International Headlines and Stories

Bulky Bin Hamman and Warner
Except turnaround unlikely, Sepp Blatter was re-elected for the third time as President of FIFA in Zurich Wednesday. It is not difficult to predict because the Swiss, who directs the proceedings since 1998, is the only candidate since the withdrawal this weekend in his last opponent, Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam. A forced withdrawal and the scent of scandal. President of the Asian Confederation, Ben Hamman has indeed been provisionally suspended by the Ethics Committee of FIFA because of suspicions of corruption against him. Jack Warner, CONCACAF President, Vice-President of FIFA, and support shown by Ben Hamman was also temporarily suspended for the same reasons. The two men are suspected of attempting to buy the votes of the Caribbean Confederation (CFU), which they strongly refute."I deny the allegations that I made statements to the CFU on donations from Mr. Bin Hammam," asserted Jack Warner in a statement while saying, however that "in Miami, the Congress of the Concacaf May 3, Mr Blatter had donated one million dollars to our federation, "without the consent of the finance committee of FIFA.

A gift for which an investigation had been opened before it was quickly closed by the money outright Blatter any accusation of corruption by the Ethics Commission. A past president quickly cleared and a final opponent suspended, the unfolding of events may leave pensive and may suggest that FIFA is the realm of small arrangements. Especially when the case comes just weeks after revelations of the British weekly Sunday Times about the allocation of World Cup 2022 in Qatar.Especially so when a vice-president of FIFA accredits these revelations by making public the contents of an email sent by Jerome Valcke, FIFA general secretary and confidant of Blatter. "For MBH (Editor's note: Mohamed Bin Hamman), I've never understood why he was entering the race. Or so he thought that one can buy FIFA as the Qataris have purchased the World Cup, "Valcke reportedly wrote in an email sent to Warner!

Blatter on the royal road
A blow to Blatter camp when the Swiss campaigned on a zero tolerance towards corruption.But Jerome Valcke has justified his writings stating that "it can happen to employ a less formal tone when I use this medium which by its nature, encourages exchanges" lighter "than other forms correspondence "and that" in referring to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in this e-mail, I wanted to highlight that the future host country had used its financial strength to rally much support (…) I n 'I at no time refers to the buying of votes or any behavior inconsistent with the rules of ethics. "Sepp Blatter, he is right in his boots remained Monday at a press conference in emergency to try to extinguish the many fires in the house FIFA.

"We must fight the demons, there's a bad situation, but there will be an elective congress on Wednesday and the family of football, if it wants to restore the credibility of FIFA, can do with me," Blatter said, refusing to evoke the decisions of the Commission on Ethics ("I'm not allowed to comment") and denying the existence of a crisis within the federation he heads ("football is not crisis when we see the final of the Champions League, he just some difficulty "). So everything is for the best in the best of worlds for Blatter whose reelection is no longer any doubt.Because on the eve of polling, it is unclear how the appeal of Bin Hamman, the request for postponement of the FA made on Tuesday or calls for reform from places like Australia (Editor's note: England and Australia respectively were candidates to host the World Cups 2018 and 2022), could prevent the Swiss to begin a fourth term. Starting what happens under the sign of the scandal …

With the advent of smart phones, the Internet began to transform into mobinaute. The shoppers follow the same path, after an initial study on m-commerce ", conducted among more than 3,000 Internet users and sixty e-retailers. While more than one in two French has already made a purchase online (52.1%), according to the Federation e-commerce and distance selling (Fevad), only 12% of them were from their mobile, or 3 million people in total.

"The profile of m-buyer of 2011 resembles the profile of online shoppers in 2001: he is younger and more male shoppers than the average", describes Gilles White, research director at TLC Benchmark. As with the first purchases on the Internet, purchases by mobile applications currently focus on simple products, low and controlled amounts of known sites.Cultural products (DVDs, books, video games, etc..) And travel (train tickets, rentals, hotels …) are the most purchased by mobile phone. The garment sector rises on the third step of the podium by mobile sales, while it took until 2005 that the industry is growing really on the Internet. "The event model based on private sales of consumer responsiveness explains this very good performance. The e-mailings and alerts on mobile now read more than promote Internet impulse buying, "says research director of CCM Benchmark.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the graphic.

