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This is the first major asset sale Technicolor Group (formerly Thomson) since its financial restructuring completed in 2010. Part professional broadcast Grass Valley, which includes all the facilities for the audiovisual sector, is the subject of a transfer agreement with a U.S. investment fund, Francisco Partners. This activity is the most important of the former Grass Valley, cut into three pieces (professional broadcasting, transmission networks and head) in order to facilitate its sale. The game sold today employs 1457 people in 23 countries, of which only 200 people in France. It generates 272 million euros in turnover but a deficit of 47 million euros.

This operation removes a thorn from Technicolor. The group disposes of an activity that consumed about 50 million euros in cash per year. An economy, certainly, but not a bargain.Firstly, to pass the baby, Technicolor begin by Francisco Partners to transfer 20 million euros in cash for the operation of the business. Then, the investment fund will pay its acquisition in 2016. It issues a promissory note for 80 million euros due six years, but bearing interest at 5% per year. In other words, by 2016, Technicolor will affect only 4 million euros per year. Finally, in 2010, Technicolor will take a loss in its accounts related to the difference between the value of the sale ($ 100 million) and the value of this activity at the balance sheet. Already in 2009, Technicolor had depreciated its assets transferred 379 million euros, of which a large part due to Grass Valley.

Accordingly, this assignment s gonna in no financial position of Technicolor. Frederic Rose, Chief Executive since September 2008, had warned.It is not easy to sell assets when they lose money and the seller is pressed. The important thing is to stop the bleeding. Since early this year, the new boss has renegotiated the debt with creditors, reducing it from 2.8 billion euros to 1.4 billion, and he raised 350,000,000 euros of fresh money. Its mission today is to cut off the rotten branches. He still has to sell the two other activities of Grass Valley and the advertising company Screenvision.

The results fell on the strength of major European banks, is to know the verdict of the markets. Since Sunday morning, the stress tests are found in the test and the final verdict remains suspended from financial operators who often weigh heavier than the official figures and insurance.

Only 7 of the 91 banks have failed this test of strength, five Spanish, one Greek and one German. Their capital needs are estimated at 3.5 billion euros. We must add three who crossed the barrier but the recapitalization seems inevitable: the Italian Monte dei Paschi, Allied Irish Banks, Irish and German PostBank.Finally, the majority of European banks, the British and French in particular-seem to have redressed the balance.

The question now is whether the test can, as desired by the European authorities to lift the remaining mortgage, reboot, and finally the pump in credit to promote growth. By Friday, the European Union had welcomed the exercise as a vote of confidence. From Washington, the Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, hailed "a major effort towards greater transparency" on the health of the banks of the Old Continent. In markets, the euro rebounded to finish just below $ 1.29 after the close of European markets.Wall Street ended higher.

Consolidating banks at fault

Yet many continue to doubt the severity of the event European or completeness of its cash advance no faxing. Unlike other countries, Germany has refused on Friday to force its banks to publish the figures on a main line of their balance sheets: assets in government securities, ie their exposure to the European budget crisis. In the coming days, a first return to the trust will be the willingness to consolidate the banks at fault.

Weighing his words, the IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn described the stress tests as "the promise of a considerable strengthening of the European financial system. It remains to implement. Greece and Spain have promised for the end of the year.Germany, she announced a major restructuring. This is the interbank market which will provide the second element of discretion. The situation has eased since the beginning of the summer. But lack of confidence, many institutions do not always manage to borrow in the interbank lending market, considered one of the keys to sustainable economic recovery in Europe.

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The UMP fully supports the pension reform and its author, Eric Woerth. To prove his spokesmen have held a press conference, while the Social Affairs Committee of the Assembly had finished examining the text. Dominique Paille, who usually wears a refined language, attacked with vigor to Jean-Marc Ayrault. He accused the owner of PS members to behave in "real filibuster" which "seeks to scuttle the debate by completely unnecessary intrusion. "Those who come to break the menu with shameful look at considerations before intervening in the debate!" He said in a fit of male outrage.

