Daily International Headlines

Citroen launches into his rental car, according to information published Tuesday in Le Parisien, Aujourd'hui en France. The automaker plans to launch this new service from September 20, first time in Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille and Lyon before extending the scheme to other cities.

Users can rent the vehicle remotely, by phone, and it delivered to the address of their choice within three hours. "The prices are comparable to those found on the market, says a source at the automaker in Paris payday advance low fees. Just for the delivery or return home the vehicle, the service will cost 14 euros.

No need for subscription, understands the newspaper. Prices and rental period will vary widely.All types of Citroen vehicles will be offered, including the C-Zero electric car that is not yet commercialized.

A new website and an iPhone application should be launched in early 2011 to facilitate the leasing and add customized services such as insurance, download maps and other accessories.

More than a year after the introduction of laws, taxes and recommendations on the payment of bonuses in the banks raises the question of their effectiveness. The Institute of International Finance (IIF) has taken the lead by establishing the Oliver Wyman care to conduct a study on the changing structure of wages among 37 international banks.

Unsurprisingly, the study demonstrates the virtuous direction of the profession."Many banks have made significant and necessary changes in their payment system by adopting policies and practices in line with those advocated by the G20," said Josef Ackermann, the institute's chairman and CEO of Deutsche Bank, the first German bank.

Supporting Evidence: On the sensitive issue of deferred compensation – and therefore conditioned to sustainable profitability, which is one of the most effective, as the G20, to empower market participants – banks surveyed show their progress. In one year, the deferred bonus share has doubled to 39% of the total. The payment of these bonuses is not delayed a few months but three years or more in 85% of cases. Over two thirds of these variable compensation being paid in shares or securities linked. Bonuses are guaranteed over the wind in its sails.And the few new recruits who still get this behalf should be satisfied with a one year warranty.

Failure of British tax

"Governance has also changed significantly, says Bruno de Saint-Florent, a partner at Oliver Wyman. In 2009, the frequency of meetings has increased by 50% compared to 2008. The involvement of teams of risk in these compensation process has become even less systematically, this year (98% of banks). A year earlier, they would intervene only in 46% of cases. "

The IIR judge this too brief consideration of the concept of risk in awarding fees. The institute recommends a longer-term and more refined, along the lines of business. Experts also point out that banks are still too timid in their information.Less than half of respondents have ventured this year to disclose the amount of bonuses distributed.

Despite these criticisms, the realization of the IIR is very encouraging, but the optimism of the institute does not yet unanimously. One of the main architects of the reforms of finance, the former British Minister Alistair Darling, told this week that the British tax on the bonus had no effect on the industry. This 50% tax on bonuses exceeding 25,000 pounds, expired in April. Fatalist, Darling believes that the bankers are in any way "too imaginative not to find all sorts of ways to not pay." The behavior of Credit Suisse agrees with him. The bank, which had decreased its bonuses in 2009, has just overtaken the tax expired, distributing exceptional bonuses.

"See the study [pdf]

"See the summary of the study [pdf]

Radio Silence. Since the leaks to the press last July that Sanofi-Aventis has made an initial offer of $ 69 per share or 18.4 billion dollars, the pharmaceutical company and the American biotechnology company, Genzyme, have decided to no longer communicate on the subject. On the occasion of the publication of the results of the group in late July, the CEO of Sanofi-Aventis, Chris Viehbacher, confirmed to Le Figaro that the group will continue its acquisition policy. "We will continue to make acquisitions. We work on small and medium-sized operations. Small can be up to 5 billion dollars. The averages may reach twenty billion dollars. However, we do not want mega-mergers. ".

Between $ 75 and $ 80

A silence that analysts interpret as the beginning of discussions between the two parties.And, according to The Wall Street Journal, these negotiations have started badly. While Sanofi encamp on his positions, namely an initial offer of 69 dollars per share, the leaders of Genzyme seller would not be below 80 dollars. "I do not see Sanofi pay more than $ 80. However, the shareholders present capital of Genzyme – Relational and Carl Icahn – will not accept offers of less than 75 dollars, "said Hervé Manign, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. If Sanofi-Aventis declined to specify the amount of the envelope before it, the analysts amounting around 20 billion euros. The group comes easily to renegotiate a credit line of $ 7 billion to 2015.