Some heavy

Vente-privee.com is a striking example. Launched in June 2010, the mobile application for iPhone and iPad drains already 7% of group turnover. The launch of the Android version this week should further stimulate sales my credit score."This channel is about 0.5% more revenue per month," explains co-founder Xavier Court. He said he is not totally incremental sales: "It is difficult to estimate the share alternative is that this new method of shopping," he adds.

Gilles Blanc emphasizes the heterogeneity of performance: "For some leading sites of e-commerce, m-commerce weighs only 1% of their turnover." This is the case of La Redoute: this channel, available for a year, represents 1% of sales, while the group attracted about one in six internet. "A few sites already carry nearly 10% of their sales through this new channel," says study author. The average is more around 1% of the market for e-commerce, which was 8.8 billion in the first quarter 2011 (+20% in one year) according Fevad.Among the good performers are SNCF, the first online travel agency (546 000 visitors per day), and Accor, which has sold 100,000 room nights through this channel last year and the group plans to multiply this number by 2.6 this year.

While the first application was launched three years ago in France by Amazon – second most visited Internet site, after eBay – 2011 should be the year of launch. An e-retailer in four offers a mobile version. For many players, this is a site that should be completed this year to be ready before the planned deployment of 4G next year.

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Ghent, in northern Belgium, hopes to lead by example. Alderman (elected) of Finance of the city, the Liberal Christophe Peeters, announced the withdrawal next 30 to 35 million euros were deposited in the accounts of banks Dexia and KBC in the name of the fight against the "bonus comfortable granted to bosses, "he said.

Dexia has announced the beginning of the payment to its managing director Pierre Mariani variable compensation of 600,000 euros for the year 2010. KBC for its part stated its intention to resume the payment of bonuses to its executives. These two institutions had to be helped by the government during the financial crisis. "When things were going badly, the taxpayers' money has helped the banks. Now that the situation improves, the banks start bonus of the same culture.We are not saying that this is not only ethical, but we act with the language of money, "protested Christophe Peeters.

Compensation "in accordance with legal provisions"

The amount that will remove the city corresponds to short-term investments. Christophe Peeters Dexia and KBC now threatens to turn to banks that do not grant bonuses "unreasonable" for the money to pay his wages and new investments in the long term cash till payday.

Following this decision, KBC announced its regret while stressing that the city was within its rights. For its part, Dexia said that its compensation policy was consistent with legal and regulatory European, Belgian and French.

Tougher legislation to

Although legal, these decisions go wrong with Brussels.European Commissioner for Financial Services, Michel Barnier, said that calls for moderation "were not heard." It now threatens to tighten the law of the European Union. In Belgium, the new Governor of National Bank, Luc Coene, also deemed "indecent" that banks that have benefited from government support grant bonuses to their executives.

The movement seems well underway across Europe. At the same time, Dexia and KBC, the BPCE (People's Bank – Savings Bank) announced the grant to the President Perol a bonus of one million euros in the year 2010. Like his colleagues in Belgium, the French bank had received a boost of 7.1 billion euros in state aid to help head out of water during the crisis.

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She gave a good month to sell everything. A few hours will suffice. Monnaie de Paris has attracted crowds during the weekend of April 9 to 10, when the sale of two new plays: 10,000 pieces of gold in 1000 euros the effigy of the Greek hero Hercules. A veritable gold rush, which has undoubtedly been very beneficial to the venerable institution. And for good reason: Each piece consisted of 20 grams of gold. What gives them the weight value of 650 euros at current prices, or 32.5 euros per gram.

But knowing that the Monnaie de Paris bought the gold that was used in the manufacture of these parts long before the launch of the operation, and given the fact that this metal has continued to surge in recent months, we can imagine that the profit was considerably higher than EUR 350 per room, well over 3.5 million euros in total! Even thinking about the parts of 100 euro money thrown at the same time: a weight of 50 grams and 50,000 copies drawn, they are only worth 47 euros at the current weight (0.94 euros per gram).

Side of the Paris Mint, its director, Dominique Fine, do not want to say anything about the benefits of the transaction. He recalls that it is "substantially lower" it looks, since we must deduct the cost of manufacture, knowing that "these pieces are quite worked." Still, this type of event takes place at regular intervals.Monnaie de Paris, which posted a net profit of 18 million euros in 2010 (against 16 million last year), in particular launch gold coins to 200 euros by the end of 2011.

