Today Hot News

Pernod Ricard is pleased to announce on Thursday morning, up 14% of its turnover in the third quarter of fiscal shifted to 1.54 billion euros. And rise at the same time, prospects for the entire year.

"The title should respond by increasing", predicted the analytes Natixis SecuTire this morning before the opening of the Bourse de Paris, describing the rehabilitation objectives of the company as "clearly good news." Indeed, the Pernod Ricard shares climbed 3.7%, to 65.3 euros in early trade on the CAC 40.

"The strong performance was boosted in part by favorable comparison bases and technical effects. However, this publication shows significant signs of recovery, "entrust strategists.

In home counseling Aurel, who published a note on Thursday on the group, expectations are "substantially" exceeded.The revenue expected by the consensus of 1.4 billion euros. Aurel immediately raised its target price on the value of 52-58 euros (recommendation to "hold"). Wednesday evening, the Pernod Ricard are already mounted by 2.7%, and quoted at around 65 euros. A true performance against the Wednesday meeting.

Current operating profit seen up 3%

According to the explanation of the group, good sales were due to a "strong consumption growth in emerging economies, improved conditions in some key markets like the United States and Russia, and the effects of destocking and shifts of Easter and Chinese New Year.

Pernod Ricard has therefore decided to revise upward its outlook for its fiscal year 2009/2010 with organic growth of around 3% of operating profit, at the top of the previously announced target range of 1% growth in 3%.

Debt restructuring

Last March, the company headed by Pierre Pringuet announced its successful bond issue for $ 1.2 billion. The group's debt of wines and spirits reached 10.3 billion euros at December 31, 2009.

The world number two, whose brands Chivas Regal whiskey and Havana Club rum – among others – make its fame, has set a goal to balance "progressively" 50/50 funding between bank loans and bond debt, d by 2013.The division is currently 25/75.

ALSO READ:

Pernod and Russian Standard agree

"The Indians are whiskeys success of Pernod Ricard

Pernod Ricard continues to rebalance its debt

Pernod Ricard scratched by the crisis of champagne

If the political debate in Germany is keen on supporting Greece, no such thing in France. The Socialist Party will vote in the state next week's Budget Act that allows Paris to pay 3.9 billion euros in Athens in 2010. And this Wednesday, the hearing for two hours, the budget minister, Francois Baroin by the Finance Committee of the Assembly took place in a consensual atmosphere. "Everyone agreed it was necessary to go fast. We can not let go of Greece, especially since the effort required of his people is heavy, "recalls Jerome Cahuzac, Chairman of the PS Committee. Alarmed by the weakness of governance of the euro area and lamenting, for some, the absence of a European monetary fund, members hoped that the rescue is accelerating. "Many were disappointed that the summit of heads of state that takes place May 10," said Gilles Carrez, the general rapporteur UMP.What the minister said "it would be even more dangerous to yield to a form of precipitation.

Debate on the interest rate

The only objection was on the interest rate of 5% which Paris ready to Greece three years. The Socialists, Fran?ois Hollande and Henri Emmanuelli it was too high. But Jerome Cahuzac is more nuanced and noted that this rate is the result of a compromise between heads of state.

Still, the French government should actually earn money in the transaction, since borrows around 2.13% at five years. Baroin has been noted that the plan for Greece "is not an expense to the taxpayer! Is this why the consensus in France? "I believe above all that unlike Germany we have a culture of state intervention," said the UMP J?r?me Chartier."It is logical as German citizens, who have made sacrifices to repair their public finances, are more reluctant than the French, who were not virtuous," says the centrist Charles de Courson.

ALSO READ:

"Greece: Paris ready to pay 3.9 billion euros

"Berlin is threatening to say no to Athens

"Greece:" Confidence in the eurozone is at stake "

"Issues around the crisis in the euro area

From our Washington correspondent

Goldman Sachs has managed to earn 3.7 billion dollars in betting, starting in 2007, the collapse of the mortgage-market. In doing so, the giant Wall Street acted against the interest of some of its customers, which it sold securities that he knew "toxic". This is the conclusion, after months of investigation, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate.