"Sanofi is not obliged to do this operation"

If both parties wish that the discussions continue, they must s'entendrent on the initial offer."Genzyme is a very tempting prey for Sanofi, because it would allow him to catch up on organic products, which have the advantage of being more difficult to generics, said Herve Mangin. But Sanofi is not obliged to do this. On the one hand, an acquisition too expensive tarnish the good investments made by Chris Viehbacher since his arrival at the head of the group. On the other hand, it would force the group to increase its capital, which would reduce the value of the transaction.

A month ago, Sanofi-Aventis published in the second quarter sales up 4.6% to 7.8 billion euros, but down 1.2% at constant exchange rates. Net income from operations rose 7.6% to 2.5 billion (+4.5% at constant exchange rates).If the activity is driven by emerging markets (+19.4% organic growth for the half year), sales in Europe and the United States will continue to decline with further loss of patents, but after 2013 the group remains confident with the launch of new products. Sanofi-Aventis development Jevtana particularly in the treatment of prostate cancer has just been approved in the United States, and iniparib (BS1201) in the treatment of breast cancer.

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ArcelorMittal blows hot and cold. The steelmaker displays uninviting outlook for the third quarter, but he nevertheless kept his goals in the second quarter.

ArcelorMittal plans a third quarter slowed, with lower operating performance. The group on a table and a gross operating surplus (EBITDA) of between 2.1 and 2.5 billion dollars. ArcelorMittal explains that the period will be marked "by a combination of seasonal factors and the effects of economic slowdown in China." The goal of a 10% increase in global demand in 2010, described by the group earlier this year, now seems difficult to achieve.On the other hand, the group's factories, which have operated in the second quarter to 78% of capacity against 80% expected in late April, are expected to slow to about 70%.

Long awaited on the subject, ArcelorMittal also said: "For the second half of the year, the challenge will be to pass all cost increases to our customers."

More encouragingly, the world's largest steelmaker has managed to keep its goals in the second quarter. The steelmaker has unveiled an operating surplus in line with expectations at $ 3 billion after an increase of 150% compared to last year. The net continues, as expected, grow, and was 1.7 billion dollars against a loss of 792 million last year. "The improved second-quarter performance is consistent with our expectations and reflects the continuation of the slow and gradual recovery," said Officer.

An independent company for the stainless activities under study

Turnover was slightly below expectations at 21.65 billion dollars against 23.1 billion expected by the consensus of analysts.

Finally, ArcelorMittal said currently evaluating the possibility of creating a separate company (spin-off) of its stainless steel business. "We have confidence in the future of the stainless steel business and believe that creating a separate company will create further added value for all shareholders," said the group.

The European Commission has announced the opening of two antitrust investigations against the U.S. computer giant IBM, suspected abuse of dominant position in the server market.

"The European Commission has decided to open formal antitrust investigations against IBM Corporation in two separate cases of alleged breaches of EU rules on abuse of dominant position in the market," said the EU executive in a statement.

"The two cases," she added, "are related to behavior of IBM in the market for central servers," which weighs, equipment and operating systems including about 8.5 billion worldwide, including three billion in the European Economic Area.

The central servers are powerful computers used by many large companies and government institutions in the world to store and process critical information.

The software manufacturers penalized

The first investigation follows complaints filed against IBM by two vendors say emulation technology, the U.S. in Q3 2009 and the French Hercules Turbo this year. According to these two companies, the software giant would link its central server hardware and its own operating system these servers.

IBM, by not allowing customers the freedom to use the systems of their choice on the equipment of their choice, would penalize manufacturers of software to improve performance on computers of other brands.

As to the second inquiry, the Commission stated that it was launched on its own initiative.Its services suspect indeed a "discriminatory conduct" IBM "vis-à-vis its competitors who provide maintenance services of central servers" fast payday loan no faxing."By restricting or delaying access to spare parts that IBM is the sole supplier, American society, Brussels is concerned, could foreclose its competitors from the market.

Two investigations "without merit" for IBM

The U.S. computer giant, IBM, Judge "without merit" the two investigations announced Monday by the European Commission for abusing its dominant position in the market for central servers, a market "for it was dead" until recently.

In a statement, IBM claims that "there are few, experts in high technology and IBM's competitors were pronounced dead at the central server market", and "many companies abandoned it or developing alternatives" .

