International Headlines and Stories

The Citroen DS 5 of the newly elected president has not only brought joy to Peugeot-Citroen on Tuesday. The leaders of Bosch, which manufactures the electric motor and power electronics for PSA's hybrid vehicle, took pride in the choice of Francois Hollande. "Our site of Saint-Ouen is our global competence center in the area of ​​hybrid vehicles," welcomed Maugis Guy, president of Bosch France.

The group is an industrial giant of the Rhine, which weighs 51.5 billion euros in turnover in 2011 and employs 300,000 employees. In the Hexagon, has 25 sites and employs 8,200 people. Last year, the French subsidiary has made EUR 3 billion in revenue, of which 1.3 billion were exported. The French activity was slightly higher (+3%), despite the difficulties of the automobile industry. "We are logically affected by the fall in the number of vehicles produced in France in recent years," says Guy Maugis.

Attractiveness of the site "France"

This growth at the global level as in the French branch, comes from new products marketed by the group. And development is made possible by the emphasis on research investments (4.6 billion globally) as in the industrial (3 billion euros). "In France, the group has invested over 350 million euros for the past five years to upgrade its industrial base," adds the French official.

These investments were made away from the controversy that surrounded the site of Venissieux, in the Rhone, in 2004. Bosch had then seen 35 to 36 hours working time in return for an investment of 20 million euros at the time for the manufacture of diesel injection pumps. "This agreement finally allowed to employ 500 people in our factory for seven years," Guy is justified Maugis.

Posing as the "Ambassador of France to the parent," the leader welcomes investment in recent years. Because the site "France" is in competition with all other countries where Bosch is represented. For Guy Maugis, if France is suffering comparisons in terms of labor costs, it benefits from the quality of its infrastructure, training and inventiveness. However, he regretted "the unpredictability of tax regulations and social situation" and the low visibility of social dialogue, sometimes "surprising and even confusing."

Social dialogue that can sometimes be successful. The site of Venissieux, again, was again converted. Today, part of the factory is specialized in the assembly of photovoltaic panels. "The plant is running close to capacity, although the sharp fall in prices in 2011 prevented for the time being profitable, explains Guy Maugis. However, we are confident of having the wherewithal to impose on us in this area. "

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New trial for Yahoo!. The U.S. internet group announced Sunday it had appointed a new temporary chief executive, Ross Levinsohn, replacing Scott Thompson less than five months after the arrival thereof at the head of the company. "Scott Thompson left the company" Yahoo! justifies no further details. The group further states that Fred Amoroso has been named president of the board to replace Roy Bostock.

This change in the leadership of a pioneering Internet companies, now embattled, was announced a few hours after the release of information on the site dedicated to news reports All Things Digital. The article reported an imminent departure of former CEO in the wake of a controversy provoked by the discovery of falsification of his CV. A few days earlier, Patti Hart, director of the group, had also been forced to leave the band for the same reasons: she had embellished his CV.

According to All Things Digital, the reason for the "abrupt departure" is only due to the activism of hedge fund Third Point, a leading shareholder of Yahoo! with 5.8% stake. A shareholder who has been trying for several years to gain seats and influence within the board had asked the head of Scott Thompson on line pay day loans. And the fund has been successful. In fact, Yahoo! has agreed that the boss of Third Point, Daniel Loeb, and two persons selected by him, Harry Wilson and Michael Wolf, are seated on the board from Wednesday. The Board is pleased to announce these changes and this agreement with Third Point, and is confident they will be in the best interests of our shareholders, "we read in Yahoo! News.

The group did not, however, extends the strategy it intends to follow in the future, simply stating that "in as interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn will direct the day to day running of the company, helped by the existing team of executives from Yahoo! ". This last Sunday was up global director of the media branch of Yahoo! It is the fifth CEO to take the reins of the group in five years. The question is whether Yahoo! will manage to raise the head above water.

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Five months after the launch of Autolib ', the system self-service vehicles do not meet again a great success, far from it. Although the number of subscribers grew, but it remains inadequate. It rises this month to 15,000 people, 00 of which only 5 signed an annual subscription, others have chosen packages in the week or day. The cars were used 118,000 times since December.

The businessman Vincent Bollore, whose group provides vehicles and charging stations, expects 30,000 annual subscribers at the end of the year. But to be profitable, Autolib 'must have 80,000 users on the car twice a week for a period of just under an hour. The group has indeed invested 100 million euros starting in the device, plus 100 million annual operating costs (including 900 people have been recruited to the call center and stations).

