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.
The New York Stock Exchange opened down sharply Friday after the release of monthly statistics of employment in the United States, generally poorer than expected.
The U.S. economy has destroyed 131,000 non-farm jobs in July, mainly because of the end of temporary contracts linked to the census, and the private sector hired less than expected.
Economists and analysts polled by Reuters on average expected destruction of 65,000 jobs.
A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones lost 0.7% to 10,600.59 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 gave up 0.72% to 1117.69 points and the Nasdaq in 2273 yielded 0.83%, 99.
The persistence of high unemployment (the rate remained unchanged at 9.5% last month) is seen as an obstacle to sustained recovery and statistics on Friday are likely to feed fears of a prolonged weak growth or a relapse into recession.
"What it mostly means is that our economy is stagnating.We are not creating jobs, or it should be the case now, "said Wayne Thomas, head of analysis at John Thomas Financial.
The statistics of the labor market may affect the speech will keep the Federal Reserve after its monetary policy meeting next Tuesday, even if the market anticipates no change in interest rates.
Among the main contributors to the decline of the Dow are industry groups such as 3M (-1.2%) and Boeing (-1.4%).
Among the few values increase in the index, gained 1.3% Kraft Foods after its results.The number one food in North America has published a quarterly profit above expectations and raised its target to reduce costs after the acquisition of Cadbury.
American International Group took over 3.5% after its own results and the announcement of the opening of discussions for an early withdrawal of the state capital.
Axa announced Wednesday better than expected financial results for the first half despite an increase in half-mast, a performance in line with its objective to give priority to the recovery in margins rather than its development.
The second group of European insurance by market capitalization has reaffirmed its commitment to reallocate capital to its geographical margins of the most promising, even to withdraw from certain activities in mature areas.
"That does not mean that we do not have aggressive strategies in certain areas at present" said CEO Henri de Castries, and in an interview broadcast by the insurance group.
The manager has shown this strategy through the recent sale of several business lines in Britain and a willingness to invest in countries and trades in Asia, South America or Eastern Europe.
"This strategy is not as simple as when the whole world was growing at the same pace," he said.
Axa has benefited in the first half of rebounding financial markets and a better performance of its life insurance business, savings and pensions business, which offset the damage, which has suffered many natural disasters earlier this year .
NO CHANGE OF SENTIMENT
If these results are rather a good surprise, two analysts issued notes in the wake of the results fell they should not substantially change investor sentiment vis-à-vis the company.
At 09:15, the title was up 1.4% at 14.94 euros, after opening up over 2.6%, while the CAC 40 index yielded 0.2%.
Axa has lost about 10.9% since the beginning of the year, underperforming the European index DJStoxx insurance, which gained 3.16% over the same period.
The group's net profit stood at 944 million euros, a figure well above the 623 million approached by the consensus of analysts conducted by the editor of Reuters.
If the result is displayed down 28% over the same period last year, this drop is due to the supply of 1.478 billion euros spent by the group following the sale of assets United Kingdom, cited by Henri de Castries.
Without this extraordinary loss, net income would rise by 81% while revenues only increased it by 1% to 49.925 billion euros.
The decline in operating income amounted to 3% to 2.082 billion euros, superior performance under one billion to 1.884 to Reuters.
Axa has not commented on the offer of 11.5 billion dollars from the National Australia Bank on its subsidiary AXA Asia Pacific.
The subsidiary has announced a profit of 219.2 million Australian dollars for the first six months of the year, a figure in line with market expectations.
The offer, which clashed with the Australian authorities to the competition runs until August 31.
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%.
Spir Communication has again suffered in the first half of the decline in sales in the free advertising press, but cost reductions have allowed it to stabilize its margin.
The media group and distribution of printed materials and packages still struggling to develop its model based on formerly free press announcements, but he expects further restructuring to achieve its objective of restoring the balance operational 2010.
Spir has declined by about 10% of its total turnover in the first half to 280.7 million euros, with a fall of 15% of cluster media, press and internet, and 6% of the segment distribution of printed advertising.
"In the context of an advertising market remains uncertain, Spir Communication is continuing its transformation and is maintaining its target for operating profit to breakeven in the year 2010," the group wrote in a statement.
The operating margin improved slightly semester to 1.7% (+0.2 points) thanks to cost efficiencies, including through a plan for adapting the press division, started in 2009, which reduced by 22% operating losses of this segment in the first half.
