Archive for the ‘events’ Category

Renewal of Nuclear Eldorado or mirage?

March 8, 2010 - 3:26 pm Comments Off

It is the global rush on atomic reactors. Nicolas Sarkozy opened Monday morning an international conference on access to civilian nuclear technology that would bring together a thousand participants including some forty foreign ministers and the new Director General of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), Japan Yukiya Amano.

Not less than sixty States have shown in recent years with the Vienna their desire for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. "The expectation in these countries is very strong," said an organizer of the conference. Iran and North Korea, which have violated their international obligations, have not been invited to Paris, unlike Syria and Libya.

Click on image to enlarge.

Companies want to encourage the loyalty of their small shareholders

February 10, 2010 - 1:12 am Comments Off

"We are exploring ways to provide benefits to small holders faithful, these solutions exist, and we're working on." That was the message delivered by Pierre Bellon, the boss of Sodexo at the last general meeting of the group that denounced the attitude of speculators "that enter and leave."

How to build a strong relationship with individual shareholders? The question hangs over the board: whether to protect themselves from the vagaries of the Stock Exchange or the appetite of a rival, small holders, shareholders are stable and frequent strong allies. For loyalty, companies are using every weapon at their disposal. And to fly, nothing can replace the hard cash.

The payment each year of a generous dividend, indicating a continuous and healthy growth is certainly the most effective way to reward its shareholders.For the most faithful, "who hold their shares for more than two years, companies may pay a dividend plus a maximum of 10%," explains Eric Bleine, Director General of JRC Asset Management. "These same shareholders may also benefit from plans to award free shares also increased to a maximum of 10%.

Another lever: the right to vote can be doubled beyond a certain period of detention. Another technique that has proved itself: shares in registered form, directly into the records of the company make quick cash .

A variety of tools

For the latter, the advantage is huge. It clearly identifies its shareholders and can detect any movement in the capital, where a significant proportion of the shares are registered in the nominative, as is the case with Michelin, Lagardère or Air Liquide.For the holder of action, the advantage is twofold: It is generally exempt from payment of custody and is constantly informed of the life of society. In the world of action "father", some titles are in a privileged position as Air Liquide and L'Oreal, darlings of small shareholders. "Among the 410 identified 000 individual shareholders, more than 150 000 were registered," says one from Air Liquide. Its main recipe: distribute generous dividends.

But the group uses almost the entire range of tools at its disposal with many levels of distribution of free shares, plus dividends and many buybacks. L'Oreal led until a different policy focusing mainly on the growth of its shares to pamper its shareholders.But now the group has decided to go further by also rewarding its loyal shareholders with a bonus dividend. The first will be paid in 2012 for profit in 2011.

Numericable Launches Social Internet package to 9.99 euros

February 9, 2010 - 12:40 am Comments Off

While the Internet has become as indispensable as water or electricity, Pierre Danon, CEO of Numericable, announced that the cable operator will introduce a social tariff, responding to the request of the Prime Minister.

LE FIGARO. – For 9.99 euros per month, which will service the right customers?

Pierre Danon. – The Prime Minister had asked the operators a triple play package of around 20 euros for the poor. Numericable goes beyond and offers 9.99 euros a month for 60 channels of television (DTT channels and a selection of foreign channels), Internet access at 2 Mbps and unlimited calls in metropolitan France.There are two requirements to be eligible for this offer: being beneficiary of the RSA or disabled adult allowance and live in housing benefit service unique digital Numericable.

Will you receive compensation from the state?

The universal service fund, managed by the Caisse des depots, should pay a subsidy of 4.21 euros per month per subscriber to Numericable. This package will therefore revert to 5.99 euros a month to subscribers, 4 euro is already included in the charges. I sent a letter yesterday with the offer to Prime Minister, Arcep and services Bercy. If they approve our offer within two months we could launch it this summer.

What advantage Numericable?

It is primarily a historical constant of the cable as being involved in social housing and community.On the other hand, Numericable, who will work with municipalities and departments on this job should be able to equip a large number of new homes. Some customers take the social tariff, but others choose our offerings more upscale. I think that with this offer we can win new customers. We are now at 25% market share on the recruitment of new Internet subscribers. This should enable us to progress further. Not to mention that in dealing with public housing offices, Numericable reduces acquisition costs and delinquency risks.