Tuesday, during public hearings stretched on Capitol Hill, Lloyd Blankfein, the head of the giant Wall Street, has categorically denied these allegations."We do not speculate massively downward in the housing market and we certainly do not bet against our clients," he was forbidden under the spotlight, saying that even on the mortgage-market, Goldman Sachs has lost about $ 1.2 billion in 2007-2008.

"Nobody in the management of Goldman Sachs has never asked me to bet on a decline in the subprime market," added before skeptical senators, Joshua Birnbaum, the former head of structured products of the bank, also on the bench defendants.

Convinced otherwise, armed with emails and internal documents seized in the bank, the debonair Senator Carl Levin, glasses pavement at the end of his nose, led a determined assault Tuesday. But the chairman of the committee was confronted with a wall.He vainly tried to tell the past and present officials of Goldman Sachs called before him (including one French employee), how could they believe in the quality of debt issued by mortgage lenders whose reputation was terrible. Receivables classified as "business of shit" in an email exchange between two bank officials. "How many of these" affairs of shit "did you sell to your customers? asked, exasperated, Senator Levin fast cash advance. You've sold hundreds of millions. "

Bankers Daniel Sparks and Michael Swenson, impassive without being arrogant, but obviously confident of the merits of their point of view, seemed not to understand or what they asked or what they were charged.They also questioned the methods of calculating profits of Goldman Sachs selected by the committee.

Battle of Senate proceedings

According to Senator Levin, the investment bank has yet actually decided in late 2006 to a major cleanup of its accumulated risk on securities backed by the real estate markets whose collapse loomed. By discipline, to limit its risks and if possible in the hope of profiting from the trend, the bank had sold to investors and deliberately chosen for their credulity his titles too "toxic"."We have not been systematically and significantly" net short position "on derivatives of residential mortgages in 2007 and 2008," replied Lloyd Blankfein.

Meanwhile in the Senate floor, Democratic leaders and Republicans arguing over procedural votes before engaging in substantive debate on the reform of Wall Street. The Conservatives want by all means restrict the scope of Democrat Bill before it is submitted to a plenary debate in the room. A compromise is always likely, because both parties want to correct the excesses that precipitated the financial crisis.But the Republican minority wants to take his time, while Democrats want to take this case Goldman Sachs to prohibit such banks that have access to the discount window the Fed to speculate on their own account.

ALSO READ:

Goldman Sachs: Fabrice Tourre rejects charges

Goldman Sachs explained to Congress

Eurazeo adds another string to his bow. The investment company, majority shareholder or reference Accor, ANF, Apcoa, B & B Hotels, Elis, Europcar or Rexel, addresses the SME segment. It plans to invest 500 million euros on this segment by 2015, with two or three operations per year.

These investments will be made on equity through a new structure, Eurazeo Growth. In the medium term, the portfolio of SMEs Eurazeo could represent between 10% and 25% of the total assets of the investment company.At the end of 2009, it operated approximately 3 billion euros of assets.

Patrick Sayer, chief executive of Eurazeo, said in March, when presenting the annual results in loss, the team was preparing to intensify its efforts on niche growth companies.

"By creating Eurazeo growth, we apply our expertise to SMEs developed for large groups," said Patrick Sayer. We are ensuring our network of knowledge and skills, enabling them to better structure their growth.The team Eurazeo has essentially not changed for eight to ten years and has acquired a real expertise in project development, in entirely different. "

First operation in the photovoltaic

During the period flagship private equity from 2005 to 2007, Eurazeo had won many targets (Apcoa, Europcar …) in the face of industry. More recently, Accor is the case marked minds quick pay day loan. Associated with the American Colony Capital, Eurazeo obtained the separation of the two businesses of the group.

