US & World News

The Indian division of Renault will launch five models from mid-2011 and mid-2013 to meet growing demand in this rapidly growing market, said Thursday the French carmaker's CEO for India, Marc Nassif .

The small vehicles, built on the platform of its Japanese partner Nissan, launched in 2012, he said on the sidelines of a conference on the automobile.

He said that the cars in question are sold under the Renault brand at a competitive price.

The Renault-Nissan is also working with the specialist Indian two-wheeler Bajaj Auto to build a low-cost car to be launched by end 2012.

Marc Nassif has also said he set the objective of selling 75.000 vehicles in India in 2013.

The British finance minister George Osborne said on Tuesday the introduction of a tax on the assets of banks operating in the United Kingdom, while France and Germany support this measure and prepare to join, at he said.

According to Osborne, the tax on banks' balance sheets will bring the order of 2 billion pounds (2.4 billion euros) per year when it is applied completely. It is expected to set the tax rate to 0.07% with a discount of 0.04% in 2011.

Mr. Osborne, who presented his first budget since the May 6 election, noted that "the failure of banks has imposed huge costs to the rest of society", and was thus "fair" that they are contributing to the economy. "Some have argued we should wait for every G20 introduce such a tax."I think it is neither fair nor reasonable," he said.

A "fair share to reflect the risk" posed by banks

The minister said that "the French and Germans had joined the United Kingdom today by pledging to introduce a tax" on banks' assets."In a joint statement, he said, our three Governments undertake to ensure that our banks make their fair contribution to reflect the risk they pose."

Published on the website shortly after the British Treasury, the Joint Declaration of the French, British and German banking fees "covers much of the ideas raised by Paris and Berlin yesterday in a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, G20 a few days in Toronto.

"In light of the agreement within the G20, that the financial sector expected to contribute immediately and substantially to pay for expenses associated with government intervention to rescue the banking system – (…) the French, British German and suggest introducing fees based on assets of banks, "said this particular statement.

"The UK tax is announced today, France will present the details of his in the upcoming budget (and) Germany has announced the general framework of a tax credit in late March and will present the bill to the summer, "recalls the text.

It ensures that those three charges "may differ from one another, to reflect economic conditions and tax systems differ from one country to another, but the level of tax take into account the need ensure an equal level of play "between countries, says he.

"The French, British and German want to see fully implement the ambitious program of financial sector reform, the G20 and they look forward to discussing these proposals further with their international partners in the G20 summit on June 24, concludes the text.

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had written in the same direction on Monday Mr. Harper also requesting that consideration be put in place a tax on financial transactions.

Societe Generale on Wednesday posted a net income multiplied by 3.5 in the second quarter of 2010, above expectations, thanks to a decline in its stores and a smaller than expected loss in its toxic assets, and confirmed objectives.

The second French bank by market value after BNP Paribas, says that it achieved a net profit of 1.084 million euros for the quarter ended in June, where the consensus reached by the editor of Reuters expected a general result to 732 million.

His provisions for potential loss on the credit over the period fell by 6% but the rate of decline in the cost of risk is much slower than some of its rivals, reflecting a more cautious speech of SocGen on the strength of economic recovery.

BNP Paribas and British bank HSBC, for example reported Monday in stores near their level before the crisis.

"The economic recovery that began in late 2009 confirmed, but it remains fragile," said Frederic Oudéa, CEO of Societe Generale, said in the statement.

"Especially in Europe, growth prospects remain subdued," he adds.

Penalized by the toxic assets, and author of "profit warnings" on its books of 2009, SocGen tries since the beginning of the year to convince the market of its ability to turn the page on the financial and economic crisis and the of the Kerviel affair.

The new management team led by Frederick since May 2009 Oudéa promised mid-June to double the profits of Societe Generale in two years and is targeting a net profit of six billion euros in 2012 against a target of three billion this year.

The bank is also considering acquisitions but said it does not fund them through capital increases.

Besides the new strategic plan, the results of resistance tests conducted on 91 European banks and the announcement by the Basel Committee's flexibility to draft new banking regulation has been a breath of oxygen to the action SocGen, long shunned by investors.

In the past four weeks, the title, boosted by good news on the European banking sector jumped 40%. Since the beginning of the year, however, still leaves nearly 8% and continues to underperform its benchmark Stoxx 600 European banks.

Orange, the mobile arm of France Telecom, has begun discussions with shareholders Meditel second operator in Morocco, to acquire 40% stake in it, reported Saturday the weekly News.