Financial side, the businessman Breton is optimistic. At the launch of this system of electric cars, self-service in the Paris region, beginning in December 2011, he estimated it would take seven years to break even. "It is possible that this is earlier," he said Wednesday. The infrastructure can be rapidly deployed in 46 communities of Ile-de-France, including Paris, while the number of stations has doubled since the start, reaching 500 stations in May. It must still be multiplied by two (1050), by October. The number of electric cars is made available to him from 250 to 1740 and is expected to climb to 3,000 by the end of the year.

In late April, the Bluecar Bolloré also ranks the leading electric car registrations in France (982 copies), before Nissan and Mia, a market it is true stammering (1595 cars). Bolloré would however expect a year of operation to take a real first assessment, but also business technology fast payday loan no faxing. Electric batteries, particularly temperature sensitive, "have passed the severe cold, but not yet the hot summer," he says.

For now, this service attracted a rather young audience: half of subscribers between 18 and 35. Unsurprisingly, 70% of users have no car. More difficult to explain: 75% are men.

Little vandalism

Degradation related vehicles, hiccups were encountered the first time, "but we managed to eliminate the defects of youth," he assured Vincent Bolloré. The bumpers have been replaced by such material more resistant. The precedents décrochaient easily as motorists unaccustomed to automatic transmissions, may tend to confuse the brake and accelerator. Mirrors, knobs of power windows and door loading were also changed. Moreover, the cars have yet to paint, which avoids the risk of scratches and lighten the car by 5 kilos (an economy that enhances autonomy). In total, Autolib 'account from 20 to 25 claims per day.

So far, however, "very little" acts of vandalism have been deplored, welcomes Vincent Bolloré, contrary to what was observed for self-service bikes Velib '. The most spectacular incident, three cars were burned in Créteil in the Val de Marne.

To attract new subscribers, Autolib launches a monthly fee of 30 euros plus 6 euros per half hour of use. The annual fee amounts to 144 euros plus 5 euros thirty minutes of driving.

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Roman Lucazeau, Chargé de Mission in the Business Institute, details the mechanisms at work in the test programs.

THE FIGARO.FR. – Why submit programs of candidates for this test?

Roman Lucazeau. – Although, compared to the 2007 presidential campaign, the programs of the two main candidates are more accurate, they still gray areas and are based on slightly different economic scenarios. This makes comparison difficult. So we tried to apply the same economic variables: growth rate, inflation, unemployment rate, by 2017. We also wanted to discover what happened to the public finances if the programs were implemented with, notably, lower growth than that provided by the candidates, for example, that France has known, on average, over the past decade.  

Originally, this type of exercise is applied by the financial authorities to banks. These are subject to economic scenarios degraded to assess their strength in case of economic crisis. We use a similar method to test the ability of candidates to achieve their stated goal (zero deficit in 2016 for Nicolas Sarkozy in 2017 for Francis Holland).

But in a crisis, a candidate can always abandon its initial program

.

Absolutely. We test the strength of their roadmap, as defined during the election campaign, in a worse position than they anticipate cheap business cards. We evaluate today's promises and do not prejudge the future president of the reactions in case of contingencies.  

How does this model?

We leave the bases nominee programs (eg growth rate, the level of taxes and public spending …) and against which they built their proposals. These assumptions are public and have been developed by their campaign teams. We determine how the deficit and debt change if we change some parameters on the basis of data and public reporting, the INSEE, the Court of Auditors and of Bercy. The details of our methodology is available on our website.

How do you ensure objectivity of your approach?

We submitted the candidates' platforms to the same constraints: same inflation, even growth, even drift government spending or health insurance, etc.. The differences between results are explained by the differences between the programs themselves. Debt strategy of the two candidates based on both on growth, tax increases and budget savings. But Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande do not intend to use these levers to the same extent. Their programs do not react the same way a change of parameters.

Purpose wants to be known among city dwellers. The chain will open its first home furnishings store in the capital during the week of May 7, on the prestigious Avenue Wagram (XVII), next to Roche Bobois. This is the second City goal, brand created two years ago to lead the offense group in major cities. The first of its kind since late 2010 is installed in the mall Domus Rosny-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis). A third is scheduled to open in late June in the mall Cap 3000 in Nice.

Covering an area of ​​between 1000 m2 and 1500 m2, the City Purpose are two to five times smaller than the stores Aim at the periphery of towns. The entire range of Purpose can not be presented. As Conforama, with its sign of downtown Confo Deco Goal has chosen to focus on the organization of living, bedrooms and kitchen. "Our products, all contemporary, are adapted to small spaces. They will be at very affordable prices, as the Parisians today lack a tender other than the high end, "said Berengaria Lamboley, marketing director of Purpose.

