US & World News

Boeing said Thursday that the Indonesian airline Lion Air was about to sign an agreement for the purchase of 201 737 MAX 29 and 737-900 for a total, based on list prices, from 21.7 billion dollars (16 billion euros).

"This transaction, when finalized, will be the largest order of civil aircraft in the history of Boeing, both in value and number of aircraft ordered," said a statement from the U.S. aircraft manufacturer.

He adds that the agreement with Lion Air, Indonesia's largest airline, also has rights to purchase 150 additional aircraft.

Boeing said that U.S. President Barack Obama will attend the signing ceremony for the purchase of 230 aircraft.

Like the A320neo from the A320, the MAX 737 is the version of 737 for fuel savings. The first copies should be delivered in 2017.

French deputies have reduced by nearly 1, 5 billion to 80.321 billion, the deficit in the draft budget law for 2012 at the conclusion of the review, Monday, the first part, the revenue .

The deficit in the original was 81.772 billion euros.

MEPs will vote on Tuesday by a solemn vote of the whole of this first part of the finance bill that the Senate will consider in turn from 17 November.

The level of the deficit is likely to change again with the review by members of the review of the second part of the budget, the expenditure, then the entire text by Senators.

Schneider said Thursday lowered its forecast for 2011 operating margin mainly because of a mix more negative than expected in terms of activity and contribution of geographic areas.

The French specialist of electrical equipment said in a statement that it now expects an EBIT margin (earnings before acquisition costs and impact of integration and consolidation of acquisitions in the year 2011) of 14% instead 15% previously forecast.

However, the Group confirms its forecast for organic growth of between 6% and 9% for the year.

"We expect, however, that profitability is impacted beyond the forecast, the combined effect of a mix more negative, due to growth of solutions greater than that of products and geographic mix less favorable, and a stronger inflationary pressures in emerging economies, "said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chief executive, said in the statement.

The turnover of the group reached 5.697 million euros in the third quarter, representing organic growth of 7.7%.

At 9 months, organic growth reached 9.3%, faster than the annual target.

The activity "Power" (38% of sales in Q3) recorded organic growth of 7.6%, "Energy" (21% of sales) increased by 7.3%, "Industry" (19% of sales ) 6.6%, "IT" (15% of sales) of 12.6% and the activity "Buildings" (7% of sales) 3.0%.

The activity remained stable in Western Europe, the main market of the group (31% of sales), while Asia organic growth of 15% and North America 9%.

Emerging markets, which posted growth of 14%, now represent over 40% of the total turnover of Schneider.

Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris Wednesday to Frankfurt where he is involved with the German Chancellor to work meeting for the summit of the euro area expected Sunday. President Nicolas Sarkozy meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, August 16 at the Elysee Palace (both here in Berlin July 20, 2011)

Nicolas Sarkozy left Paris Wednesday to Frankfurt where he is involved with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting to advance the conclusion of an agreement on the future of the euro area before the EU summit scheduled for Sunday, announced the Elysee.The President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Jean-Claude Trichet, his successor Mario Draghi, the Presidents Council and the Commission of the European Union (EU), Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso, the Executive Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde, the finance ministers and French and German, Baroin and Wolfgang Schäuble, also participate in this "informal meeting" added the source.

All these personalities gathered in Frankfurt for a ceremony in honor of Mr. Trichet, who must leave office at the head of the ECB at the end of October. "No statement is expected at the end of this working meeting," also said the French presidency.At a luncheon at the Elysee Palace with the centrist deputies, the president announced he was ready to move quickly in Germany in order to hasten the conclusion of an agreement in anticipation of EU summits and the euro area scheduled Sunday.

France hopes that the EFSF can be turned into a real bank, such that it can refinance directly with the ECB. The ECB and Germany are opposed to such provisions, which require amendment of the European treaties.Germany stands in contrast the idea of ​​a mechanism to ensure EFSF some of the bonds of troubled countries, to multiply by "leverage" its lending capacity, currently $ 440 billion euros, without the states have to increase their contributions.

First limited to Greece, the debt crisis is now spreading to other countries in the euro area and its banks. Spain has suffered a further reduction of its sovereign rating for the third time in less than two weeks, while Greece was paralyzed by a general strike. At a meeting with Merkel in Berlin on October 9, Sarkozy had promised "sustainable solutions, comprehensive and fast" to resolve the serious crisis in the euro area, in any case before the G20 summit scheduled in Cannes on November 3 and 4.