You had already launched in November offer "low cost" to 19.90 euros. What is the result?

This offer works very well. It represents approximately one third of our new subscribers. Auchan is also to engage the clutch on this niche, because there is a real logic to segment the market.They are not social but tender offers "low-cost targeted. For example, many people do not use the TV service yet they pay their standard Internet package at 30 euros a month. We must stop the dictatorship of the package at 30 euros, which was a stroke of genius Free, but has not moved for four years.

After Darty and Auchan Bouygues Telecom, will you welcome new operators on your fiber network?

We are in discussions with various partners, but he must first deal with the influx of new customers for our partners. Auchan has trained 1 200 hypermarkets in 72 vendors!

The picture improves Numericable does to customers?

Yes. Having been a champion of consumer complaints, admittedly, we're totally out of radar DGCCRF.The service was bad a year ago, we made a lot of work, it is now correct. And we will still improve.

Having renounced the 4th license, what are your plans in the mobile?

Our priority remains the fiber. On the mobile, we are virtual network operator Bouygues Telecom. We will soon launch a 3G and a key card offer prepaid. But we do not support the pedal fully, because we can not afford to spend millions of euros to acquire a subscriber base.In 2010-2011, Numericable focuses on profitable growth.

Are you still handicapped by the weight of your debt?

Having renegotiated our debt with the bankers in November, we loosened the noose and we are perfectly comfortable with our deadlines for repayment of 1.5 billion euros by 2014.

The connected TV is it a concern for you, whose job is to aggregate a bunch of strings?

It is a subject that we anticipated early 2009 with our range of interactive TV "2.0", and we continue to invest. We have discussions with several manufacturers of televisions. In April, Numericable present its first applications in the form of widgets available on the TV screen.We will launch thematic portals (youth, sports, entertainment …) which will become real media capable of guiding the client and recommend programs.

Greece under the supervision of Brussels

February 3, 2010 - 5:00 pm Comments Off

Athens finally got the good report from Brussels. The European Commission ruled Wednesday that the savings plan acceptable Greek. "The Commission shares the ambitious deficit reduction that the Greek government has set, and the fiscal and structural reforms announced in the stability program," she said in a statement.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, had presented new budget measures, including freezing the salaries of all officials at the last moment on Tuesday evening. The Commission appreciated the welcoming approach.

The approval of Brussels is not a blank check.The Commission "calls on Greece to explain the tax measures announced and the timetable for their implementation in the coming weeks" and ", more detailed measures to be implemented in 2011 and 2012.

Athens will be placed under surveillance free credit reports . "The way to help, not only applaud, is to establish a monitoring tool and monitoring the implementation of this program" fiscal recovery, "said European Commissioner for economic, Joaquin Almunia. "For the first time we put in place a monitoring system as intense and almost continuous, but is necessary given the circumstances."

Confidence does not reign. Greece has for several years, played the unreliability of its statistics.In this regard, it will be an infringement procedure.

After the announcement of the Commission, the Greek bond yields back down to 6.516% against 6.742% on Wednesday morning around 8:30.

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United States: exceptional growth in late 2009

January 30, 2010 - 9:45 pm Comments Off

Year End Spectacular for the U.S. economy. According growth reached 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Economists had forecast between 4.7% and 5.4%.

This unexpected development will limit the historical downfall of GDP over the year to -2.4%. The U.S. economy had not experienced such a decline since 1946.

In the fourth quarter, growth was supported by the recovery in business inventories, the resumption of investment and exports, says the Federal Bureau of Statistics payday loans for bad credit . In addition, imports, which are deducted from GDP, slowed. These factors have offset the slowdown in federal spending and household consumption.

The Paris Stock Exchange ended down 0.74%

December 9, 2009 - 11:00 pm Comments Off

After hesitating, the CAC 40 fell in early afternoon after falling from the perspective of the debt of Spain. The flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange closed down 0.74% at 3757 points, erasing some of its losses in the wake of Wall Street, which came in the green for a surprise cut stocks U.S. crude oil.

After degradation, yesterday, by the Fitch rating of the debt of Greece, the rating agency Standard and Poor's said Wednesday it lowered the outlook for Spain to "negative" cons "stable "Now his notes from" AA + ". S & P expects "GDP growth significantly lower fiscal deficits and persistent" for Spain.For 2010, the Spanish government expects the public deficit represented 8.1% of GDP.