If the appliance will not be exposed in the shop of Wagram, customers will still buy coffee machines, refrigerators and vacuum cleaners via touch screens. Or through tablets which vendors will be equipped. Purpose The City of Wagram offer innovative services, such as animations to lunch fast payday loans. "We also deliver free in the evening between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., in central Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine," says Regis Schultz, CEO of the group.

A third sign referred

Offensive Purpose does not stop there. Regis Schultz prepares to unveil, in July, a third store format, with a dedicated teaching. Located in the "middle rurban" (catchment areas from 30,000 to 40,000), these stores will be "Aim small, with a comprehensive range of approximately 1500 m2, and are for those who do not want to buy a 40 km washing machine, "explains Bérangère Lamboley. Eight stores of this type are planned this year. These openings will bring to 219 the total number of stores owned by the brand of furniture.

Goal is now the third French player, with a market share of 10.3% in 2011, still far behind Ikea (17.8%) and Conforama (14.5%). For sale by its owner Goldman Sachs, Colony Capital and OpCapita (former Merchant Equity Partners), the group like five French investment funds. Shareholders give hope to the sign for 450, or 500 million euros, valuing the company at about six times its Ebitda (80 million euros in 2011).

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Medel, its official name Lucmagn, is a quiet village of 435 souls nestled at 1332 meters altitude, in the heart of the Alps, in the region of the Lukmanierpass (Grisons). Its inhabitants were just as quiet on their heights until a Swiss mining company, a subsidiary of Canadian Gold NV, may disturb their idyll. Under their feet, in fact hides a gold mine. That company then proposed to exploit this in exchange for 40 million Swiss francs, or about 33 million euros. Against all odds, the villagers declined the offer to two-thirds of the population, after a referendum held in early April.

According to Business Insider, the mine in question, located in a vast pine forest in the snowy peaks and valley Medel, to contain about 1.2 billion dollars of precious metals. The U.S. site information reports that the history of the mine clearly divided the inhabitants of the valley. Some would see a tremendous opportunity in the economic deficient, while others – mostly – highlight their concerns about the environmental impact such a project would succeed.

For its part, NV Gold in talks with the mayor of the small town, more than ever determined to steal the treasure buried by the villagers jealously refractory.

Nestle will soon be able to give free rein to its ambitions on the Chinese baby milk market. After several months of a tight battle with its main competitor, Danone, the Swiss have been selected by Pfizer to buy its infant nutrition business, the Wall Street Journal. The agreement could be signed before the end of the month.

The amount of the transaction be around ten billion. "This operation has a real strategic sense for Nestle, said Andrew Wood, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, because it deals with good grades and good markets and is performed at a reasonable price. "Nestle has maintained through his status as favorite, because of its financial muscle and posture. He chose to go it alone, while Danone had allied his forces earlier this year with the U.S. Mead Johnson. The French had indicated during February to be interested only in "certain assets, certain brands in some countries," adding that he was not on the verge of acquiring a structuring of the type of Numico in 2008. It might have sinned, according to some experts, by his lack of enthusiasm on this issue. The alliance with Mead Johnson made it more complex to build a competitive offer.

Assets to be sold

Danone, however, could catch up. For competitive reasons, Nestlé will indeed be compelled to give up certain activities, including Mexico, Southeast Asia or South Africa. Danone will then compete with Heinz. The king of ketchup, which carries 11% of its sales with child nutrition, waived bid for the branch of Pfizer, but he is interested in potential sales, particularly in Latin America. Nestlé is about to offer a real nugget, who made last year $ 2.1 billion in sales (+15%). Activity following the acquisition by Pfizer in 2009, the Wyeth for $ 68 billion. Pfizer had announced its intention last summer to focus on the heart of its business. Officially, the pharmaceutical group was still hesitating between an assignment and a split.

Returning to the child nutrition branch of Pfizer, world number five in the sector, with over half of its business in emerging countries, Nestlé could catch up in China. With the SMA brand, Pfizer is already comfortably installed, with 6.7% market share.

Arrived late in the Middle Kingdom, the group of Vevey occupies only the eighth (3.7% market share), behind Abbott. But this market dominated by Mead Johnson, which are born each year 16 million babies, weighs 7 billion. It is set to double by 2015, according to Euromonitor. Number 3 in China, Danone sells more boxes of Dumex baby milk in France. In a rapidly growing market, the cards of infant nutrition are about to be reshuffled in the coming months.