The annoyance of numismatists

In contrast, numismatists s'agacent this success saving account pay day loan. Worse, they scoff. "This is undoubtedly a very good deal for the state," quips Michael Prior, director of the Compagnie Generale de la Bourse in Paris, lamenting "a very bad investment." Among the causes of that nervousness: a few days after the sale, the professional has seen a Hercules gold for sale on e-bay at a price of 1200 euros. "After that, if the seller found a buyer, more power to him!" Coward he. According to him, the operation of the Paris Mint would be a scam. And buyers of laymen.

A bit bad player, our numismatist? A little. Because as pointed out by Dominique Fine, a demonetization is not valid.And thus, "the piece is protected by face value of 1,000 euros." So if gold were to fall, the buyer may in any case recover its initial investment. Driving the nail, the senior official added that "one must take people for fools." "They learn a minimum, he says. Thousand euros for a room, it is not nothing! "

Furthermore, it indicates that the 100 euro gold coins launched in 2008 by the Paris Mint, and equipped with 3.11 grams of gold, now worth almost as much weight as their face value. However, we must remember that an ounce of gold was used for flambé in times of crisis, and that if the economy improves, "catching up" of Hercules will not be as easy.

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Pay by phone, we talk about it as a promising technology but the market struggled to take off in France. According to Les Echos published on Thursday, Google has partnered with two leaders in the market of payment terminals, French and U.S. Verizon Ingenico to continue his research on this project.

Still experimental, the NFC for Near Field Communication "helps pay for purchases with a mobile phone equipped with a chip adapted. According to Bloomberg, Google plans to test the next four months, the use of these new payment terminals in shops in New York and San Francisco and then to extend the trial to the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington DC.

21% Ingenico terminals sold

At Ingenico, NFC weighs more heavily in sales: The manufacturer stated a few days ago that its sales of contactless payment terminals in 2010 accounted for 21% of handsets sold, up 50% one year.

At the Paris Bourse, the French manufacturer's partnership with the giant Google has been welcomed by investors: one hour after the opening, title Ingenico climbs 4 no fax pay day loans.94% to 27.94 euros.

Other groups are organizing to floor on the development of this technology that will better know the buying habits of consumers and offer more targeted ads.Thus, Apple also offers services to transform its Ingenico iPod touch and iPhone into means of payment with a solution called "ISMP".

The latest example, the Franco-Italian STMicroelectronics, a supplier of secure microcontrollers, and smart card manufacturer Gemalto French announced Monday a partnership to jointly develop services based on NFC technology.

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"Ingenico is not a strategic company"

This Friday, the Paris Bourse has eroded slightly, following a session of sharp increase of 2.47%. The Cac 40, which was back above the 3900 points, stumbled again below that level: the index fell 0.30% to 3892.71 points. The mood on Wall Street Monday and Asian markets this morning did not allow the index in Paris to stay in the green, as he had opened in early trading. Indeed, by mid-afternoon, while Wall Street was operating in yo-yo around Logne flotation, CAC 40 was off balance and moved into the red.

Other European markets are also evolving in decline: in London, the FTSE-100 index fell 0.41% to 5762.71 points while in Frankfurt the Dax was 0.52% folded at 6780.97 points.

Yet the hopes surrounding the nuclear site Fukushima supported the markets.On site, the nuclear situation remains uncertain but appears to have stopped deteriorating. The operator of the plant, TEPCO announced that the work of rehabilitation of cooling systems had resumed Tuesday morning after being suspended the previous day following release of smoke.

In addition, a further intervention by the BoJ also came reassure investissuers. This last Tuesday, in 2000 has injected billions of yen (17 billion) more on the money market to support the Japanese economy. It has increased to 39,000 billion yen from the money released March 11. In this atmosphere a little calmer, operators go hunting for bargains.

Criticized the offensive in Libya

But the lack of macroeconomic indicators, like yesterday, failed to sustain the trend. And the situation in Libya is still worrisome.The international coalition, headed by the United States, France and Great Britain continued its operations in the night of Monday to Tuesday. Critics, from Germany, Italy or Russia, rise against, however, the intensity of the bombing in the West.

This tension plays anyway back on oil prices. In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for April delivery took 19 cents to 102.52 dollars. That of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery, however, yielded 15 cents to 114.81 dollars.