The sharp downward revision of Japan's growth in the third quarter (+1.2% to +0.3%) also urges caution.

In the United States, the U.S. Treasury announced the extension until October 2010 bailout of banks (TARP), a budget line of $ 700 billion, passed in October 2008, which was also used to bail out the auto industry .

Summary of values

On the Cac 40, only five values are displayed in green. Unibail rose 0.99%, 0.30% EDF, Bouygues of 0.18%, Air Liquide of 0.10% and Suez Environment of 0.03%.EDF announced on Wednesday that it will participate in a tender for the construction of several nuclear reactors in Abu Dhabi, via a consortium with GDF Suez (+0.55%) which held the reins.

Alcatel-Lucent, Lagardere, Vallourec and Peugeot yield more than 2%. Axa closes walking and cowardly 3.98%. The meeting is also painful for ADP, down 3%. In a statement released Wednesday, ADP has lowered its performance outlook for 2010, now expecting to achieve an EBITDA of between 850 and 880 million euros, while the previously anticipated between 900 and 960 million .

EADS yields 1.02%. According to Les Echos, the group may be removed from the Galileo project for the benefit of HBO. This has indeed been selected for a first batch of 8 satellites in the 22 remaining building. For other lots, the European group will agree to make sacrifices.

Areva lost 4.44%.Its president, Yves Martin, will be at 11.30, a hearing on the international strategy of the nuclear group to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

Mercialys fell by 2.73%. The group will enjoy the next change of SBF. The company created by casino will integrate the SBF 120 index after the close of the meeting of December 18.

Derichebourg gaining 3%. The group noted, under the 2008-2009 fiscal year with a current operating loss of 5.4 million. The second half ended September 30, earnings reached 25.2 million for a turnover down 43% to 2.4 billion euros.

Compagnie des Alpes (-0.66%) said Wednesday it had acquired 90% of the company operating the ski resort of Les Deux Alpes.46 million euros have been disbursed for this operation, conducted by a consortium of Compagnie des Alpes has 60%, Caisse des Depots 19%, the Banque Populaire des Alpes 12.6%, and Caisse d'Epargne Rhône Alpes 8.4%.

ThyssenKrupp size dry in its workforce

November 27, 2009 - 6:06 pm Comments Off

The first group of German steel company, ThyssenKrupp announced Friday the creation of a restructuring plan to scale. Severely hit by the economic crisis that has plunged the global demand for steel, the past fiscal year was the worst in company history, the group had announced last November a loss before tax annual 2.4 billion euros. Excluding items, its loss came out to 734 million euros. So, ThyssenKrupp said Friday that it would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide by the end of September 2010, reducing the number of employees to 167,000.

German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp expects the recovery in global economy to return to the path of growth, but "this fledgling economic recovery remains fragile and we believe that improvement will be slow," said Management Board Chairman Ekkehard Schulz, ThyssenKrupp ."For 2010, the risk of a temporary downturn persists," he said. Given the lack of visibility, the group, which produces steel, submarine or lifts, the coup was adjusted slightly downward Friday its medium-term objectives. It now expects sales of between 50 and 60 billion euros, against a previous target of 60 to 65 billion euros and earnings before taxes "over 4 billion euros, rather than between 4 and 5 billion.

ArcelorMittal, the French rival ThyssenKrupp, has also warned that the recovery in 2010 would be gradual and that the environment remains difficult. This lack of visibility had forced him to deliver a very conservative forecast for the last three months of 2009

Norbert Dentressangle invests in solar

November 12, 2009 - 4:50 pm Comments Off

On November 16th is the day J. To this date will begin a public inquiry into the grand scheme of Norbert Dentressangle in Sabran, in the Gard. The motor carrier has build a strong photovoltaic power of 11.5 MWp (megawatt peak), enough to power a city of 3 000. If the case succeeds, Sabran, with 1 600 inhabitants, is one of the few French villages to produce more green energy than it consumes electricity. This is a winery on 70 acres that the photovoltaic plant Financial Norbert Dentressangle, through its subsidiary Norbert Dentressangle Sustainable Development (N3D) will install its solar farm. "It would occupy about 26 hectares," explains Jean-Louis Savoye, chief investment officer for Financial Norbert Dentressangle.