The PS group had set the tone early work of the commission, promising to "constantly incidents meeting" with allusions to the case Bettencourt.The operation was supposed to prove that Eric Woerth was too "weak" to defend the reform. It has not achieved its goal, much to the relief of the UMP.

But the majority knows that it is not the end of his sentences. And many of its leaders are beginning to say that "we" had "made a mistake in the text referring to the back, instead of extending the session to push through July 31. "On", Raymond Soubie. The office of the adviser had convinced Elysee Nicolas Sarkozy to let the summer to prove his readiness for dialogue with unions, while Francois Fillon would rather go fast. The Prime Minister has not been heard. An MP close to him sigh: "In the end, unions have the summer to replenish their unity in a climate rotten history Bettencourt.Of course, what happens in Woerth was not foreseeable, but we know that in France the reform was.

One minister argued

In the Assembly, but also in the executive, some whisper Eric Woerth would do well to "shoot himself the consequences of damage it causes" to his political family. Clearly, to resign, but his departure could be in any way be attributed to Nicolas Sarkozy. "The president supports his minister doggedly, and will not do anything that might suggest that he wants to get rid of, explains it to the UMP. But nothing prevents Woerth demand a cease-fire. "

Apparently, the Minister of Labour is not in that frame of mind. Encouraged by the demonstrations of solidarity that come each day of his camp, he makes a point of honor to lead the reform of pensions. The leaders of the majority will therefore help.The delay until September consideration of amendments on the hardship, including those signed by Xavier Bertrand, part of the strategy. In case of back politically and socially turbulent, the government will need room for negotiation.

Asian stock markets see life in Green on Wednesday. All financial centers of the region appear to rise steadily. This situation contrasts clearly with the caution displayed Tuesday. Because of this enthusiasm: the American quarterly results, published since Monday. After those of Alcoa, which helped support Wall Street, those of Intel, fell after the close Tuesday, boost the morale of Asian investors.

The world of microprocessors has announced the results he describes himself as "historic". In the second quarter, the company posted a net profit of 2.887 billion dollars and an increase in turnover of 34% to 10.765 billion dollars.

Tokyo euphoric

In Tokyo, the Nikkei, which opened up 1.79%, continued to rise throughout the session to finally close on a leap of 2.71% to 9795.24 points.The Topix ended up 1.91% to 870.73 points. The activity has yet been moderately strong, with 2.3 billion shares traded on the primary market.

The performance of Intel supported Japanese stocks in the technology sector as the supplier of semiconductor Tokyo Electron and the semiconductor manufacturer Advantest, which respectively surged 4.07% and 5.67%. The early solid quarterly publications U.S. has generally allowed large groups of exporters rise sharply Wednesday. Automakers Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor, and the specialist digital cameras and Canon gained 3.47 to 4%.

Please note that Toyota enjoyed an article in the U.S. claiming that drivers who complained about the unintended acceleration in their Toyota had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.

The region follows the oil and also

In China, stock markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively earn 20,640 points to 1.03% and 0.56% at 2463 points.

The Korean Kosdaq is 0.53%, the S & P Australia 1.62% and 0.47%, Sensex India.

Moreover, crude prices are mounted on Wednesday morning trade, the price of light sweet crude for August delivery gained 2 cents to 77.17 dollars a barrel, while Brent North Sea due identical, took 27 cents to 76.92 dollars.

The CAC 40 starts the week without much conviction. After playing sawtooth, the index finally closed its Paris at the start of the session: the CAC 40 gained 0.37% to 3 567.66 points.

Even cautious on the stock exchange in Frankfurt, where the DAX index was up 0.20% to 6 077.19 points. However, the side of the London Stock Exchange, the increase was more pronounced: the Footsie index advances 0.66% to 5 167.02 points.

On the macroeconomic front, the meeting was very quiet.The markets have learned before market that current account deficit had settled in France to 4.5 billion euros in May, from 2.9 billion in April, seasonally adjusted data.

The rest of the week will be loaded, the U.S., several interesting publications such as the budget (Tuesday), sales information (Wednesday), registration weekly unemployment (Thursday), or the index of sentiment consumer (Friday).