Europe should recapitalize its banks on an individual basis and not applied uniformly to all measures in the industry, said Tuesday the German BDB banking association.

"It would be absurd to book the same treatment to all banks," said Michael Kemmer, CEO of the BDB, in an interview on ARD television channel.

If the recapitalization is needed, they must be implemented in the right tempo, he added.

"First, banks themselves must make use of capital markets, although it is very difficult if not impossible, right now," said Michael Kemmer.

"Then, each country must see if we recapitalize banks and only if it is unable to do that EFSF should intervene," he added, referring to the European Stability Financial.

France and Germany have given themselves until the end of October to overcome many obstacles on the recapitalization of banks, the euro and its sickest member, Greece, and on European Governance, at where the sovereign debt crisis has put down the bank Dexia.

German banks, which have increased their level of capital in recent months, are stable and doing well, said Michael Kemmer.

He added that European leaders should stick to the agreement July 21 on Greece, which provides that private creditors pass a discount of 21% on Greek bond holdings.

Many experts believe that this level of discount ("haircut") is insufficient, forcing banks to take further writedowns in the third quarter.

Deutsche Bank, one of the most important members of the BDB with Commerzbank, said late September that the discount that private investors have agreed to take on Greek sovereign debt in the second bailout of Greece could be greater than 21% retained.

Last week, the German IDW auditors are said German banks could follow the example of Deutsche Bank in the third quarter by re-evaluating their market prices Greek bonds.

This increase in tax rates, btisée "Buffett rule", only affect 0.3% of taxpayers, less than 450,000 people. President Barack Obama issued Tuesday, August 2, 2011 text authorizing the raising of the ceiling of U.S. debt.

President Barack Obama will propose Monday to raise taxes on millionaires so that they reach at least the same percentage of their income than that applied to middle-class taxpayers, said Saturday the New York Times.

Citing government officials, the newspaper says Obama will present a draft on this issue during a speech at the White House, he calls the "Rule Buffett", named after the multimillionaire Warren E. Buffet.It was recently pointed out that the richest Americans pay a smaller proportion of their income in federal taxes than middle-income employees.

Profits on investments – such as profits from capital, dividends or premiums paid to investors and holders of risky investments – are taxed less than wages, in fact, explains the New York Times. In addition, those receiving more than 106,800 dollars do not pay Social Security tax.

The newspaper said Obama will not show the tax rate or clear it intends to apply the amount it hoped to achieve through this measure and will not provide further details, these should be included in a program long-term deficit reduction.However, it will call savings of $ 300 billion over ten years of health insurance for the elderly and medical aid to the needy.

A joint committee of Congress is working on a bipartisan agreement on the budget to be presented in late November while the Republican representatives opposed the project of the president to tax the companies in the sectors of oil and gas and individual income above $ 200,000. The tax would only affect 0.3% millonnaires taxpayers, less than 450,000 of the 144 million returns recorded in 2010, according to The New York Times.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended Wednesday on a sharp decline, yielding 1.14% in a climate of anxiety about the continuing debt crisis of the Greek, which encouraged profit taking after Tuesday's rebound.

The Nikkei lost 97.98 points to 8518.57, a lowest level in two and a half years, and Topix, broader, sold 8.13 points (1.08%) to 741.69.

The highest exposure to Europe were particularly hard hit.Canon has lost 4.08% to 3,295 yen.

In early trading, some purchases on the cheap recently battered shares pushed the Nikkei up to 8671.24, but profit-taking quickly reversed the trend.

The values ​​of the video game industry, fell sharply Tuesday after a presentation judged disappointing by Nintendo, have recovered slightly.Square Enix has made 0.48% to 1,475 yen after losing 3.9% on Tuesday.

Also on the rise, Sharp has benefited from the announcement of an expected increase in sales in Indonesia to gain 3.3% to 595 yen.

Ricoh has instead plunged 1.67% to 648 yen after lowering its target price of 900 yen to 600 yen by Macquarie Securities, who expects weak demand for copiers in the second half of the fiscal year.

Hewlett-Packard has made a bid Thursday to the British publisher of Autonomy software and mentioned the possible split in the group with his branch of PC.

HP has offered to buy all outstanding shares of Autonomy for the price of 42.11 dollars per share for a total transaction of $ 10.3 billion (7.1 billion euros).

He also announced the abandonment of its shelf TouchPad who has not had the expected success.

The group also sees a possible split with the PC industry, faced with slow growth and low margins.This is one of the largest divisions of HP but also one of the least profitable of the group.