As for currencies, the euro against the dollar still progressing on Tuesday operating above 1.42 dollar to levels not seen since November.Around 11:20 in Paris, the euro bought 1.4238 dollars against 1.4218 late Monday.

Values ​​need to follow

PSA Peugeot Citroën – 2.73% to 26.55 euros (largest decline of ACC)

The automaker announced Monday that the halt in production at one of its Japanese suppliers affected by the earthquake of March 11 would cause a decrease in its activity in diesel engines and probably induce measures layoffs.

Furthermore, SAP continues to lead the ranking of patents published in 2010 by the INPI.

Renault – 2.64% to 37.73 euros

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has launched an appeal Tuesday for vigilance against the "vicious allegations" against China for stealing technology from foreign companies after the country has been implicated in the espionage case in the French group Renault .

Today, Dominique Gevrey, security officer of Renault indicted and jailed in the fraud case involving the builder, said he had done that "apply" the orders given by a management mode Management "paranoid."

Latecoere: + 8.51% to 9.69 euros, EADS: -0.72% to 19.43 euros

According to information of Figaro on Tuesday, Chinese Avic, Britain's GKN and the Dutch Stork Fokker-filed a complaint with a price estimate.EADS and Airbus are under pressure to attend a Franco-French solution.

Sanofi-Aventis – 0.70% to 47.65 euros

Merck and Sanofi Aventis announced Tuesday it had terminated the agreement in March 2010 through a joint venture in animal health, combining Merial Animal Health business of Sanofi, with Intervet / Schering-Plough animal health unit Merck.

Technip: + 1.80% to 71.41 euros

The group announced Tuesday it had won with TAQA Bratan installation contract for the development of Falcon Field, located in the North Sea about 560 kilometers northeast of Aberdeen (Scotland), for a water depth of 160 meters.

EDF – 1.42% to 28.46 euros

Edison, controlled jointly by the French EDF and Italy's A2A Monday issued an annual profit weighed down by asset writedowns and said it would not pay a dividend for fiscal 2010.

BNP Paribas: -1.15% to 52.57 euros

The bank granted a bonus of 1.67 million euros to its chief executive Baudouin Prot at the financial year 2010.

Audika: + 5.90% to 18.84 euros

Audika posted an operating profit in 2010 down to 17.55 million euros, against 18.76 million in 2009. The group's objective is a return to growth in 2011, with a turnover of at 115 and 120 million euros and an improved operating margin. It proposes a dividend of 0.42 euro no action.

SeLoger. com: 0.41% to 36.65 euros

The group announced Monday expect a double digit growth of its key financial indicators in 2011 thanks to record audience levels.

No pay rise for the new strong man of L'Oreal. Jean-Paul Agon, CEO of the group, also holds the post of president since Friday but will retain the same salary this year than in 2010. "For 2011, the Council (…) stopped fixed at 2,100,000 euros gross a year earlier, unchanged from 2010," does it say in the management report 2010 of the Board of Directors , submitted to the AMF and made available on March 17.

Jean-Paul Agon has not received in 2010 his entire salary: part depended targets he has not fully met. It has affected 80% of the 2.1 million indicated, is 1.68 million euros. A salary cut in 2010, no increase in 2011: the future CEO of L'Oreal is so far not mistreated by his group. He was awarded $ 6.9 million stock options last year.Since 2006, the officer received a total of 1.25 million stock options. It will retain 50% of them while he remains in office.

As for Sir Lindsay Owen Jones, Jean-Paul Agon was replaced as president on Friday, it will benefit more now that its fees for participation in the boards. As each board member, he will receive as such a lump sum of 30,000 euros plus 5,000 euros per session. It has received 85,000 euros in 2010.

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It's a comeback for Arkema. The first French chemist announces annual results on Wednesday well above market expectations. In 2010, the group posted a net profit of 347 million euros, compared with 172 million loss he suffered in 2009. Analysts on average expected a profit of 322 million euros. This performance brought the band to its pre-crisis.

Revenues also jump from 32.9% to 5.905 billion euros, 5.862 billion higher than the consensus. They were drawn in particular by strong growth in demand in Asia, where the group now generates over 18% of its sales. In industrial chemistry, which represents more than half of its sales, Arkema said to be highly successful in increasing its prices more than offsetting the costs of raw materials.