The group aims to reduce the share of sales made in the traditional activities of the press free to print ads in favor of a growth in Internet sales.
The press had in the first half for nearly 30% of total turnover, against 12% for sales generated by the division of Internet media.
The action Spir stable closed Tuesday at 16.40 euros in a market capitalization of just over 100 million euros.
Soitec said Monday sales of 2010-2011 in the first quarter increased 56.5% over the same quarter in 2009-2010 and 9.6% from the previous quarter, against a background of strong demand and thanks to a favorable currency effect.
The world's leading manufacturer of silicon-on insulation (SOI) for the microelectronics industry said in a press having achieved sales of 68.6 million euros over the period April to June 2010.
Soitec anticipates sequential growth in sales over 20% in first half on the basis of one euro to $ 1.27, with a return to balanced operating income, including its new photovoltaic business Concentrix.
"The latest information on the second quarter show a level of wafer sales support," said the company in a statement. "On a sequential basis, the quasi-stable plate sales at constant exchange rates to continue to support the initial prediction of the group given the correct orientation of the demand," she adds.
Soitec announced in May that a return to operational balance power could intervene in the first half, Concentrix out after a loss of 28.9 million euros in 2009-2010 and 28.4 million in 2008-2009.
Soitec acquired last December 80% of photovoltaic systems provider Concentrix.
The NYSE has ended sharply lower Friday, the Dow Jones industrial yielding 30 261.41 points, or 2.52%, to 10,097.90 points.
The S & P 500 is broader, lost 31.62 points, or 2.88% at 1064.86 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 70.03 points on his side (3.11%) to 2179.05 points.
Wall Street has ended sharply higher on Tuesday, posting a sixth win in a row, in response to results and forecasts of Alcoa aluminum companies.
Alcoa reported Monday better than expected quarterly results while revising upwards its forecast for global demand for aluminum.
Alcoa shares closed up 1.2% to $ 11.
"The fact we think this trend (solid results) will contribute to re-confirm the risk in the market," said Peter Cardillo (Avalon Partners).
The Dow Jones gained 1.44% to 10,363.02 points. The S & P 500 has been 1.53% to 1095.29 points.The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.99% to 2242.03 points.
The S & P has gained over 5% last week, the highest weekly gain this year and scholars eagerly awaiting the results of companies to see if this rally is justified.
But the decline in volumes worries some analysts. The volume on Monday fell to a new low of six months, observes Scott Fullman (WJB Capital Group). He also noted a decrease in the total volume of options.
Low volumes generally pass to denote a lack of conviction of investors.The summer period, however, may also explain the slowdown.
Statistic of the day was the trade deficit widened in May to its highest level since November 2008.
The Apple stock has yielded 2% to 252.11 dollars, after the site specializes Consumer Reports had indicated that he did not recommend the iPhone 4, his tests have confirmed a loss of signal when the handset is required to somehow.
Action Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry competitor, has instead increased from 3.35% to 55.6 million.
Intel, which was to publish its quarterly after the close, gained 2.14% to 21.01 dollars.
The auction site eBay jumped from 4% to 21.02 dollars.
And even if it is pursued by XPRT Ventures company which is claiming nearly four billion dollars in damages for alleged infringement of six patents related to the development of related payment systems such as PayPal.
Airbus announced that it garnered 131 gross orders in the first half, thanks to the mega-command of 32 A380s from Emirates announced in June at the show in Berlin.
A subsidiary of EADS, which shows 117 net orders adjusted for cancellations, said it had delivered 250 aircraft since the beginning of the year, including seven A380.
The order from Emirates, which had enabled Airbus to open with fanfare the Berlin air show, however usually less prolific ones Farnborough (England) or Le Bourget, is estimated at some 11 billion dollars based on list price purely indicative.
Airbus also won 27 orders in the first half for the single-aisle A320s and 25 A350-900.On both models, Boeing has received command of the Brazilian airline TAM also announced in Berlin for 20 A320s and five A350-900s with a total value estimated at $ 2.9 billion at list prices.
The backlog of the manufacturer revealed six cancellations A330-300 in June, including two from the Finnish airline Finnair.
Airbus did not identify the company behind the other four cancellations of orders for A330s, but industry observers have estimated that Gulf Air (Bahrain,) four units could reduce its order for 20 A330s.
According to the latest data from Airbus, DAE Capital (Dubai), who said renegotiate its orders with Airbus and Boeing, has so far not received his order of 100 Airbus.
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.