Financial, Business, Personal Finance News

H & M uses the label Lanvin for his fall collection

Hennes & Mauritz said on Thursday that the fashion label Lanvin would draw her new clothing line, sold in the fall.

The Swedish group, Third World chain clothing stores, known for its trendy and cheap clothing, and regularly appeal to the world of fashion and show business to design collections.

The singer Madonna, or the creators Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Roberto Cavalli have been solicited by the group.

These collections have little impact on the total turnover of the group, but analysts believe they provide visibility for the brand and enhance its image.

"Lanvin will provide to H & M tradition of French luxury, both modern and full of fantasy", explains Margareta van den Bosch, Advisor at H & M creation

This collection, designed by the artistic director of Lanvin, Alber Elbaz, and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver, will be launched on November 23 in 200 H & M stores worldwide.

Nestlé completes sale of Alcon to Novartis

Nestle announced Thursday it had finalized the sale of Novartis's 52% that remained in Alcon for $ 28.3 billion (22.3 billion euros).

Nestle has received a total of 41 billion dollars selling American specialist in ophthalmology, if one takes into account the three stages of disinvestment, namely the initial IPO of 23.25% in 2002, sale of 24.8% in 2008 and the last transaction with Novartis, conducted Wednesday, said the world number one agribusiness in a statement.

Nestle, which had acquired Alcon in 1977 for 280 million dollars, now intends to "significantly reduce its net debt, which amounted to 29.6 billion at end June 2010.

Novartis now controls 77% of Alcon and its later clarified in a separate statement that its initial tranche of 25% had already recorded a gain of $ 200 million for the year.

The integration costs of $ 140 million, spread over three years and will save annual synergies of 200 million dollars, said pharmaceutical group.

This year however, will be impacted by charges of 140 million, including transaction costs.

The acquisition will be neutral to earnings per share in 2010 and 2011 but should be accretive as this year for basic EPS ('core').

Novartis is now looking to buy the remaining 23% but the independent directors of Alcon opposed to the proposed price of 2.8 shares per share Novartis Alcon, which is 15% less than the $ 168 per share paid Nestlé.

Swiss law allows Novartis to adopt such an approach but does not guarantee the success of its offer to minority shareholders.

New fall in unemployment in France in July

The stabilization of the labor market was confirmed in July in France with an increasing decline in youth unemployment and a rise in job vacancies so that the executive is preparing a return to social and political agitation.

The number of jobseekers in category A, which includes those without work and actively seeking employment, fell for the second consecutive month, declining by 14,400 (-0.5%) last month in France, to 2,676,600 people.

He declined 8,600 (-0.3%) in June, which was the second decline year after the March.

By adding job seekers engaged in a Pool (Class B and C), the number of unemployed increased by 0.1%, however in a monthly basis in July (+5.300) for an increase of 8.1% year on year to 3,963,800 people (4,208,300 including Dom).

"It's positive, we have for the second consecutive month falling unemployment.It's an indication of stabilization of unemployment, "said Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde in an interview with Reuters.

"We have a range of indicators is positive and give us hope that this trend early (…) will probably keep", she added, citing the purchase intentions, ocean freight, advertising, the interim, the recovery of stocks, investments and consumption.

"Who says less of job seekers said wages and therefore more consumption and at the level of public finances, less unemployment and thus a situation of public finances Unedic-improved," continued Christine Lagarde while the government is preparing the draft budget 2011 will be announced in late September.

The executive confirmed last week its goal of bringing the deficit of France in 6% of GDP next year despite the lowering of a half-point to 2.0%, its growth forecast economy.

DOWN FOR THE YOUNG, THE RISE FOR OVER 50 YEARS

The upturn on the labor market due to an accelerated decline in youth unemployment.

Job offers collected by job center for their part, returned to the increase.

Among youth under 25 years, the number of unemployed declined by 2.8% in group A compared to June fell by 1.8% in one year.For categories A, B and C, the youth unemployment down 0.2% on month but a 1.8% increase over one year.

Job offers collected by Pole employment grew 3.6% in July in France and show an increase of 12.7% over one year.They were down by 0.6% in June from the previous month increased 7.1% over one year.

