International News

Eiffage prances at the head of the Paris stock exchange Thursday morning, climbing about 12% to 10.30. The construction group said Wednesday evening after the close of the Paris Stock Exchange that its subsidiary has signed an agreement Eiffarie with funds for the purchase 13.73% of Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone (PRPA) that they hold for a total of 854 million euros (55 euros per share). APRR is the second largest French motorway and the fourth in Europe.

Eiffarie owned by Eiffage and Australia's Macquarie have after the operation 95% of APRR. The subsidiary also plans to launch a buyout offer, that is to say that APRR would no longer be quoted on the Stock Exchange (right when the majority shareholder holds more than 95%).A project must receive the blessing of the AMF to be realized.

If this is implemented, and upon its conclusion, it remains on the securities market, these shares would then be a squeeze, which will be performed at the same price of 54.16 euros per share: 84 cents per share are restated as it is the amount of the dividend qu'Eiffarie decided to pay shareholders of APRR June 30 next.

The transaction is expected to close by the June 24 APRR listed on compartment A of Euronext, flies too, from 7.65% to 54.75 euros.

Eiffage and Macquarie have finally heard

The two shareholders of Eiffarie seemed irreconcilable. On this issue, in fact, Eiffage wanted to make a capital increase of 400 million euros in APRR, here just one year.One way to avoid a deterioration of its financial rating would increase the costs of refinancing cash advance till payday. Macquarie's refusal earlier this year.

Use markets? The CEO of Eiffage, in turn, rejects the idea. The stock market conditions are too uncertain. Another option would be to buy back its shares in Eiffarie. But Macquarie had not responded.

Investors enthusiastic

"The acquisition of the balance of APRR is positive news for Eiffage.The group can calmly deal to refinance Eiffarie 2013, "commented analyst Aurel BCG, for whom this would be" accretive by approximately 3% based on Eiffage tax integration we estimate that approximately 70 million euros.

Indeed, Eiffage will benefit from the tax integration: from 1 January 2011, interest paid on debt to acquire Eiffarie * – 3.77 billion – will be deducted from the tax base APRR, say the strategists Natixis Securities. In addition, the tax losses generated by the interest paid on this debt between 2006 and 2010 will be tax deductible APRR, they said. For them, the economy reached 314 million euros. APRR, in fact, will not pay tax according to their estimates.

* Eiffarie, had been chosen by the state in late 2005 during the privatization of Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhone (APRR).

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The countdown is triggered. If he wants to present its pension reform around the Council of Ministers on July 14, as expected, the government must balance its bill before the end of next week. Otherwise, the consultation of specific bodies (boards of funds Safely, Higher Council of Public …) required before the Council of Ministers, can not occur within time constraints. But there is no question of falling behind, not to shift the following schedule: study Social Affairs Committee of the Assembly during the week of July 19 – Can not overflow, the Palais Bourbon will work in August ! – And then in plenary on 7 September.

The final version of the bill will be known in a week.But a first draft will be unveiled Tuesday, Wednesday or later (it could have been Tuesday but the government wants to avoid being accused of incitement, while FP calls a strike on the issue of pensions that day … ). Meanwhile, the government will collect the reactions of unions. And perhaps he let go a little ground …

A quarter per year

There remain a few days to make the final arbitration. It is Nicolas Sarkozy himself who will decide, probably during the weekend, surrounded by the prime minister, Francois Fillon, Minister of Labour, Eric Woerth and Budget and Public Accounts, Baroin, and rare employees, including the social adviser at the Elysee Raymond Soubie. For now, nothing is decided. Not even the most expected: the decline of legal age. 62, 63 years? Only the pace of recovery seems likely: one quarter per year.Some – MEDEF in mind – still grow for a semester, but as Woerth Soubie consider this rate too fast to be acceptable.

Must we also announce today a further lengthening of the contribution period for a full pension? Everything depends on the horizon set. Aim Is there balance in 2020, 2025, 2030? The government will in any case to demonstrate that all of its reform can indeed balance financial accounts. This is the only way to justify the early use of a resource that is not sustainable – the Pension Reserve Fund – which now seems inevitable no faxing pay day loans. The seesaw in the medium term, a portion of unemployment contributions to pension funds, also participate in financial closure.

