Current News Headlines

New rebound in the case Lagard?re / Wyser-Pratte. Guy Wyser-Pratte, said the activist investor who hold 0.53% stake in Lagardere, has won the support of governance expert RiskMetrics Group (formerly ISS Proxy Advosry Services) in his critique of the structure of the media group.

Support size, because boards of RiskMetrics are followed by institutional investors. But they represent 78.51% of the capital of Lagard?re (50,51% of foreign institutional investors and 20% French).

Rejection of proposals by the management and the board

But on Monday, the general partners and managers of Lagardere SCA voted against the amendment of articles of the company – a company limited by shares to a company – in a proposed resolution before the next general meeting Guy Wyser-Pratte.A decision that is "not surprised" to advise shareholders of the activist. "The opposite would have been more democratic," he quipped.

Last Friday, the group's supervisory board had rejected outright the two main proposals of the Franco-American investor to relax the sponsorship of the Lagard?re group. For now, Arnaud Lagardere, the manager-partner of Lagardere, which holds all powers of decision with 10% of capital payday loans no teletrack. Partnership status allows to use external financing without losing control of the company.

RiskMetrics 'agree' with Wyser-Pratte

Thus, the shareholder advisory firm RiskMetrics looking for arguments Guy Wyser-Pratte: "We agree with his criticism of the sponsorship per share.

"The presence of dissent to the supervisory board of Lagard?re would be beneficial to the long-term shareholder value," she said in a statement. In any case, any election "reflects the intention of the limited partners to adopt a different status," said the company. Verdict on 27 April at the general meeting of shareholders.

On Monday, the shares are granted Lagard?re 0.46%, to 31.51 euros in a market equilibrium.

Wyser-Pratte had accused Mr Lagardere's "mismanagement", accusing him of preferring to "go play tennis in running the company." Arnaud Lagardere leads the group since the death of his father Jean-Luc Lagard?re in 2003.

ALSO READ:

"Lagard?re rejects proposals Wyser-Pratte

The words are direct and hard. The supervisory board of Lagard?re did not take tweezers to reject a block all proposals made by the Franco-American investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, whose investment fund has the same name by 0.53% Capital Group since March 25 last. "The Council, meeting April 8, 2010, reviewed these projects and has unanimously decided to issue a negative opinion," said a statement released Friday.

The first application Guy Wyser-Pratte was on its entry to the supervisory board. The Council's primary duty "to express some surprise at the fact that Mr. Wyser-Pratte may wish to participate in one of the organs of governance that it considers anti-democratic and medieval."He then explained that the current composition of the board, whose members are "selected for their competence, experience and moral value" is fully operational and that therefore "the candidacy of Mr. Guy Wyser-Pratte would not add anything more to the smooth functioning "of the latter.

The sponsorship will

Another sore point was the will of Guy Wyser-Pratte to "soften" the operation of the Partnership. The supervisory board initially denounced the contradiction of what the investor who, in the press, does not evoke a simple reduction of the sponsorship but the transformation of the existing company limited by shares (SCA) Lagard?re limited company (SA) No teletrack payday loans.According to counsel, Guy Wyser-Pratte has clearly added: "It is imperative that the sponsorship disappear."

The withdrawal of the prior decision of the general partners would in any way harmful consequences on the management of the group, according to the latter. "It follows that the sponsors might have to look at a general meeting of the draft resolutions without knowing the views of partners and therefore potentially unaware of the outcome."This was rejected, then.

The release of the Supervisory Board ends with a piquant reminder of the "success" under its current operating Lagard?re: "Need I remind you that these initiatives that your group is now leading positions are his worldwide in each of its four branches? ", appeals to the Council.

In exchange, investors do not react to this new episode of Lagard?re / Wyser-Pratte. Around 12:45 pm, the Lagard?re shares are 0.61% to 31.21 euros in a market up 1.14%.

ALSO READ:

The raider Guy Wyser-Pratte tackles Lagard?re

On Thursday, the title of the maker of Palm smartphones, the industry pioneer with his Palm Pilot, climbed nearly 4% to 15h40 to the NYSE. The title had already made up 20% Wednesday to end at 4.62 dollars.

American society is the subject of much speculation about a possible takeover due to the difficulties he encounters. Although the company has poached Jon Rubinstein, Apple, and there was the launch of two flagship models, sales remain subdued.

The Chinese company Lenovo, maker of computers, could be interested in Palm, but for now this is a rumor. Indeed, the boss of Lenovo, Yang Yuanqing said will make acquisitions in the mobile Internet but did not mention Palm.

In mid March, Palm has released new quarterly losses with sales projections by the calamitous end of MayNews that had booed the course, the share had fallen by almost 30%.

ALSO READ:

"Palm misses his back on the market for smartphones

"SFR marks the return of Palm in France

The Paris Stock Exchange began the week on a positive note, after four consecutive days of closure for Easter. In the middle of meeting, the CAC 40 0.50% advance to 4 054.40 points. The Paris Bourse and reached a record since the beginning of the year.

Thursday evening, the CAC 40 finished up sharply from 1.5%, moving beyond 4000 points, 4034 points exactly, carried by the American tone of the evening, and for good economic indicators.