Caution is also placed on the European stock exchanges should begin when the ball overseas publications.From Monday, Alcoa will launch the festivities with the results of its second quarter.

Zodiac rejects the advances of Saffron: Zodiac leads the DTH

As for values, the supervisory board for Zodiac (7.11% to 42.61 euros) announced Sunday that he would not pursue a business combination proposal made by Safran (-2.62% at 21 , 74 euros).

Alstom (+0.36% at 38.87 euros) was applying for the construction of four stations on the route high-speed rail that will link Jeddah to Mecca, said Sunday the company to Saudi Railways ORS .

Carrefour (+0.12% at 34.63 euros) is to publish its second quarter results on July 15 after the close of trading.Analysts already expect a turnover of 24, 78 billion euros (+5.7%) including 10.29 billion in France (+1.6%) and 5.18 billion (-0.6% ) in hypermarkets.

Cameo (0.62% to 163 euros) announced Friday for the second quarter decreased by 11.3% of its sales, surface and currency comparable because of the lag of a week of dates on balances of June July. The turnover for this period amounted to 190.2 million euros, up 1.1% on published data.

Total (0.27% to 38.4 euros) have launched legal proceedings to challenge the decision of the Court of Appeal of Douai to force him to reopen his site Dunkirk.

Marc-Philippe Daubresse the new Minister of Youth and Active Solidarity, presented Tuesday 10 measures' technical and structural "simplifying and improving the RSA enjoyed by 1.78 million households. The goal? To better inform potential recipients of RSA (base and activity) to accelerate the build-up of these two devices created by Martin Hirsch 13 months ago. "Many individuals do not use the RSA of ignorance, complex procedures or for fear of being thought of welfare," said Marc-Philippe Daubresse justified.

To improve access for audiences to information, the minister will send a letter in September to eight million of housing "simply explaining the scheme and encouraging them to do a simulation" of rights on websites of CNAF or MSA.The application forms for entitlement to the RSA will be simplified by the end of October to make them more understandable. Leaves quarterly reporting resources will be reduced to one page and syringes "on the model of the tax return.

A "checkbook services"

The Minister will also launch in September a committee comprising all stakeholders of the RSA and "to examine the changes made to the mechanism in terms of practices, but also legally."A second referee RSA will also be appointed within each agency employment center to link with their counterparts in the general councils to strengthen coordination between the two institutions.

Good practices to facilitate the payment of the allowance of personal re-employment (APRE) – which aims to take over all or part of the costs incurred by a beneficiary when an activity begins or resumes – will be broadcast on the throughout. A "checkbook services" – composed of good standard in exchange for a service – designed to accompany the resumption of employment will be created."The establishment of this checkbook will be appraised in September and proposed gradually, as needed, to departments wishing to use them," said Marc-Philippe Daubresse.

The government also proposes to organize in each department a day devoted to the development of integration pacts "which in particular define the modalities for coordination of actions undertaken by different actors to promote social and professional integration of beneficiaries the RSA. The first day will be held in December 2010.

The board of managers of the Society of Editors of the World (SRM) would have voted on Friday morning in favor of the project's trio Pigasse-Niel-Berge (GDP) by eleven votes in favor and one abstention. The vote therefore recommends that the General Assembly of the RS, representing the journalists of the daily evening to vote for the BNP bid, to the detriment of the competing offer.

Still, as revealed by the website of Le Nouvel Observateur, the association Hubert Beuve-Mery (HBM), without representing the current personnel of World, would it, in favor of the offer Perdriel-Orange Prisa.

In this context, the absence of a clear majority on Friday afternoon for the one or the other offer, the arbitration will be Monday in the supervisory board of the World.Because Monday's effect on the 20 votes to be voted on Monday SupervisoryCouncil World (including eleven called internal, referring to the personal and the HBM and 9 persons from external), 9 votes External likely to weigh very heavy much heavier than those of the staff of the World by shifting votes in favor of a project that would not have the support staff themselves …

The world leader in chemistry, German BASF, is expected to sign Tuesday the acquisition of fellow Cognis according to the Financial Times Deutschland. Owned by Permira and Goldman Sachs, Cognis manufactures additives for cosmetics and detergents.