Conversely, "IBM has taken a crucial decision: to invest billions of dollars" in this technology "to bring him an unprecedented level of speed, reliability and security for the enterprise market," the statement added. He continued: "Today, the central server market is a small niche in the highly competitive landscape of servers," he says.

IBM therefore accuses "some competitors who have not been able to earn their place on the market through investments" to want to do this using regulators. "The accusations against IBM TurboHercules and T3 are driven by some of the biggest competitors of IBM, led by Microsoft, (…) who want to emulate certain aspects of IBM mainframe servers without having to make substantial investments IBM has done and continues to do, "concludes the group. "They thus violate its intellectual property."

The end of the nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico may be close. BP wants to believe in all cases: two days after the start of the crucial test of strength of the new funnel, no sign of leakage was observed. "We have no indication that oil or gas escape" of damaged wells, said the vice-chair of Kent Well. Tested since Thursday, the giant funnel that contains the daily flow pouring millions of gallons of toxic liquid into the ocean, seems to hold good.

Uncertainty remains high: the compressed oil, trapped in the wells blocked by the funnel, eventually creating gaps and spread back into the ocean.According to Thad Allen, head of operations against the oil spill administration, BP must conduct further tests because the measured pressure does not allow to draw definitive conclusions about what is happening inside the well.

High pressure would suggest that well resistance is good and there is no leakage. Low pressure instead leave thinking that oil escaping elsewhere. Admiral Allen said that the pressure increased from 0.1 to 0.6 bar per hour, which was a good sign. But Friday, the level of pressure in the well still left casts "doubt on the possible existence of a leak." On Saturday, Vice President of BP, however, that the pressure inside the well had continued to increase."The fact that the pressure continues to mount gives us more confidence that the test works," he added, stressing that the data are "quite" in the range predicted by the engineers.

The extended testing

As a precaution, the oil company said Saturday it would extend the period of initial testing prévuepour last 48 hours. "We continue in phases of six hours each time. If there is a change in the way we do, we will announce it, "said Mark Salt, a spokesman for BP at the end of this period.

If the test proves successful the well will remain closed until the risk of leak is definitely ruled out by injecting concrete through a relief well. An operation could be completed in early August.However, if a leak is detected, the valve will be reopened and the oil will be pumped to surface ships.

"If we decide to reopen the pit, oil drain into the Gulf for some time," said Mr. Wells, the time to connect the pumping lines at the wellhead. This would obviously a major failure for the oil group that tries since the end of April to contain the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Since April 22, nearly 520 million gallons of crude that would have flowed into the ocean, estimated Tuesday the International Energy Agency. Even if the leak was finally stopped, Deepwater would remain one of the worst oil spills in history (see graphic below), a nightmare to $ 3.5 billion for BP and irreparable ecological catastrophe.

With the football World Cup, TF1 maintains its primacy in terms of both audience and advertising. In the final between the Netherlands to Spain on Sunday night, the first private channel totaled 63.1% audience share and 14.1 million viewers together with peaks at 17.4 million at the end meeting. For the private channel, it is "a record audience for a football match without a French team. It is also the third best year for hearing TF1. Stephane Deverge, director of sports pole TF1 Publicité, also welcomed "the prime-time audiences who, throughout the competition, gathered 8.2 million viewers on average."

31 million visits

On Tuesday morning, the euro symbol still under $ 1.2 preprend but a little and gold is more than 10 points of its record high of 1,238 dollars an ounce. The CAC 40 ended the session just above 3400 points, down 1.21%, the benchmark index of Paris opened up slightly in the wake of the Asian stock markets this morning.

At the opening, the CAC 40 rose 0.58% to 3433 points, and other European markets were also in the green. The stock reacted quite favorably to the words of Ben Bernanke, the Fed chief, interviewed on ABC, ensuring that there will be no double economic believed.

But about 10 hours, the red again invaded the index, investor sentiment remains fragile. Since the ACC slipped further into negative territory. Around 11:30 am, he fell from 1.7% to 3356 points.BNP Paribas (-3.03%), AXA (-2.31%) and Total (-2.07%) are the main contributors to the decline in the index in Paris.

Other major European stock markets also erased their initial gains and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 1.57%.