Friday, while Paris and Wall Street were closed, as expected figures on employment have been published. They are good: in March, the United States has created 162,000 jobs, the best performance in nearly three years. It is partly due to the hiring of 48,000 federal agents responsible for conducting the population census planned this year. But overall, the trend shows that employment in the private sector restarts.The ISM and the promise of home sales were also better than expected.

These figures were in any case allowed to appear in Asian stock green overall, except in Tokyo, but this index had increased many previous sessions. The trend was still a bit cool to the announcement by the Australian central bank as falling interest rates to 4.25%, the fifth increase since October.

Few statistics Tuesday

On the macroeconomic front on Tuesday, few new major.The INSEE published at noon on turnover in wholesale trade, retail trade and personal services for French companies in January on line pay day loans.

In the U.S., will be followed by the minutes of the monetary policy meeting of the Fed's March 16 to 20 hours.

Renault honor

Criticized in France, Sanofi-Aventis drug against heart rhythm disorders is considered less effective than existing generic by the Cedars-Sinai Heart Center of Los Angeles whose analysis should be widely listened to. The group shares yield 0.93%, to 54.65 euros.

Historic day for Renault, whose shares climbed 2.21% to 36.28 euros. The French manufacturer is on Tuesday morning a special board.It must give its approval to a broad industrial cooperation with the German group Daimler and equity participations cross.

Total has been indicted for corruption, but its shares rise 1.4%, to 44.25 euros, while oil is still above $ 86. Total advances from 1.90% to 44.47 euros.

As India began the population census, the service companies that handle such services are identified on the alert, like Capgemini and Steria.

Beneteau released Thursday night after a stock turnover of more than 253 million euros for the first half of fiscal 2009-2010, as against less than 240 million euros last year. Beneteau expects a growth of 15% over the year. The stock price up 0.15% to 13.40 euros.

Realtors? A good indicator of the economy. Today, the stone as the economy heads out from the water, but both of them are not yet fully recovered and remain afloat in midstream. Tails, the good news, transactions leave. This year, Fnaim, the federation of estate agents, believes that the bar of 600 000 transactions could be completed. But the market remains mixed. The nine was widely supported by the success of Scellier law, which allows investors to benefit from a tax of 25% within an investment of EUR 300 000. The former, he, still suffers. Because the coin has two sides. Front side, the bad news, the former has not solved the fluidity necessary for proper functioning of the housing market.These professionals call that the secondly-time buyers, that is to say, households who sell a property to buy another, are still not massively back on the market. In many places and on many products, it is still often difficult to match the expectations of those sellers with buyers.

After a blip like this has crossed the housing market, have a good idea of the price of a property is difficult. All the buyers and sellers are determined based on their expectations about future price developments. Roughly speaking, professionals assume a status quo prices. The most optimistic evoke certain properties, the most sought increases in the order of a few percent. Others believe that the balance should tilt towards a price reduction. Mathilde Lemoine, director of economic studies of HSBC France, and expects a decline in prices of the old 4% this year.For its part, the Land Bank expects "a drop in prices of 3% in the former and stability in the new." And pout Mouillart Michel, Professor of Economics at Paris X-Nanterre, "there is no risk of sudden fall of the market.

Another less quantifiable changed with the crisis and must be taken into account. In real estate, as elsewhere, households are determined to buy at the right price, to be smart consumers and investors informed. The beating of the heart are more difficult. Today, we buy more with his head than his heart. The ball is still in the camp of buyers. They have attractive credit terms. It is indeed possible for those who have the best records, to find a fixed rate loan over fifteen years to 3.5%. It will be hard to beat. "Interest rates will necessarily undergo one or more increases in 2010," said the broker CAFP.In a market recovering, prices are difficult to read. We publish in this case the numbers of notaries, those of the Credit Foncier Fnaim and according to our tour of France prices in Ile-de-France and its regions. Searched information, necessary but not sufficient. For now, the price changes between a product with and without defects, good or bad situation, are becoming wider. To help you better understand these variations, we have pushed the investigation further. With concrete examples of prices that are resistant and those who decline (page 114) and a tour of France that you can buy if you're lucky enough to have a budget of EUR 500 000 (page 142). On most goods, prices have declined from their level two years ago. But they did not collapse.In the Ile-de-France, for example, notaries emphasize that "the decline in prices recorded between autumn 2008 and summer 2009 was about 10%" low fee payday loans. But the downward trend in prices has "interrupted". "On an annual basis, the decline in prices between late 2008 and late 2009 is more than 5.6%," they add. This year they expect a stabilization of prices. And sounding the alarm. "The resumption of the construction of new housing in the private sector was essential to the recovery of the market. The shortage of quality housing appropriate to the needs of Parisians is short-term risk of a return of speculation.

The network Orpi evokes a "real recovery, but fragile." A word that recurs in several experts. Mathilde Lemoine and speaks of a "housing demand remains fragile because of imbalances persist.Yet the French like stone. After the fall of shares in 2008, the erosion rate of return on financial investments, many households have even rediscovered the charms of real estate, which enjoys a level of trust greater than financial markets. If market participants, professionals and individuals, are reasonable, it could therefore grown out of this crisis.