The French-language magazine said that discussions between Orange and owners Meditel, CDG and FinanceCom, have reached an advanced stage.

He added that the entry of French capital Meditel could cost 650 million euros.

A senior officer Meditel declined any comment.No representative of CDG or FinanceCom was immediately available for comment.

"France Telecom confirms interest in the Moroccan market, but could not say more now," said a Reuters spokesman for France Telecom in Paris.

On the occasion of the presentation of its interim results on Thursday, the operator has reaffirmed willingness to conduct "a policy of selective acquisition primarily aimed at doubling the turnover of the group on three to five years in emerging markets (particularly in Africa and the Middle East).

Meditel, opposite the Moroccan market to the former monopoly Morocco Telecom, Vivendi is a shareholder, and INWIë owned conglomerate ONA, lost last year's two shareholders weight: Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom Portugal .

Their holdings, 32.2% each, were sold to private groups and Moroccan FinanceCom CDG, a public investment holding, to just under 900 million euros.

At the time, and CDG FinanceCom had not excluded the possibility of bringing a new round of shareholder if it would increase the value of Meditel.They also considered an introduction Meditel the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

Emirates Telecommunications (Etisalat), unsuccessful candidate for the resumption of the shares of Telefonica and Portugal Telecom, has expressed interest in the Moroccan market.

Sequana reported a net profit of 6 million euros in the first half and confirms its target of operating performance in 2010 than that of last year.

The group diversified paper, which has returned to profitability in 2009, said in a statement that the third quarter continue its policy of raising prices, already implemented during the first six months of the year.

This price increase will allow the group to offset rising raw material costs.

"The policy of increasing operating margins and debt reduction will be continued in the second half," says Sequana.

In the first six months of the year, the stationer has reached a turnover up 3.8% to 2.14 billion euros.

Its net debt stood at 670 million euros at end-June 2010, down from 732 million a year earlier.

"The policy of increasing operating margins and debt reduction will be continued on the second half," advised Sequana.

The action Sequana closed Tuesday at 11.50 euros. It is up 44% since the beginning of the year.

Danone issued a first-half operating result slightly better than expected and has carefully noted the objective of sales growth for the full year, considering that the crisis would continue to weigh on European consumption.

The food group, which focuses on further development of emerging markets, now provides that its comparable sales will grow at least 6% when he was previously an increase of at least 5%.

He always bet on an increase in operating free cash flow in historical data at least 10% and stability of its operating margin in 2010 compared to 2009.

"We continue to invest in countries, products and brands with strong potential: Child Nutrition in Asia, fresh dairy products in the United States, Brazil, Russia, where Danone and Unimilk merger provides us with very significant growth opportunities long term, "said Franck Riboud, CEO of Danone.

In a statement, he confirms that water and medical nutrition, the group continues "to identify potential for growth in emerging markets and through new models."

At the same time, Danone has continued its efforts to improve productivity, says its chief executive.

The action Danone, with brands ranging from yogurts Actimel waters of Evian, lost 2.23% to 45.285 euros at 9:38, while the CAC 40 0.93% but took the DJ Stoxx European " Food yielded 1.13%.

Commenting on the first half, Francis Priest, CM-CIC Securities, believes they are "good bill" but noted that Danone "remains cautious on the S2 due to a persistently difficult".

The analyst believes that the decline of the title, which takes place in small volumes, reflects disappointment with the failure to raise the target group at the ROC, which the market had anticipated.

INCREASE IN VOLUME OF THE 2ND QUARTER 8.9%

On a comparable basis, the EBIT of Danone rose 2% on a comparable basis to 1280 million euros over the period January to June, showing a margin of 15.30%.His current net income was up 10.1% to 848,000,000 euros.

Turnover amounted to 4.386 million in the second quarter (+6.9%) or 8.364 million in the half. Excluding the effects of exchange rates (+7.0%) and changes in scope of consolidation (+0.1%), it grew 6.9% on a comparable basis in the second quarter.This organic growth is divided into volumes rising by 8.9% and a decrease in value by 2.0%.

Sales rose only 1.4% to 2,420 million euros in Q2 while they increased by 15.3% to 635 million in Asia and 15.9% in the rest of the world to 1331000 .

The consensus Thomson Reuters StarMine, the operating result was expected of 1.265 million euros (+5%) and turnover of 8.261 million (+9.8%), representing an operating margin of 15.3 %.