The long-term unemployed and those over 50 years, however, continued to grow.

For over 50 years, unemployment has increased by 0.8% in group A (+17.6% yoy) and 1.1% for the three main categories (+17.1% on year).

The number of long-term unemployed – registered at employment center for a year or more – rose 0.8% in July for categories A, B, C with a mass increase that is over one year (+27.6% ).

The detailed statistics also shows that entry to public service employment in Class A, B and C were down 2.4% from June, down 4.4% year on year.

The outputs of the same categories are in the same time remained stable but rose 4.1% over one year. Among them, radiation administrative advances of 7.3% compared to June, the search stops 11.5% and entries on probation by 17%.

The French economy has created 23,900 jobs in the market sector in the first quarter with growth of the economy by 0.1% and 35,000 in the second quarter with growth accelerated to 0.6%.

Unemployment according to ILO will be published Sept. 2 by INSEE. He stood at 9.5% in the first quarter (9.9% in counting overseas departments), the highest since the fall of 1999.

Car registrations fell by 12.9% in July in France

Registrations of new cars in France fell 12.9% in July over a year to reach 169,804 units with the continued weakening of the effect "scrappage" announced the Committee of French Automobile (CCFA).

The month of July had 21 working days, against 22 last year.A comparable number of working days, the decline in sales stood at 8.7%.

Of the first seven months of 2010, registrations in France, however, still stand up 2.8% in raw data to 1,382,240 units, and 2.1% in comparable number of working days compared the same period of 2009.

Sales only French brands fell 15.4% in July, while those of foreign brands fell 9.9%.

Car sales of PSA Peugeot Citroen shrank 15.0% last month, and those of Renault were down 7.6%.

Registrations only Dacia (Logan, Sandero and Duster) jumped 47.5% on month, while those of Renault fell 15.9%.

For PSA, sales of the Citroen were down by 17.0% and Peugeot were down by 13.3%.

French growth expected at 1.3% in 2011

The chances of achieving economic growth of 2.5% in France in 2011, as required by government depart according to a Reuters poll of economists, who consider the measures of fiscal consolidation in Europe will weigh on demand .

Seventeen economists polled by Reuters expect, thereby increasing the gross domestic product by 1.3% next year (median forecast), against 1.7% in a poll conducted in April equivalent.

The median forecast for 2010 is 1.3% against 1.4% in April.

"The austerity measures in France and neighboring countries will weigh on demand and we expect a decline in consumption and investment in a number of European countries," said Maxime Lemerle, an economist at Euler Hermes.

Economists now expect that consumer spending, a pillar of French growth, will increase by only 1.1% in 2011, when they expected 1.4% in April.

Over two thirds of French exports to Europe by the weak demand in the region should weigh heavily on trade, according to Maxime Lemerle, which forecasts growth of 1.1% of GDP in 2011, a cons, 8% previously.

The government expects growth to reach 2.5% annually between 2011 and 2013, which would help reduce the government deficit from 8% in 2010 to 6% in 2011, 4.6% in 2012 and 3% in 2013 .

Slower growth could lead to additional measures to reduce the deficit or raising taxes.

"If we have less growth, certain expenses will tend to increase as those related to employment. So I think they might have to raise taxes a bit," said Dominique Barbet, economist at BNP Paribas.

The Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she would not rule to revise the growth forecast for 2011 after the publication in mid-August GDP figures for the second quarter.

His counterpart on the Budget, Baroin, said the deficit reduction targets were met, although growth was below forecast.

The government plans to reduce the deficit to 6% in late 2011, 40 billion euros less than in 2010.According Baroin, 15 billion will come from the extinction of the recovery plan, saving 14 billion and 11 billion of revenue increases.

Iberia signs the merger agreement with British Airways

Iberia announced it has signed a merger agreement with British Airways, a combination that will create the world's third largest airline.

The Spanish company affixes his signature to a text that defined last April, one week after her British counterpart said it had reached an agreement to cover the deficit of 3.7 billion pounds of its pension scheme .

The transaction, which will see shareholders of British Airways to 55% of all new, must still be endorsed by shareholders, which is expected in November.