By targeting SMEs, therefore changing Eurazeo registry. He came to hunt on the ground already very competitive mid-cap funds. "We have the unique ability to support SMEs in the long term growth by investing in several times and helping to raise debt, warrants Patrick Sayer.Our goal is to change their size. In sum, Eurazeo growth is one-stop shop for SME growth. "

The first operation, in a society photovoltaic Fonroche, has just been completed. An initial investment of 25 million this year will be completed next year by an injection of same amount.

"Before deciding to invest in Fonroche, we met several photovoltaic companies in France, explains Fabrizio Gaudemar, head Eurazeo Growth.Fonroche matched exactly the profile we are looking for, having a presence throughout the downstream portion of the chain (assembly, design, installation, operation, maintenance) and with the ambition to become a genuine producer of renewable electricity in the medium term. The volume of business the company should spend between 2009 and 2010 from 27 to about 200 million euros.

ALSO READ:

"Eurazeo consider lifting some 500 million euros

"Eurazeo has widened its losses in 2009

Although the group had to give up highlighting the claimed benefits for the health of its flagship products such as Activia and Actimel, Danone stood firm Thursday on the group's strategy of focusing on "health through diet.

"We believe that health is more important to the consumer and that Danone will play a role in this development," said Bernard Hours, Deputy CEO, on the occasion of the General Assembly of shareholders.

A meeting is scheduled for June 1 with the EFSA.According to Franck Riboud, Chairman and CEO of Danone, "everything is a question now of adjustment" with the European Constable know what he can say.

Meanwhile, "not to take risks, we preferred to remove the folders to find themselves confronted with a" no "because it failed to respond to what we were asked," Did he admitted.

For him, Actimel "is a battle, it's serious." "Children are less time away from school," he said.But the question is "how to translate that into something that can be dire.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the group confirmed it will pay a dividend of 1.20 euros per share, including dates of posting and payment are respectively the May 4 and May 7, 2010.

Danone has published April 15 last, a quarterly revenue rose 7% to nearly 4 billion euros.

At the close of the Paris Bourse, the stock has lost 0.67% to 44.77 euros in a market down 1.33%.

ALSO READ:

"Danone: lower prices boosts sales

"Danone is reviewing its Activia and Actimel copy

The U.S. stock market should take another step forward Wednesday. The index futures are predicting a slightly higher opening of U.S. markets. The index futures Standard & Poor's 500 index advancing 0.46% to 2033.50 points. The day the Dow Jones gained 0.23% and the Nasdaq 0.81%. In Asia this morning, the same trend with the Nikkei in particular that ended on a positive note (+1.74%).

Apple Earnings blaze

On Wall Street, the technology sector should benefit from the announcement after the stock market, a 90% surge in net income of U.S. computer maker Apple in the first quarter. Inflated by including a doubling of sales of iPhones, the company's net earnings to net apple exceeds $ 3 billion in the second quarter of its fiscal offset.Turnover was up 49% to 13.50 billion dollars.

Also in the technology sector, Yahoo! also published after the close a net profit group share in the first quarter more than doubled on a year to over $ 310 million payday loans. In contrast, the turnover has been disappointing. It increased only 1% to just under $ 1.6 billion.

On Tuesday, the financial sector, for its part, was carried by the strong quarterly results from investment bank Goldman Sachs, whose future remains clouded by fraud prosecutions brought by securities regulators in the United States and in Great Britain.The firm has more than doubled its net profit in the first three months of the year to nearly 3.5 billion dollars.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro was slightly lower Wednesday as investors watching the talks between Greek officials and teams from the EU, IMF and ECB on aid to Greece due to start Wednesday after a successful bond sale by Athens yesterday. In the early morning, the European currency was worth 1.3433 dollars against 1.3436 dollars the previous day.

Today on Wall Street, investors will monitor the traditional weekly crude inventories will be published in late afternoon.