Pan "public" also remains to be determined.If this government has argued in favor of aligning the rate of pension pay of civil servants (7.85%) with that of private sector employees (10.55%), the head of state does not forget he was elected on the subject of purchasing power. If it was baneberry, the measure would be very gradual. She could not even apply to future employees, if this does not pose a constitutional problem of having two officers of equal status, the same post with the same gross pay but not clean … The same doubt remains maintenance of the famous method of calculating the pensions of officers for the last six months of salary. However the possibility of retiring after 15 years of service for mothers of 3 children, should not exist.

Restricted bonuses

The ages at which some officers may retire (50 years for police officers, 55 firefighters …) should be addressed alongside the legal age. And the improvements will be very limited (for example military, only time spent in theaters of operations will result in dangerous quarters "available", while yet an assessment year is given "free" every five years after 15 year career). In return, employees are entitled to the same measures of compensation for hardship than other employees.

These measures will in any case not be decided separately.The social and political acceptability of reform can be gauged as a whole.

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Since one week, the controversy raged in Britain about treatment against multiple sclerosis. The British health authority had signed an agreement in 2002 stipulating that if the drugs did not provide patients with the expected effects, manufacturers undertook to lower its price. Seven years later, the products are much less effective announced … but no reduction in tariff has been applied.

This type of program has nonetheless increased in the UK, Italy and in many other countries. In the case of the cancer drug Velcade, marketed by Janssen-Cilag Laboratory, the contract goes to the reimbursement of drugs to the UK for each patient whose health is not improving.

In the U.S., Sanofi-Aventis has proposed another novel mechanism to health insurers.If patients who use the drug cons Actonel osteoporosis fracture a bone, the laboratory shall reimburse the costs of fracture care insurers.

France is rather "timid face systems of risk sharing," said Vincent Genet, director of health business of the firm Alcimed. The Economic Committee for Health Products (CEPS) has played the game two or three times. He then granted a high price for drugs, hoping they would be more effective than was thought studies. One program, designed for type 2 diabetes, resulted in failure. Under the agreements, the laboratory (whose name is a closely held secret) then had to repay Social Security.Anyway, "the use of this method should not be necessary if the drugs have been developed properly," says Noel Renaudin, president of CEPS.

Reluctant to bet on the effectiveness of treatment, health authorities prefer to play the Hexagon on the terms of dosage and volumes online pay day loans. In hypertension, where the proper dosage may be unknown initially, and agreements set out in advance the cost of treatment … and provide for rate adjustments if it appears that the doses required are higher is believed ."More than sharing, this is to remove the risk", welcomes Christmas Renaudin.

250 million euros returned by the labs

For highly innovative products that provide a real therapeutic progress, pharmaceutical companies get selling prices relatively high, generally calibrated on prices in Britain and Germany, under certain conditions. They should be consistent with volume commitments. It follows that, if the number of boxes of medicines sold is higher than expected, laboratories pay rebates to Social Security. On average, 250 million euros and are returned annually by laboratories to Social Security.A little more even if we take into account the penalty (53 million last year) that all pharmaceutical companies must pay back if the growth in drug spending is higher than expected validated each year by Parliament.

Practices are changing slowly but surely. Laboratories justify increasingly high prices of their new products by the care savings generated. "These arguments are valid for medical devices, but rarely based on medicines," grade Christmas Renaudin. The CEPS boss finds that "if the antiulcer emptied gastrochirurgie services, they did not generate savings, by dint of being prescribed en masse. CEPS ready yet to give a high price for a drug that has demonstrated, once will not hurt, it reduces significantly the number of hospital days.

During the past several months, discussions on financial reform should be completed June 26 The Senate and House of Representatives have each passed a different version of the text. Elected officials from each chamber are now trying to work on a common version. Congress hopes to be ready for the G20, to be held on 26 and 27 June in Toronto, where regulation of the financial sector will be a central theme. The final text could be adopted just before the recess of parliament in early July. It will then be submitted to President Barack Obama for enactment.

Proposals expected in Europe in a few weeks

A desire to succeed which is felt also in Europe.On Wednesday, the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have co-signed a letter to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, urging the agency to "accelerate its work" on "enhanced supervision" of financial markets. They attract attention of the European Commission on the issue of regulation of swaps and CDS. The naked short selling could be banned in the entire European Union.The two leaders also stressed the need for greater transparency in the global markets, that there trading stocks or bonds, sovereign bonds according to their benefit as soon as attention particular.

Proposals of measures could be presented in a few weeks.