Iberia has also an exit clause for three months, always linked to its assessment of the ability of BA to the deficit of its pension system, a point already in the past failed to derail the proposed merger .

"Iberia has three months to leave the project from the time the agreement (signed between British Airways and managers of pension funds) is subject to the regulatory authority of British pensions," said Iberia.

Less risk of the French note, said an analyst at Fitch

France is in progress on structural reforms, which implies that there are now fewer risks today than the note of France has deteriorated, said Friday at a Reuters television analyst ratings agency Fitch.

The government of François Fillon has pledged to reduce its deficits and this week announced a reform of the pension system.

Asked if it was less risky than sovereign debt rating lowered or French today than a month or two, David Riley, director of sovereign ratings at Fitch, said: "Yes, well safe ".

"France is much more than it did before, particularly when it announced a stabilization plan and with no details," he said.

A project to reform the French government aims to restore financial equilibrium of pension schemes in 2018, in particular through the gradual increase of 60-62 years in 2018 the legal age of retirement.

Quarterly net income fell by nearly Boursorama 65%

Boursorama reported net earnings were down 64.65% to 8.2 million euros in first quarter 2010, marked by higher marketing expenses and the lack of appreciation of assignment.

Specialist banking and online brokerage subsidiary to 56% of Societe Generale, said that the decline in net profit is 11% excluding special items, that is to say, outside the capital gain 14 million euros on the sale of Bank in Spain Self recorded in 2009.

Of the top three in the year, revenues Boursorama expand 5.5% to 48 million euros, while operating expenses rose by almost 15% to 35.7 million because of strong higher marketing expenses.

In February, Hugues Le Bret, the new CEO of the company, had expressed a wish to accelerate the development of Boursorama in online banking with the aim of increasing the number of openings bank accounts.

In the first quarter, new accounts have been multiplied by 2.4 over the first three months of 2009, with 15,810 new bank accounts.

The company intends to further consolidate its market share in online banking with the launch this month of an advertising campaign throughout France.

"While maintaining our fixed costs under control, we decided from the beginning of the year to enhance our strategy of winning through, inter alia, to increase our marketing spend," advised Hugues Le Bret, cited in the statement.

As it grows more in the online bank's new management wants Boursorama balancing company revenue by decreasing the share of income from trading.

The Socgen, parent Boursorama, has also indicated in late April that the results of its subsidiary since January 1 are recorded in its retail banking division in France and not in the asset management business, banking private and investor services as before.

General The Company publishes Wednesday its first quarter results. The consensus reached by the editor of Reuters expects a net profit of 614 million euros against a loss of 278 million a year earlier.

The action Boursorama closed Monday at 9.23 euros, giving the company a market capitalization of nearly 806 million euros.

Net 1, 5 billion for UBS Q1

Swiss bank UBS announced a net profit of 2.2 billion francs (1.5 billion euros) in the first quarter of 2010, after a loss of 1.98 billion francs in the same period last year.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected a net profit of 2.02 billion francs.

The bank had warned the markets before its general meeting that it anticipated a positive result before tax "of at least 2.5 billion francs.This post finally rises to 2.81 billion for the period under review.

On this occasion, the school had indicated that the net outflow of money in all activities had been "significantly lower than the fourth quarter of 2009.

UBS, which included a net outflow of 8 billion francs in wealth management and Swiss Bank, has reported a final amount of 8.2 billion.

The bank anticipated output of 7 billion in Wealth Management Americas and 3 billion for its asset management, and withdrawals have finally amounted to 7.2 billion and 2.6 billion respectively.

The investment bank has marked her return, earnings before taxes have tripled to 1.19 billion francs from 297 million a year earlier.The segment of trading bonds, currencies and commodities (FICC) has quintupled its revenues to 2.17 billion against 496 million a year earlier.

The equity ratio improved to 16% at end March 2010 against 15.4% at end December 2009.

"We are well positioned to achieve our medium term," said CEO Oswald J. Grübel, quoted in the statement.

UBS expects a gradual improvement of the results of asset management and asset management, adding that the net outflow of capital would be "relatively moderate in the coming time."