Investment is expected to be approximately 45 million euros.However, the carrier gave no timetable. Prudence understandable because farmers in the south of France, are opposed to the erection of wind turbines or solar panels on cropland. "We do not seek this type of land, warns Jean-Louis Savoye. These are homeowners who have contacted us because they wanted to sell and stop their activity. "We can not always support an activity that is not viable, says the mayor of Arles, Jean-Marc Jorda.Furthermore, we negotiated with Dentressangle it undertakes to restore the land under cultivation on the day he would quit his electrical activity.

Business tax preserved

Another precaution taken by the City Council: "We negotiated in case of removing the business tax without compensation to the State, Norbert Dentressangle pay the equivalent of the amount to the town, 150 000," says Jean – Marc Jordan. This represents approximately 10% of the municipal budget.

After the construction of a roof made of solar panels on one of its warehouses in Lyon, and filing a case under public inquiry into the common Bessan in Hérault (10 acres of solar panels approximately 15 million euro investment), this solar farm project in the Gard is the largest so far devised by N3D."We will work on this activity as an investor in the long term, and also have a social and ecological footprint responsibly as possible", says one in Norbert Dentressangle. In Sabran Photovoltaic Park is located on an elevated plateau natural and should therefore have a limited visual impact, or "nonexistent," according to Jean-Marc Jorda.

3G network: possible sanctions Arcep

October 27, 2009 - 1:48 pm Comments Off

The Regulatory Authority for electronic communications and postal services would intend to notice the two operators SFR and Orange (France Telecom subsidiary) to complete their networks of third generation mobile (3G) in France, under penalty of a fine record, according to the daily Les Echos.

In case of insufficient coverage of the French population in 3G network. In August 2009, the mobile network SFR 3G covered nearly 80% of the population then it should have covered 99.3%, according to the obligations of the license. As the Orange 3G network, it covered 83% of the French population in late September when he should have covered 98%.The two operators had obtained their licenses mobile third generation – UMTS license – in 2001.

As provided in the Act to modernize the economy since 2007, Arcep could, if the operators fail to comply, impose a penalty of up to 600 to 700 million euros per operator. Such a fine should push the two operators to act and to increase national coverage or at least encourage them to think seriously.

Constant pressure on Arcep

The digital development planning is a growing concern among French and their elected representatives, who exercise a constant pressure on Arcep to make it comply with the commitments made by operators in obtaining their licenses.The network coverage of Bouygues Telecom, which won the third UMTS license a year and a half after Orange and SFR will be verified later, again according to Les Echos.

Both operators will nevertheless defend keep the ill will in recent months. SFR said that the delay in the coverage area is due to technical difficulties of reusing frequencies from 2G to 3G while Orange himself, highlights the difficulty of installing antennas for the delay.

This case must surely be followed closely by the applicants for the fourth mobile license, while the debate is currently raging on the details of its acquisition.The Bouygues Telecom has announced on Wednesday it had filed two appeals with the State Council to challenge the award procedure for the fourth license for mobile phones it deems anticompetitive.

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Private consumption rebounded 2.3% in September

October 27, 2009 - 1:47 pm Comments Off

The French household consumption of manufactured goods, the traditional engine of French growth, has experienced a strong rebound in September in most areas, registering a total increase of 2.3% after declining in July (-1 , 1%) and August (-1.0%), INSEE said Friday. Throughout the third quarter, the decrease was contained to 0.2% after rising by 0.7% in the second quarter. "The rebound in September was largely reflects a surge in auto purchases," Analysis economist Frédérique Cerisier (BNP Paribas).

Purchases of textile and leather depart upward after a difficult summer (-3% in July and -3.8% in August). Despite this catch-up in September, the consumption of textile-leather is in sharp decline over the quarter (-2.5%). Purchases of capital goods also rose housing by 0.2% and 1.6% throughout the quarter.

No stall

"In line with government expectations, consumption continues to resist in France," says one in the entourage of the Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde, who considers "this encouraging development." The minister herself "finds that the effects of scrapping bonus on car purchases remain sensitive, while stressing that" the dynamism of consumption is not only related to the automotive sector. Economists expect a rise of around 0.2% on the year and excludes any stall as long as the devices supporting the automotive sector will be maintained.

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