in psychological assistance to employees as part of a transaction of approximately $ 35 million.

Rodriguez Group

The group released a drop of 38% of its sales in the third quarter to end June, due to lower sales of new boats, but the group expects an improvement in sales of used boats on the last part of his 2010-2011.

European stock exchanges succeed they reiterate in closing tonight, started their rally yesterday? Nothing is certain, on Friday. The index in Paris fell into the red immediately after opening up 0.17%. The CAC 40 gave further 1.59% in morning before rising slope, and show an increase of 2.09% to 3154 points in mid-session.

Elsewhere, Frankfurt and London markets opened in the red. But as in Paris, they found colors. Frankfurt gained 2.62%, London, 1.47%, Madrid, Milan and 2.60%, 2.83%. For its part, the Swiss market progressed by 4.36%.

Thursday, ACC closed up 2.59% to 3089.66 points, after falling in mid-session. The day before, he had plunged more than 5%.The same volatility dominates in Frankfurt the Dax closed Thursday up 3.28% and in London where the FTSE-100 index gained 3.11%.

Investors should prove once again nervous at the end of a week marked by extreme market volatility, which saw the CAC 40 push the psychological threshold of 3000 points during trading Thursday before returning to the colors. Investors were reassured by the announcement of a meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 16 to issue joint proposals on the governance of the euro area. In addition, U.S. markets were supported by two good indicators of the jobless and real estate.Wall Street has ended sharply higher: the Dow Jones has gained 4% and the Nasdaq 4.69%.

Bank stocks rebound

Despite the ban on short selling in the securities of eleven banks and insurance companies to counter the extreme volatility of the stock market values. Still, banking stocks are still abused in the image of BNP Paribas, which issued a statement Thursday night to reaffirm the strength of its capital, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole. Subscribers, these, days, a roller coaster, they repeat across 2 to 4% in mid-session in Paris.

Natixis wins and 4.10%, BNP Paribas, 1 pay day loans.83%, Societe Generale, 2.04%.Crédit Agricole more timid moderates losses, crumbling of -0.31% by mid-day.

No growth in the second quarter

On the macroeconomic front, INSEE reported this morning from zero growth in the second quarter in France (0.0%), against an increase of 0.9% in the first quarter. Inflation also slowed: the consumer prices fell by 0.4% in July, resulting in an increase of 1.9% over the year (against 2.1% from June 2010 to June 2011 ).

Oil is, meanwhile, resumed its decline in trade in Asia, having recovered Thursday in the United States. In morning trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" was losing more ground at 85.19 dollars. That of Brent North Sea also retreated.

Carrefour jumps more than 5%

Other values ​​to follow, Carrefour pulls out of the game: the way ahead vigorously 5.13% to 18.85 euros.U.S. giant Wal-Mart have mandated UBS to investigate the acquisition of the Brazilian subsidiary of French retailer, according to Reuters citing a source familiar with the matter.

Goldman Sachs lowered its recommendation on Lafarge (-0.17% to 28.96 euros) and withdrew the title from its list of recommended values ​​in priority to the purchase.The intermediary has instead built his list to Saint-Gobain (3.72% to 34 euros) and Vinci (2.42% to 35.3 euros).

Europacorp (3.13% to 3.30 euros), the production company of Luc Besson, Thursday reaffirmed its goal of a return to balance for the current year, despite a sharp decline its turnover in the first quarter.

Derichebourg (2.98% to 3.63 euros) on Thursday confirmed its target of improving its annual net income, after recording a sharp increase in sales over the first nine months of the year.

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On this front, too, the news is not good. The trade balance deteriorated in France of 5.6 billion euros in June, bringing the deficit on the first half of the year, to 37.5 billion euros, according to figures released yesterday by Customs. The never-seen in one semester! Last year, at the same time, it reached 24.6 billion. Not only are fewer exchanges, because of the slowdown in global demand, but imports continued to increase more than exports.

In the first half 2011, sales growth abroad, engaged since late 2009, "marking time compared to the previous six months" (+ 2.8%, after +7.8%). The level of exports is thus always "lower than before the crisis, 'the Customs.They are on one side driven by increased sales of energy (electricity), on the other restricted by the decline of aerospace, "after the exceptionally high levels achieved last year." And as a reminder that France suffers from a problem of competitiveness, exports of computer equipment, electronics, metallurgy or decelerate as well. The food industry is one of the few to pull ahead of the game

Imports, meanwhile, continued to grow at a rate slightly lower than the previous semester (+6.7% after +8.3%).France has a little less shopping in the aviation sector, as in computers and electronic evidence that household consumption is not strong right now …

Household consumption fluctuates

The energy bill, often criticized in recent months to explain the degradation, is once again responsible for some of the degradation, since it has reached over 30 billion in the first half. But much is also due to the industry, which shows a deficit of more than 24 billion euros.

There is now no doubt that the trade deficit will cross a new record this year when it had reached 51 billion last year, the government had included in its Finance Bill 2011 to 48000000000.Economists see it spinning straight 70 billion!

France seems to be resigned to the cons-chain performance in this area. Typically, the announcement of Customs in August provides an opportunity for government to show the situation of teaching and recall systems implemented to remedy the situation. We did, this time, not heard …

For now, the figures published yesterday confirm the air hole growth to be expected for the summer, or even more. Foreign trade is not expected to contribute positively to GDP growth, while the state of the industry is uncertain and fluctuating consumer spending. The tone will be given next week, when published by INSEE growth figures for the second quarter.

Alcatel-Lucent returns to profit. The telecoms equipment maker issued on Thursday a group net profit of 43 million euros in the quarter dexuième. That compares to a loss of € 184 million collected last year at this time. Revenues jumped 2.4% year on year to 3.903 billion euros. Finally, the adjusted operating profit (EBIT) reached 108 million euros against 28 million euros a year ago.

These results are slightly below consensus expectations analystes.Le gave sales of 3.98 billion euros and an EBIT of 155 million. The net result is, he, in line with projections.

"In the second quarter, sales of our new generation products have increased significantly.From a geographic standpoint, we experienced significant growth in sales in North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, "said Ben Verwaayen, CEO, in a statement.

Goal of positive cash flow maintained

Free cash flow, closely watched by analysts trying to judge the group's ability to achieve a positive net cash flow in 2011 as it provides an objective, amounted to -350 million euros the second quarter. Alcatel in the first quarter had a negative cash flow of 213 million euros, after the recovery to 319 million recorded the previous quarter.

Not surprisingly, the group has reiterated its financial outlook 2011. "At mid-year, we are on track to achieve our objectives 201," says Alcatel.The goal of positive cash flow this year is especially maintained, said Chief Financial Officer Paul Tufano. Ben Verwaayen also said to expect a second half "solid" in terms of activity in the United States.