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Concern is growing about employment in the telecom sector. Jean-Claude Mailly, general secretary of the Workers Force, wrote to Constable telecom (ARCEP), with a copy to Francois Fillon, a letter to "attract (his) attention to the impact of the fourth mobile license in the sector ". An appointment was set with the President of ARCEP, Jean-Ludovic Silicani next Monday late afternoon.

"Our fears are a large alignment with lowest social ultimately affect employees in terms of pay, job destruction and group benefits and more generally on the future of this branch , "wrote Jean-Claude Mailly. "The public authorities must establish as quickly as a regulated framework for preventing the destruction of jobs and preventing these abuses do not fall into place," he adds.

Concerns for call centers

End of March, in an interview with Le Figaro, Jean-Ludovic Silicani indicated that the sector "risks losing about 10,000 jobs in two years." But this destruction should be creating value, generating new jobs at Free Mobile first, but also in related sectors such as electronic commerce or the Web.

A macro view is far from convincing FO. "Our feedback from the field we are rather echoes of 30,000 job cuts on the entire industry," said Pascal Pavageau, FO confederal secretary in charge of economic and industrial.

Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom, destabilized by the arrival of a new competitor, of course, have interest in stirring the cloth of employment. "Some may want to cry wolf. But we see that restructuring is already underway among operators: contracts are stopped, benefits with subcontractors shall be adopted, the new hires are canceled and call centers are now going abroad, " Pavageau said Pascal, even claiming that "3% to 7% of jobs in France are starting to be outsourced, mainly on call centers." In the medium term, the union also fears that the sector is no longer able to invest as much in development, innovation and research and development.

That is seeking its FO meeting with the regulator? "First, we want to immediately and quickly, from the regulator and the government, an overview of employment in the sector, says Pascal Pavageau. Second, we want the government obtain a commitment of four operators in the maintenance of employment in France and their investment opportunities. "

The union will even consider that Oseo or ISPs may be called on to provide funding, if necessary.

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Nicolas Sarkozy wants to extend to "large local governments" the principle of non-replacement of retiring in two applied to the public. According to him, modulate state grants would be "very healthy" to encourage savings.

"We will extend" the policy of non-replacement of staff on two "large to local authorities, who have quite the ability to make the same effort as the state," said the president-candidate in an interview broadcast Tuesday on the magazine's website Actors public.

"This is a very important issue: since 2007, local authorities have created 100,000 jobs, while the state removed 160,000", he said.

Nicolas Sarkozy, however, did not specify which communities that would be affected. Communities that employ the most staff are the major cities, regions and departments.

"The larger communities, which represent two thirds of local expenditures, must make the same effort that the state and they have the opportunity to reorganize, to be more efficient in their ways," Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted.

The distributor sells one to one of its retail stores (3 000 to 5 000 m2), all located in the shopping streets of major cities. "In most cases, assignment of lease rights or collection of an indemnity or compensation allows both reduce costs and generate an exceptional income," says one expert. However, competitors and suppliers are worried about a possible exit from the market in the wake of closures of outlets the most visible, vital to the store's reputation. Especially since Virgin sells very little through its website: only "a few percent of sales" line, according to management, against 11% for FNAC.

The Bordeaux Merignac store closed early 2011, the Carrousel du Louvre in late January, one in Saint-Denis in the beginning. The Virgin of Metz should lower the curtain end of June and the date of closing of that of Toulouse was not communicated to employees. The brand sold at Fnac location of 3000 m2 that it had reserved in the future shopping center Beaugrenelle. Last year, his competitor had already convinced Lagardère Services to undertake the small stores in stations and airports, since renamed Fnac. The future of the flagship Champs-Elysees is uncertain. Virgin charge of real estate firms to find a buyer for his lease.

A new store model

Despite this dramatic reduction in wing, Jean-Louis Raynard, CEO of Virgin Stores, assures to look for ways "to restart the sales payday loan lenders." In 2011, sales were "slightly" decreased to about 300 million euros, while the goal of returning to profitability, fixed by its shareholder, the fund Butler Capital, has not been reached. The sign is positioned on "high-growth segments, such as helmets, but their contribution is still insufficient," admitted the manager, who also spoke of "a new store model, smaller, more segmented with an offer and a greater role for digital. " Virgin had to test its new store format before summer. Since the date of presentation of this "new strategy" has been postponed twice. It is now scheduled for early May "an establishment in the first site at the end of the year." In the meantime, Virgin will open at the mall from the Gare Saint-Lazare, probably in the coming days. It will not surprise the customer by its small size (965 m2), because the offer has not been reviewed

.

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