The NYSE is changing the balance Monday shortly after opening in a market that remains ill at ease with prosecution by the U.S. stock market regulator against the bank Goldman Sachs. For its part, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10.21 points to 11,021.87 points and the Nasdaq, dominated by technology, from 0.49 point to 2481.75 points. The broader index Standard & Poor's 500 ceded its 0.01% (0.09 points) to 1192.04 points.

The surprise decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file a fraud complaint against Goldman Sachs has been a bombshell Friday on Wall Street. The shock wave spread in Asia this morning.

The NYSE has ended sharply lower Friday, led by falling bank shares, after the shock wave created by Goldman Sachs.The Dow Jones lost 1.13% and the Nasdaq 1.37%.

This latest scandal should support, with the American public, the banking reform projects of the Obama Administration. In addition, the Wall Street Journal, the SEC would consider other "fraud" banks like Deutsche Bank, UBS, Merrill Lynch … on securitization transactions.

The attack comes at the worst time in the open ball of publication of quarterly results to Wall Street. This week the results of 11 companies comprising the Dow Jones and 123 companies in the S & P 500 are expected on Wall Street.

Technology stocks are concerned now with IBM, Yahoo and Apple Tuesday, the day after Qualcomm or Microsoft on Thursday.

Financial stocks will be under the microscope. Citigroup (7.50% to $ 2.15) announced better than expected quarterly accounts.Goldman (-1.04% to 158.94 dollars) and State Street (1.40% to 47.15 dollars) will release their quarterly results tomorrow and Wells Fargo on Wednesday.

Also expected figures for regional banks like U.S. Bancorp, KeyCorp or institutions specialized in consumer credit, including Capital One or Travelers. Other sectors will also be represented with Telecom (AT & T), health (Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Amgen ..), industry (EMC) or the OEM oil (Schlumberger) …

For specialists Aurel BGC, the risk of "making profit" is high after the recent rise in the U.S. market.Among the uncertainties on the bank, the risk of disappointment on publications and the absence of major economic indicator that can reassure the markets, caution this week on the markets.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro continued its fall against the dollar, suffering prosecutions by the SEC against Sachs and uncertainties which still surround the situation in Greece. In the morning, the euro was at 1.3448 dollars against 1.3496 dollars late Friday meeting.

It is an alliance that giant Credit Agricole is poised to build in the business of brokering, with China's Citic. Corroborating sources, the two groups, whose discussions began a year ago, will announce in the next few days their entry into exclusive negotiations.

Before yesterday, the Bloomberg spoke of the creation of a joint venture in Asia. The project is actually much broader. Cr?dit Agricole and Citic were preparing to share all of their brokerage activities, with the ambition to offer a comprehensive worldwide.For the Green Bank, this means that it will bring in the trash marriage the two flagships, CA Cheuvreux in Europe but also CLSA Asia inherited his nugget of the former Credit Lyonnais and the ex-Indosuez, which strike force in Asia is comprised of over 1 300 employees.

"An entry by the front door"

The negotiations will refine the assembly operation. It seems, however, have articulated a pattern in stages. Globally, the respective contributions show an economic weight of about 70% for Credit Agricole, 30% for its Chinese partner. In Asia alone, the ratio is 50-50.

In China, finally, market still very restrictive with regard to foreign players, the Green Bank would of course be a minority, but Citic would offer "an entry by the front door," said a source familiar with the matter.Both groups have the ambition to create a unique platform for implementation to the world. A strategy that sticks to the explosion of capital flows to and from the Asian region, particularly China. She also accompany the rise, very fast, of IPOs on the Asian markets for new local giants, but also of foreign cash advance payday loan. Western companies are increasingly likely to be tempted by either a dual listing-West Asia, either through public offerings in part of their activities in emerging markets.

In 2007, Citic had wanted to attempt the adventure of large-scale partnership in market activities.But the Chinese had backed the wrong horse by selecting Bear Stearns, number five on Wall Street, which was the first major victim of the financial crisis in March 2008. The company was swallowed by a weekend, for a pittance and under pressure from the Fed, JPMorgan.