The American manufacturer has announced a little earlier than expected revenues rose for the third quarter to $ 31.2 billion (2.17 billion euros) against 30.7 billion a year earlier in accordance with the expectations of Wall Street.

The group lowered its annual forecast for the third consecutive time.It now expects an annual turnover of between 127.2 and 127.6 billion dollars, against a previous estimate of between 129 and 130 billion.

The forecast of earnings per share was also down, with a range from 3.59 to 3.70 dollars against a previous forecast of at least 4.27 dollars.

The title, which closed down 6%, down 2.1% after closure of the exchanges on Wall Street.

The rumor of a deterioration in the rating of France has prompted a new collapse of the entire stock market. "This is completely untrue," says the entourage of Baroin. View of the Ministry of Economy and Finance at Bercy.

Bercy has "formally" denied rumors Wednesday of degradation of the French debt rating by a rating agency that led to a new collapse of the entire stock market. "These rumors are totally unfounded and the three agencies Standard and Poor's, Fitch and Moody's have confirmed that there was no risk of degradation," it was stated in the entourage of the Minister of Finance Baroin.

Rating agencies Moody's Investors Service Inc.., Standard and Poor's Corp.. Fitch Ratings and have in fact all three confirmed Wednesday the sovereign debt rating of triple A with a stable outlook they attribute to France.Fitch confirmed the note on May 31 and S & P, December 23. Moody's does not usually confirms his notes.

"It's totally false", it was stressed the same source, when asked about the rumors, which also claimed that this is why French President Nicolas Sarkozy interrupted his holiday to hold a crisis meeting at the Elysee Palace . After the meeting, the Head of State said that new measures to reduce the deficit will be announced on August 24.

European shares are down sharply divided Wednesday, two hours before the close, led by falling bank stocks as a result of new concerns fueled also by the situation in Greece and the decline of Wall Street opening. The New York Stock Exchange opened sharply down Wednesday also unable to continue the strong rebound yesterday.In Paris the CAC-40 plunged almost 5% hit by bank stocks.

Danone on Thursday posted first-half results up record results thanks to its water division, and affirmed all its annual targets despite an environment that remains challenging.

The action of giant agribusiness, the first major global industry to publish its interim results, however, decline, affected by lower volumes in the fresh dairy products linked to the sharp rise in prices.

Around 24:30, the title lost 2.2% to 49.55 euros while the European sector index yielded 0.43% and the CAC 40 1.58%.The action Danone gained 5.5% since the beginning of the year while the sector index is stable.

"The market punishes the wrong way lower volumes in the fresh dairy products," said Pierre Tegner, Oddo Securities, noting the second quarter, Danone has broken the record he had established the first in terms of organic growth and that the margin is higher than expected.

The analyst also welcomes "good control" of Danone in managing its costs.

In 2011, Danone still expects an increase in comparable data, from 6% to 8% in sales and about 20 basis points to its current operating margin.

Asia has 21% in Q2

The group expects an increase in total costs for raw materials and packaging from 6% to 9% on average in 2011, with growth strongest in the first half due to the bases of comparison with 2010.

Thanks to major efforts to improve productivity, the company, whose brands range from yogurt Actimel Evian waters, claims to have protected its margins (-23 bps), in line with its objectives.

During a conference call, Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Andre Terisse said that most of the price increases had been passed in the first half, during which the average increase was 2%.

He estimated that prices of raw materials had probably reached their "peak" in the first half.

Danone is on track to achieve its goal of 500 million in productivity gains in 2011 as he made half way in the first half, he said.

The group, which last year put his hand on Unimilk, the No. 2 Russian dairy products, ensures that their venture is the appointment of its objectives and that the integration teams will be finalized in late 2011.

Pierre-André Terisse said that in 2011 the group would focus on improving margins Unimilk and not its volume.

Current operating income rose 6.9% like in the first half, to 1.396 million euros (Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S 1384.2 million), while net income rose 3.4% to 870 million (consensus of 894 million).

Turnover amounted to 9.728 million (+8.7% like), against a consensus of 9,740.8 million (+8.7% on a comparable basis).

In the second quarter, the division "Water" has seen its sales jump by 18.9% against 5.5% in the "dairy fresh" where volumes were down 0.2%.

In the "child nutrition" the increase was 9.6% and 8.7% in the "medical nutrition."

During this period, sales of Danone rose 20.8% in Asia, against a gain of just 4.2% in Europe.