The fresh dairy products division, which represents 55% of sales in Q2, increased its sales by 6.6% to 2.436 million euros over the period. On the entire first half, the operating margin of this sector appears to 13.94% (-94 bps).The volume effect was positive at 9.3% but the negative value effect of 2.7% due to price reductions made in several countries, Danone said.

The division "Water" (19% of sales) has seen its sales grow by 4.8% to 828 million while its margin declined 75 basis points over the first half to 13.70%.

Sales of the "Child Nutrition" (19.5% of sales) rose 8.7% to 857 million (margin down 27 bps in the first half to 19.19%).

Finally, those of the pole "medical nutrition" increased by 10.8% to 265 million (margin decline of 86 bps to 19.90% in the first half).

Free cash flow from operations increased 34.9% to EUR 858 million, or 10.3% of sales in the first half, against 636 million and 8.5% of sales from the same period of last year.

In turn, capital expenditures totaled 275 million euros, or 3.3% of turnover. This level is below the annual forecast, ranging from 4% to 5% in sales due to a timing effect, Danone said.

Net debt amounted to 3180 Danone million euros in the first half.

* Danone Graph comparing to its competitors:

here

JPMorgan Chase reported better than expected results in the second quarter with a decline in provision for credit losses, something that gives hope to investors that things return to normal in the bank.

However, the action declined substantially over 2% as investors aggrieved by his assessment of economic conditions.The KBW bank index was weakening even more, 2.45%.

Moreover, the bulk of quarterly earnings from revenue sources that are not stable, such as reduced bad debt provisions, while in some segments, like the conventional mortgage, there are more and more bad debt, which bodes ill for banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America, which publishes Friday.

Income trading at JPMorgan has declined but it is better than expected, which is perhaps a positive sign for banks such as Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, who announce their quarterly results next week.

"The results are just adequate and there is a little less than it seems," said Doug Kass (Seabreeze Partners Management).

The outstanding loans of the bank has continued to decline, showing it is reluctant to risk new loans yet.She says she can not yet assess how the reform of financial regulation will affect its accounts, information, precisely, investors were waiting impatiently.

ONE LESS OPTIMISTIC DG

The CEO Jamie Dimon appeared less optimistic about the future than it was in the first quarter, when he said that the economic recovery of the United States could be solid.

"It is too early to measure the improvement that we observe from now" in the consumer credit, which yields "are unacceptable", he has merely stated Thursday.

"We do not know what will happen to house prices and we believe we are not alone," he later told analysts.

The bank reported a net profit of 4.8 billion dollars (3.7 billion euros) or $ 1.09 per share, against 2.7 billion (28 cents per share) for the corresponding period last year.

Net income for the investment bank fell 6% to $ 1.38 billion. The second quarter was marked by markets that have evolved sawtooth, alternating example falls in the stock exchanges with peaks rising in the bond market.

The income earned by the JPMorgan bond, commodity and currency has dropped 28% to 3.56 billion.The bond trading has been a major driver of earnings of all major banks.

The bank posted a windfall of $ 1.5 billion, or 36 cents per share, due to the reduction in provision for credit during the quarter.Excluding this benefit, the result announced by JPMorgan – 73 cents – more than analysts' consensus that emerged at 67 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S.

The bank does not renew every quarter this year discount stores but Jamie Dimon said it was the thing that needed to be done during this quarter.

He said that the bank has a solid liquidity, having repurchased $ 500 million of its shares in the first half, but noted that the bank would be more certain of its capital before increasing its dividend.

Many banks want to raise the dividend but regulators see it a bad eye, which makes more likely redemptions.

The bank said its losses on consumer loans, mortgages, credit cards and other debts had declined in the second quarter both compared to the first three months of the year versus the second quarter 2009.

JPMorgan has finally reported a charge of $ 550 million charge related to the British banking bonuses. She had previously launched a warning on that charge, saying it would be an "important" in the quarter.

Despite advances in EU Member States towards the Parliament, the reform of the European financial supervision remains blocked until at least early September, we learned from diplomatic and parliamentary.

On Tuesday, however, a new compromise between the bloc on this reform, in gestation for over a year, had hinted at an early agreement.

But further discussions held Wednesday morning between representatives of governments, the Parliament and the Commission were ultimately unsuccessful and the participants decided to cancel the meetings scheduled next week to do again until the fall.

"There will be no further talks before late August or early September and I think we can say that the talks failed, it was said parliamentary sources.