According to sources close to the case interviewed by the newspaper, the transaction amounted to 3.2 billion euros. In 2009, sales of Cognis representing 2.6 billion euros and EBITDA was $ 364 million. On its website, the company states employ approximately 5,600 people and be present in thirty countries.

Originally, Cognis was a subsidiary of Henkel, resold in 2004 to 2.5 billion euros. In 2006, the efforts of its new owners to sell it failed. In recent years, the company split from two of its five subsidiaries.BASF has already bought in 2009 the Swiss Ciba for 3.8 billion euros to strengthen in the mill.

This Monday has been the day of surprises. A few hours after completing the rescue funds to the euro, the European Union president Herman Van Rompuy announced Monday night that the EU finance ministers agreed that the Commission consider their national budgets. An agreement all the more unexpected given that some hours before the meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel to be held on Monday evening was canceled at the last moment. Every indication that this was yet another sign of the tension between France and Germany. And even if both sides because they advanced the calendar.Markets do not make mistakes: Shortly after the cancellation, the CAC 40 lost more than 1%, while it had managed to return to balance in mid-session.

Budgetary discipline

Anyway, this agreement will enable Europe to invent a new fiscal discipline. This is especially good news that Germany and France had openly opposed on this issue. We remember especially about the government spokesman, Luc Chatel, who said "this is not the European Commission to approve the budget of the French nation."

The EU finance ministers have also agreed Monday night to create new sanctions against countries too indebted to strengthen the Stability Pact.The agreement envisages the possibility of sanctions even when the current limit of 3% of GDP by the Covenant for public deficits has not yet expired, said President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, at a press conference. The idea would be to trigger the excessive deficit procedures earlier for countries whose debt is not declining fast enough payday loans. It also put more emphasis on the future monitoring of the overall debt deemed not exceed 60% of GDP, and not just the annual deficits.

A modification of treaties is not excluded

The ministers have asked the European Commission to make proposals to define new sanctions.Brussels thinking, for example the suspension of payment of certain subsidies from the European Union for uncooperative countries. Germany also advocates for the suspension of voting rights at European ministerial meetings in Brussels. "We talked about but everyone is aware that financial sanctions not require a treaty amendment," said Herman Van Rompuy.He added: "We have not ruled out a treaty amendment, but has concentrated on what can be done at short notice and under the current treaty that does not have to go to the ahead and impose sanctions, non-financial, "he added, however, ensuring that there was" no taboos "for the future.

These sanctions, which remain to be defined, could be decided whether a country has ignored warnings from its partners on the drift of public accounts, or if the overall level of debt swells too fast.

In an environment where markets are concerned about the financial situation now in Hungary – which is not part of the Euro-zone, this agreement, which follows the completion of the rescue funds of the euro, should enable bring some stability to financial markets that really need it.

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AIG will not access the request of Prudential. While the British insurer claimed a decrease of 10% of the purchase price under pressure from its shareholders, AIG said Tuesday in a statement it will not alter the terms of the proposed sale of its Asian subsidiary AIA UK Prudential, whose price is set at 35.5 billion dollars (nearly 29 billion euros).

Prudential acknowledges and will respond "in due course"

In another statement, Prudential said take note of the decision of AIG and said he will make a statement in "due course". He confirmed that he proposed a reduction in price and said that his new proposal is 30.38 billion dollars (24.7 billion euros).This represents a decrease of 14.4% of the purchase price, not 10% as first announced by the prospective acquirer.

To partially finance this acquisition, Prudential would need a capital increase of 21 billion dollars (about 17 billion dollars). What worried shareholders, who must decide on the draft on June 7

Prudential and AIG have resumed negotiations last week to save this agreement, several shareholders of the British insurer has estimated that the price offered to become the dominant player in Asia's life insurance was too high.

After this new twist, we expect that the shareholders of Prudential eagerly await the response that Prudential will this announcement.Prudential Will he finally pay $ 35.5 billion and will reach there to give AIG? Unless the proposed acquisition would not be abandoned.

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