International Headlines and Stories

Osamu Masuko and Philippe Varin has been clear at the motor show in Geneva: the respective presidents of Mitsubishi Motors and Peugeot have refused any alliance capital, which they deemed "inappropriate."

The outcome was expected, since some sources close to the matter had acknowledged that the proposed strategic merger was stalled. The French manufacturer had to be majority stake in its Japanese counterpart.

But the results from Mitsubishi – the Japanese carmaker reported Wednesday a net loss of 25.7 billion yen (195 million euros) over the first nine months of fiscal year 2009-2010 decreased by 29 3% – and the level of recovery action deemed "overvalued" by PSA eventually convince a capital alliance would not be appropriate.Philippe Varin, outside the motor show, said he wanted to maintain "financial strength" of the group.

PSA was confirmed in December of discussions for a "strategic partnership", according to information from the Japanese press that the French group was preparing to buy 30 to 50% stake in Mitsubishi Motors.

Both manufacturers have nevertheless confirmed that they will continue their industrial cooperation, particularly in "the environment and products," said the president of Mitsubishi. In an interview with Echos on Wednesday, the president of PSA has raised the possibility of building with the Japanese automaker a "small car, which is sold under our three brands, like the 4×4 today.

The French automaker announced last February 10 a net loss of 1.161 billion euros in fiscal 2009, more than three times more than the 363 million euro loss a year ago. The turnover amounted to decline from 10.9% to 48.417 billion euros.

Mitusbishi Motors closed up 0.76% at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 0.31% to 10,253 points.

The crisis is "British banking sector is not that unhappy. With benefit of growing discontent of the English against their traditional banks, Richard Branson, the exuberant creator of the Virgin empire, announced Friday the acquisition of a small regional bank in England, the Church House Trust, with plans to launch Virgin Bank before the end of the year. The acquisition received Friday, the blessing of Constable UK financial sector, the FSA.

The target of Virgin is very modest compared to industry giants. The takeover of the bank based in Yeovil, Somerset, costing only 12.3 million pounds (13.7 million euros).But mostly it allows the financial arm of Virgin to obtain a license for retail banking in Britain, which he was still lacking.

Virgin Money, which claims 2.5 million customers in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and South Africa, offers services of credit and savings accounts on the Internet, through partnerships with institutions like Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of America. Virgin Money has justified the choice of Church House Trust explaining that the bank had a very solid, with twice as many deposits (50 million pounds) in its coffers than loans (25 million pounds).

"The financial crisis has tarnished the reputations of several British banks, and Virgin Money will offer a different and better approach to the bank, said Friday Jayne-Anne Gadhia, boss of Virgin Money.

Bank charges challenged

With its excellent public image in areas as diverse as aviation, telephony and mobile Internet, the Virgin Group has a good card to play against the giants jostled both by the financial crisis and by repeated attacks from consumer associations and the policeman of the competition (Office of Fair Trading, OFT). These groups challenge bank charges consistently very high, including penalties for overdrafts.

Richard Branson tried to come into force on the market for retail banking two years ago, making an offer to buy Northern Rock, which had virtually collapsed in 2007, but after several months of hesitation, the government had decided to nationalize.

Despite this setback, Branson still keeps an eye on the Newcastle bank, which was one of the five biggest players for mortgages in Britain, and with healthy activities should soon be sold by the government. In agreement with the European competition, the British state should also require banks it has saved, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, to divest a significant portion of their branch networks to new entrants in the sector. Opportunities for which are already in the running Virgin Money, the Spanish bank Santander, National Australia Bank and the giant British supermarket Tesco.