In France, the trade deficit was slightly reduced in April to 4.248 billion euros against 4.413 billion the previous month, according to Customs. When the budget deficit, according Bercy, it reached 56.2 billion euros at end-April, against 71.6 billion a year earlier.The Bank of France maintains its forecast of growth of 0.5% in the second quarter in its May business survey released Tuesday.

We will monitor developments at noon monthly industrial production in Germany expected an increase of 0.7% and the sense of optimism (U.S.) in small businesses to 13.30 (expected figure to 90.6) or the sense of optimism U.S. economy at 16:00 (expected number 49.3).

The European plan sealed

Monday evening, the finance ministers of Twenty-Seven were meeting in Luxembourg. They sealed their agreement on the "ease" of 750 billion which should guarantee the eventual bailout of states on the brink of bankruptcy.On one side it is good news for European coordination, but this agreement also shows that European leaders have never had so little confidence.

In Germany, Angela Merkel has decided to cut in government spending, welfare and unemployment benefits while creating specific taxes on aviation and nuclear power. A cure dark record of 80 billion euros by 2014.

Oil side, it goes a bit Tuesday. The black gold will change this week in publication of several important reports on the status of supply and demand, namely the monthly publication of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEA) on Thursday, the Agency American Energy (EIA), Tuesday, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday.

Partnership between GDF Suez and E. ON

GDF Suez (-0.04% to 24.5 euros) and E. ON (balance) announced Monday the signing of a partnership to explore new opportunities in the area of nuclear power in Italy. The chairman of GDF Suez Energy Europe, Stephane Brimont believes that this agreement represents a first step in the reintroduction of nuclear energy in Italy payday loan lenders. Klaus Schaefer, CEO of E. ON Italy's "cooperation with GDF Suez could contribute to the formation of a new consortium in the future".

Total: 0.22% to 38 euros. Total said Monday night he entered the capital of American society AE Polysilicon up 25.4% through a capital increase reserved.The boss of Total, Christophe de Margerie, said Monday in Montreal that he should continue to explore for oil in the bottom of the sea and agree to pay for security, "even tripled, to avoid repetition of pollution Gulf of Mexico.

Areva: 0.43% to 353 euros. Areva said Monday it has completed the sale of its transmission and distribution division to Alstom and Schneider Electric. According to Les Echos, the group is also preparing to record an allowance of 300 to 450 million euros in its accounts of the first half due to delays in the construction of its EPR reactor in Finland. Moreover, starting the nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto EPR has been postponed for six months. Its commissioning will take effect in 2013.

Schneider: 0.76% to 84.4 euros.The Chief Executive welcomed the fall of the euro and confirms its objective of "organic growth" moderate turnover of his group in 2010. "Mechanically, the decline of the euro has a positive effect when we consolidate our results. When the euro lost 1% against the dollar, our gain is approximately 8 million euros, "said Jean-Pascal Tricoire in an interview with Les Echos.

Klépierre: largest increase of the SBF 120 (EUR 22.12 +2.15%) value is boosted by a good recommendation from UBS, which rose from "neutral" to "buy" with target price maintained at 29 euros.

The trial begins Kerviel

Today begins the trial of Jerome Kerviel, the former trader at Société Générale, sued for a loss, he contests, nearly 5 billion euros in early 2008.

Accor: 0.27% to 39 euros. Separated hotels, Accor Services is renamed Edenred.The owner of Ticket Restaurant changes name before its listing on the Stock Exchange on July 2.

Technip: 1% to 49.64 euros.Le oil group to win Refinery & Petrochemicals Mangalore three turnkey contracts for a fixed price, worth a total of about 25 million euros for phase III project expansion of its refinery located in Mangalore on the west coast of India.

Gemalto 1.23% to 30.5 euros. In turn, the global leader in digital security, today announced that Deutsche Post DHL deploys its innovative card of vegetal origin. Since 1 June 2010, Deutsche Post DHL offers its business customers to adjust Postcard GoGreen sending letters and packages for express delivery.

Online Games At 10:00, the Regulatory Authority online games (Arjel) certified operators present the implementation of paris and online gambling in France, starting this Tuesday.

Electric Other important event of the day, Bill Nome on the organization of the electricity market will be discussed at the National Assembly. EDF fold from 0.86% to 34.5 euros.