By marrying his "brokerage" than CITIC, Cr?dit Agricole replicates the strategy already implemented in the field of asset management and derivatives: Green Bank has established two joint ventures with Societe Generale, Amund and Newedge . In both cases, there is access to the critical size. The problem applies to the brokerage, a business in which the challenge is to offset the costs of research teams and infrastructures, galloping amid technological revolution on the market.

Finally, the operation comes at a strategic refocusing of the Cr?dit Agricole group.The Green Bank in 2008 has imposed a severe weight loss at its investment banking subsidiary, which came early and suddenly in crisis. Now, CA IPC (Credit Agricole's Corporate and Investment Banking) is focused on three areas: structured finance, capital markets and brokerage. The planned offensive alliance with CITIC confirms this last job.

A cloud of 200 million dollars (148 million euros). That bill, by far, the paralysis of traffic due to the cloud of volcanic ash, according to an estimate made Friday by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This amount corresponds to "the financial impact (…) day in terms of lost revenue," said a spokesman for IATA said in a statement.

"In addition to lost revenue for airlines costs to change the routes of their machines and take on passengers and equipment stranded in various airports," he added. This is a "first conservative estimate".

According to many analysts, the closure of airports in North Europe was difficult to quantify an impact on the finances of airlines. Experts estimate that it will depend on claims from customers.More recently prefer to postpone their flight, the more it will limit the losses to the industry.

"While we have no visibility on the duration of these disturbances, it is difficult to say what is the cost for companies," Marina J. Devitt, the Irish Goodbody brokerage told AFP.

An invoice of $ 30 million for Air France

In the ladle, it is possible to obtain an estimate by dividing the annual turnover of a company by the number of days during which the aircraft remain grounded. Based on this rough, it is possible to establish that Air France-KLM is 30 million euros and 25 million for British Airways, advance a Paris-based analyst.

In Germany, total paralysis of traffic is expected to weigh on the entire industry to the tune of 50 million euros in total per day and "less than 10 million euros a day" for Lufthansa, said analyst Per-Ola Hellgren, bank LBBW, told AFP. An invoice less salty than the recent pilots' strike which had cost ratio of 48 million euros in total.

Finally, the "one-time impact on earnings of the Irish Ryanair should be low since most of the operational costs will be avoided, except for aircraft rental and labor costs," notes the brokerage Irish NCB.

Rush predictable

Companies should still limit the damage thanks to the predictable rush of customers at the end of the flight ban. The aircraft should then record load factors much higher than normal, making profitable at the same time much better flights.

Without waiting to preliminary figures, the titles of European airlines fell in stock this Friday. By mid-afternoon, Air France-KLM took down 2.21%, British Airways fell by 1.94%, 2.26% Lufthansa.

See also:

Twenty French airports closed until Saturday 8 hours

"Packages, mangoes and footballers blocked

In an interview on RMC Info radio on Wednesday morning, the president of the SNCF, Guillaume Pepy announced three measures to better inform customers of the railway, victims of disruptions caused by the strike now in its eighth day.

SNCF undertakes to publish on Friday on its website and in the press, the list "train by train those who ride or not" for his customers are accurately informed about the conditions of their journey.

Another point, there will be more bookings on the main rail-route to the south-east, that is to say where the strike is the most followed. However, the reservations already made will remain valid.Guillaume Pepy has finally announced that there will be "measures of reimbursement for customers affected by the strike, but the details will be given after consultation with associations of users.

Do not give "bonus to strike"

Guillaume Pepy said also do not want to negotiate with the strikers saying only that "it is simply a bonus to strike from the premium to trading." Indeed, the two unions on strike, the CGT and the South have made the request a separate negotiation.Also it is "optimistic" about the round table proposed by management to all trade unions on April 21.

He also stressed that the minimum service was "pretty well" and that "all trains that were scheduled have been circulating," welcoming "the 96% of railway workers", they "were stoned for the past eight days to protect our customers maximum.

ALSO READ:

"SNCF: the vagaries of guaranteed service