A "circuit breaker" on Monday in the U.S.

In the U.S., initial development of markets will be set up incessantly. In its effort regulation of the financial sphere, the system of "circuit breaker" required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could indeed come into force next Monday. It provides for a suspension of trade in a way which would fluctuate more than 10% in less than five minutes on the market.With this rule, the Constable of financial markets hoping to avoid the stock market panic like that of May 6.

The SEC is considering extending these fuses, which concern the companies currently listed in the Standard Poor's 500, over a thousand companies.

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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The Chinese central bank announced this weekend a further increase in reserve requirements of major banks by 0.5%. This level will be 14% for small financial institutions and 17% for large banks. This is the third time that the People's Bank of China raised the reserve this year. The move is seen as a prelude to higher interest rates, much anticipated in 2010, but it is also a way to delay interest rate hikes this by tightening the screws on the credits via the proportion of reserves. This measure will be effective on May 10

Beijing seeks to put a brake, while concerns about overheating and bubbles in real estate including resurfacing.

Most analysts remain confident about the ability of the Chinese government to curb the overheating, but some are sounding the alarm.In an interview with Bloomberg, economist Marc Faber announcement and a possible implosion of the Chinese economy by a year.

While the Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed until Wednesday included due to public holidays in Japan, the Asian markets all move in the red on Monday.

Hong Kong drops 1.36% to 20,821.20 points, 0.91% cedes Taiwan to 7391.74 points, Seoul lost 1.22%, 0.58% in Sydney coward 4779.50 points, fell by Bombay 0 53% to 17,464.90 points and Singapore shows a decrease of 0.98% to 2945.34 points.

Despite the activation of a massive bailout of Greece announced on Sunday by finance ministers of the euro area, markets do not regain confidence. They are worried about further increases in reserve requirements of banks in China, 50 basis points. Banks will therefore retain 14-17% of their loans in chests. This measure, which takes effect next May 10, is supposed to limit loans to individuals and businesses to avoid the overheating of the Chinese economy.This is the third increase since the beginning of the year.

The banking and real estate values at half

Consequently, the evolving Chinese banking stocks down sharply, on Monday, including Bank of China, which fell by 1.72%. Regarding property values, China Resources fell 4.97%, Shimao Property Holdings sells 2.47% Agile Property Holdings or drops 2.17%.

A barrel of oil above $ 86

Crude prices were up Monday in Asia after the announcement of the plan of aid to Greece and because of a probable decline in U.S. production in the wake of the oil spill in the United States.

In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for June delivery took 16 cents to 86.31 dollars, while Brent North Sea with identical maturity, gained 13 cents to 87.57 dollars.

In an email sent Wednesday to news agencies that Credit Agricole has made the announcement. The financial institution said its commitments related to the Greek state reached 850 million euros, 600 million for its Greek subsidiary Emporiki. No further comment was made.

The news comes as the crisis Greek climbed a step, revived by the relegation of the country score in the category of speculative investments by the rating agency Standard & Poor's. Many analysts believe that Credit Agricole is one of the banks most exposed to the current crisis in Greece.

More generally, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the French banks in Europe are most concerned with exposure estimated at 75.12 billion dollars (57 billion euros), followed by German banks with exposure estimated at 45 billion dollars (34 billion euros).

French banks are the only institutions to have bought Greek Emporiki to Credit Agricole and Societe Generale for Geniki. The latter has not yet discussed the amount of its commitment.For its part, the general manager of BNP Paribas, Baudouin Prot, said Wednesday that his institution's exposure to Greek banks was "absolutely negligible" fast cash loans.

The sector battered stock market

The markets are in any case a very dim view of the involvement of French banks in a country attacked by the rating agencies. Investors fear that such consequences could lead to default or restructure the debt of Greece.

Results: The bank is breaking titles in stock. The action of the Credit Agricole fell 3.41% Wednesday to the Paris Stock Exchange, after declining more than 7.6% during the session. It lost 9.57% over the five days and 10.60% since the beginning of the year.

Societe Generale has limited the damage on Wednesday with a decline of 0.33% in closing. But the fall is much heavier since January 1 of that Credit Agricole, with a decline of 16.42%.

For its part, BNP Paribas dropped 3.48% on Wednesday at the close of Paris, and 8.80% since the beginning of the year.