"The core issue is Article 6 which concerns the principle of direct supervision exercised at European level by the new supervisors," the source said, adding that the objective was to find a consensus with all states, including Great Britain.

A second source later confirmed the postponement of talks and held that "one or two additional steps the council (of EU ministers) in the direction of the European Parliament would be required to obtain an agreement."

In a statement to Reuters, the EU Internal Market Commissioner, Michel Barnier, said the objective was to find "a dynamic and balanced compromise.

"We are in the final straight but there is still some way to go," he said.

TECHNICAL MEETINGS

Without result, Wednesday's meeting helped to bring some positions of Parliament and Member States.

This applies to certain powers given to the European Council of systemic risk and the three new authorities in supervising the banking, insurance and markets.

These could permit, under certain conditions, products or financial practices, such as short sales.They would also be binding mediation in cases of disagreement between two supervisors.

The principle that the authorities could apply directly to a settlement without going through the national supervisor, in emergencies, is also acquired, as it does not undermine the budgetary sovereignty of States.

Moreover, these emergencies could be declared by the authorities but would instead be covered by the European Parliament alongside the Member States.

In contrast, the principle of supervision at European level for the European entities of pan-European nature, such as clearing houses, remains a problem.

A source close to the discussions, meetings at technical level should be organized in the coming days to work on these issues.

The Belgian presidency of the EU should work to include this item on the agenda of the meeting of ambassadors of Twenty-seven of the next week to lay the groundwork for negotiations in September.

The objective remains that the states and the Parliament adopt these texts in the first half of September so that authorities can start to work as planned on 1 January 2011.

Wall Street finished up Friday, ending the week at its largest weekly increase since the beginning of the year when the new season begins Monday results.

The Dow Jones industrial average thirty biggest U.S. has been 0.58%, 58.73 points to 10,197.72, while the S & P 500 index fund managers, has awarded 7.68 points, 0 , 72%, to 1077.93.

Supported by the announcement that Google will be able to resume its activities in China, Nasdaq, heavily weighted in technology, advanced 21.05 points, 0.97% to 2196.45.

For the week, the Dow took 5.3%, the S & P gained 5.4% and the Nasdaq was up 5%.

"Investors are putting their concerns to the background because they expect a good season of results," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco?

"But chances are that next week is volatile. The results could certainly good but the forecasts may not be."

Google announced on Friday that Chinese authorities had renewed his license, a decision that allows him to remain on the largest Internet market in the world.

The Internet portal closed up 2.39% to 467.46 dollars.

Alcoa will open Monday after closing the ball of quarterly results.Experts say the findings by the American aluminum should satisfy investors, even if the decline in metal prices has prompted analysts to revise their forecasts downward. Alcoa has been 2.05%.

A reversal of the trend, Johnson & Johnson dropped 1.37% to 60.54 dollars after announcing that it had recalled more Tylenol and prescription drugs after complaints from consumers.

PSA Peugeot Citroen announced a 16.9% jump in sales of vehicles in the first half, including a one-point increase its market share in Europe, which should increase over the year.

The first French car manufacturer and number two in European sales confirmed, however, anticipate a decline of about 9% of European car market, while China is expected to grow at double-digit pace in Latin America with a number.

PSA sales totaled 1.856 million units in the first half, including 1.618 million for assembled vehicles (+16.8%)

In Europe, PSA registrations rose 7.7% to 1.214 million units in the first half, giving a market share of 14.6%, up one point.

The group estimates that the global auto market grew 13% over the period, with leaps of 27% in China and 11% in Latin America contrasts with a fall of 27% in Germany, while France fared with an increase of 6%.

Automakers are preparing an overall drop in sales in the second half, with the gradual disappearance of scrap premiums and caution potential buyers respond to economic uncertainty.

In France, the new car registrations fell in May and June, marking the last stages of the effect of scrappage, reduced on 1 January 1000 to 750 euros and reduced to EUR 500 this month .

PSA, which will publish its interim results on July 28, said in April anticipate a largely positive EBIT in the first six months of the year instead of a simple return to the green before.

The group, whose sales growth has exceeded expectations in the first quarter, however, had warned that the environment might be difficult in Europe in the second half.

Renault will release its own trade performance Thursday.

PSA Action closed up 3.63% to 21.56 euros on Tuesday, giving a market capitalization of 5.05 billion euros. It lost 8.9% since the beginning of the year after surging 95% in 2009.