The gross operating surplus (EBITDA) amounted to 790 million euros against 310 million a year in 2009, giving a margin of 13.4% up 6.4 points, after reducing its costs. Also significant: Arkema has reduced its debt to a record low of 94 million euros at end 2010, without taking into account the proposed acquisition of the resin coating that Total should be done in mid- 2011 for a value of approximately $ 550 million.

Boost investment

On this basis, the group's forecasts could be optimistic.Arkema was "fully in line" with its 2015 targets presented in November: an EBITDA of over one billion euros and a turnover of approximately 7.5 billion, supported by innovation, the rapid growth of emerging and targeted acquisitions.

For the first quarter 2011, EBITDA "should significantly exceed that of the first quarter of 2010, which was 137 million euros. In addition, the group will increase its current investment program which should be around 360 million euros, against 293 million in 2010.

Exchange side, Arkema proposes a dividend of 1 euro against 0.60% in 2009.

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After the fall of the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, tensions rise in Bahrain, Algeria and other OPEC member countries, especially Libya, the brink of "civil war" as a son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in power for 42 years, which would have left the country to seek refuge in Brazil or Venezuela, according to Al Arabiya.

On oil markets, the reaction is, as always, immediately on Monday morning. In Asian trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for March delivery gained 1.13 dollars to 87.33 dollars. As for Brent North Sea crude for April delivery, it took $ 1.02 to U.S. $ 103.54 or back to a high technical threshold. "The main factor (this flight) is the disturbed situation in the Middle East," said Victor Shum, an analyst in Singapore.He said that "Libya is a member of OPEC and although its oil production is modest at the global level, the country is near the main suppliers of black gold of the planet."

Renewed uncertainty requires the price of gold, a safe haven par excellence, also increased and currently process close to $ 1400, exactly at 1395.10 euros (+1.8%), and its highest Historical. Even tedance on silver prices, which hit a record last thirty years.

Finally, food prices are approaching the "level of alert," warned the World Bank on the sidelines of the meeting of G20 finance ministers in Paris, which revealed that between June and December, rising food prices have dropped 44 million people worldwide below the extreme poverty.

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Again, EDF should not reassure investors. In fiscal 2010, net income Electrician tricolor plunged 73.9% to 1.02 billion euros against more than 3 billion expected by analysts on average. Involved a heavy load and a provision for change in scope, which complicates the interpretation of results.

The group's profits have been sealed by a special charge of nearly $ 2.9 billion, including $ 1 billion in the United States and 915 million in Italy. EDF owns half of Constellation Energy's nuclear activities the United States and half of Edison in Italy. The provisions made in 2010 also cover the additional costs incurred by following the extension EDF in France transitory regulated tariff for market adjustment (Tartam), a specific tariff for businesses. Thus, excluding items, earnings would have the group rose 11.3% to 3.96 billion euros.

The annual operating results are thus more in line with expectations. EBITDA, the EBITDA, rose 4.4% to 16.62 billion euros, above the 16.45 million euros expected by analysts and objectives of the group was a Organic growth in EBITDA, of between 3 and 5% in 2010. Turnover is also in line with estimates to 65.16 billion euros where experts had forecast 64.98 billion euros.

Scope change

And, come under the group's financial situation has been improved. The debt was reduced by 42.5 billion end-2009 to 34.4 billion euro late 2010, encouraged by the change in scope.In fact, as highlighted in the CEO of EDF Proglio "2010 was the year of major projects, which enabled the group to find a healthier financial situation" before discussing the three "major operations" of the year . EDF sold its electricity distribution networks in the UK consortium of Hong Kong Cheung Kong and sold to the regional state of Baden-Württemberg (south-west Germany) from 45.01% stake in number three German energy EnBW. Finally, the public group has decided to allocate 50% stake in its subsidiary RTE portfolio of financing the decommissioning of nuclear plants.

Confidence for 2011

Management is confident and shows for the current year. The electrician is for 2011 organic growth of its Ebitda of between 4 and 6%. However, targets rely on a price of nuclear 42 euros / MWh in the framework of the law Nome.

The group also expressed its intention to propose a device to pay a bonus dividend to shareholders holding their shares for at least two years.

Faced with these conflicting signals, it remains to be the market reaction so that the title EDF posted the worst performance of the CAC 40 in 2010 with a decline of over 20% of its title.

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