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The shockwave of the complaint Friday Constable American markets spread throughout the weekend. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused a number of Wall Street and the first investment bank in the world to be guilty of fraud. She says the bank, especially one of its French employees had deliberately misled the clients to whom it sold in 2007, complex products linked to subprime, which were highly toxic. The move was made for the benefit of another client, the famous hedge fund Paulson & Co.

This brutally violent blow brought to Goldman Sachs by an American authority has given new force to the criticism that rained down on the bank already, although it became a symbol of a fund that has too quickly found the way of profits.For the first time since 1986, when the first attack against the bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, the SEC declares the war a pillar of Wall Street! And this time, Goldman Sachs sees his reputation reached in a way that can impair depth to his "business" as it is accused of having "played" against the interests of its customers.

In Germany, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said that her own financial policeman, BaFin, demanded an explanation from the SEC and considering, where appropriate, prosecutions: one of two customers cheated named to United States is another qu'IKB, a German bank bailed out that Berlin. Asked by the BBC, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "shocked" by what he calls "moral bankruptcy" of investment banks. He asked that the FSA, British counterpart of the SEC, in turn opens an investigation.Finally, the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Olli Rehn, has promised an investigation "deep thrust" on the role of Goldman Sachs vis-?-vis Greece. The bank, which he denies and which has been cleared by the U.S. Federal Reserve in this regard has been criticized for several weeks helping Athens to hide, via financial products, the actual deficit.

The lawyers are already working actively to bring proceedings against Goldman Sachs on behalf of other investors potentially affected by the product under investigation by the SEC. In addition, the whole complex financial instruments and addicted to subprime will be winnowed at Goldman Sachs, but also in other banks.

In turn, the bank Goldman Sachs has reacted strongly against the accusations made against it in civil also, and not criminal.First line of defense: it has itself lost $ 90 million in the case, for only $ 15 million of revenue. The SEC estimated the total loss for investors to 1 billion. Then Goldman would reject the caricature of IKB, for example, an investor easily fooled. IKB had an active market sophisticated CDOs, says the firm on Wall Street.

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A "golden boy" among many other French

We knew the loopholes in the tax and social in the sights of government. Fran?ois Fillon reiterated Thursday that he did not intend to scale back its ambitions in this area. Before the senators, the Prime Minister has once again stated that the government would propose the "elimination or capping of tax and social niches. Lower taxes for donations to associations, loan interest deductions for a property purchase, VAT at 5.5% for other work and reduced taxation for life insurance contracts now know what to expect !

Bercy's goal to reduce by 2 billion euros per year tax loopholes, and for 3 years. An ambitious goal that requires the Department of Economics at all look under the microscope, one by one. "There are two ways to act: either to consider each of the niches and see the feasibility of its abolition.Or set up a rule on all tax and social niches, "said Thursday the prime minister. In other words, the planing.

In late January, in an interview igaro F, Francois Fillon was e indicated that the government does would create "no more". "Then we must question their effectiveness: some of them are not, or more strategic. We will limit the other in time – to force us to regularly check if they meet their goals – and minimize their ceilings, "he explained.

Decisions mid-May

The government has made a religion on the subject for many months already.For even if the deficit was revised slightly downwards for this year – 8% of GDP instead of the initial estimate of 8.5% – a considerable effort will need to be made to the path of public finances on leave again the right slope, having slipped sharply during the crisis.

Politically, addressing niche has an advantage: it is the best way to increase taxes without seeming to. But the task is not easy technically. Touching the niches that benefit businesses? The government is not keen, not to nibble again their competitiveness, it has worked so hard to restore it elsewhere. Last week, Secretary of State for Employment Laurent Wauquiez, was thus excluded from the touch – even slightly – to employer contributions, because "the relief load is undoubtedly the policy tool of the job more effective. "It finds that, according to the minister, a report issued a few weeks ago by the Inspector of Finance, Jean-Luc Tavernier. According to the report, 21 billion of relief support enjoyed by companies on low wages would save between 600 000 and 800 000 jobs. Unable to touch in times of high unemployment.

Addressing niche enjoyed by individuals? Difficult also, without taking the risk of being accused of sacrificing the wallet of the French. On this issue, the prime minister has also several reports in his drawers for the inspection of Finance. One focuses on tax loopholes related to inactivity. Another niche on the taxation of savings. One thing is certain: the topic will be addressed at the national conference of the deficits projected for mid-May Nicolas Sarkozy has already announced that the decision "important" would be taken.