The purchasing power of households holding back price increases

In the nine programs are, at least for this year, many to sprout and marketing is well underway (see page 148), and some programs, proponents talk about buyers sleeping room not to miss the opening the sales office. Others talk of bidding on the price of land currently for sale. We find places for runaway phenomena.Sign of fine weather sets found for Real Estate? Nobody dares to translate it well. Because we have not yet met for the recovery that is taking shape into a market stabilized and restored. "A major risk of the recovery is that sellers reflect recovery by rising prices," says Orpi. For the market to find its stride, the sellers should stop dreaming about trees that rise to heaven, and that construction professionals are able to reflect the changing purchasing power of buyers in their projects. In a recent study based on the relationship between prices and incomes, Patrick Artus (Natixis) estimates that property prices are still too high (10 to 15% in France). Today, many proponents say, if prices rise too far, the application will not be there because the acquisition of a home no longer go into the budgets of many households.This constraint incomes and high unemployment limit the potential for price recovery. Managing the crisis will be difficult for the economy as a whole and real estate. This is the challenge of coming months to policies and professionals. For individuals who have the means to, global rates, market and taxation are conducive to a real estate purchase.If they have a project, they have a vested interest in the reality.

ALSO READ:

"In search of bargains

The square meter in Paris: a deceptive stability

The square meter in the suburbs: a very mixed market

"Great crown: the end of the cycle of decline

"Big cities neighborhoods where you have to invest

The price per m? in 65 cities in France (pdf)

"The developers consider the market and present their plans

"Resuming cautious amid rising prices

"Economic outlook positive: Borrow at low prices

The price of oil exceeded 85 dollars a barrel Thursday. Such levels were not affected for a year and a half. In the first quarter of this year, crude prices climbed 6.8%, with a substantial Implus this week: The Light Sweet Crude Oil, listed in New York for May delivery rose 5 , 5%, driven by a series of good economic indicators – including manufacturing activity – United States, Europe, and Asia, which reinforce the idea of an economic recovery faster than expected. And thus a rise in demand for oil more dynamic.

A sustainable upturn? Analysts doubt. Mike Fitzpatrick, senior strategist at MF Global, prefers to wait next week to decide."The euphoria may be a bit premature," he warns.

Especially since the stock figures released Wednesday were mostly negative, and a further increase in reserves is planned for next week. In addition, oil has benefited from the weak dollar, which has yet collapsed Thursday against major international currencies.

For several weeks, prices drift sideways between 69.5 and 83.9 dollars dollars. "The trend remains neutral in the short term," according to the technical analysis of Saxo Bank.But the technical analyst of the Journal of Finance, for its part identifies a strong potential for accelerating the rise in crude prices.

Promising indicators

They come mainly from China and Japan, which are respectively the second and third oil consumer in the world.

In China the two purchasing managers index rose in March, reflecting further expansion of manufacturing activity us fast cash.The index of the HSBC bank stood at 57 points, its third highest level since 2004 and the official index, compiled by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) rose to 55.1 against 52 in February .

Japan's Tankan index of confidence among large manufacturers rose in March for the fourth consecutive quarter, winning 11 points from December to -14 points. This is its highest level in 18 months.

The manufacturing activity has also accelerated in the eurozone and the U.S., according to the PMI and ISM published in each region respectively. The U.S. ISM rose to 59.6 in March, against 56.5 in February. The highest since July 2004.

Global demand will grow

On March 17, OPEC has not changed its production quotas, which remain to be 24.84 million barrels per day since 1 January 2009.For members of the organization, $ 80 a barrel, the price is "perfect" because it allows good balance supply and demand.

In an environment fraught with economic uncertainty, OPEC still sees a recovery in demand for crude. Global demand for oil is projected to increase by about one million barrels per day in the second half, he said. But it should mainly benefit producers outside the cartel, which represent 40% of the global withdrawal.

ALSO READ:

"Point the finger at OPEC speculation

"OPEC sees a recovery in demand for crude

"Oil: Obama wants to drill offshore

Lefigaro.fr / Jdf.com: Why banks they have strongly criticized the recommendations made in the framework of rules prodentielles Basel III?

Delzant Ellen: The Basel Committee has submitted to banks on December 31 last, ten recommendations for strengthening the system of banking supervision and harmonize accounting and prudential standards.

The new regulation called "Basel III" offers a better credit side, with the strengthening of equity and weighted by their market activities, securitization or counterparty risk. And the other, a much higher level of liquidity that banks can refinance markets. According to recent studies, these new standards would impose on banks to raise, by 2012, approximately 450 billion euros in capital to 1.500 billion debt.

What seems impossible in the eyes of banks, explaining that such rules would threaten the financing of the economy. The recommendations of Basel III were subjected to these banks, who are currently studying more accurately the impact of such measures. They make their copy on April 16 next.

The aim would be to implement a new regulation in 2012, the time that the economy really recovering from the crisis.

What exactly is the tax on banks which Berlin and Paris agreed on Wednesday?

At Summit Pittsburgh, which took place in September 2009, the G20 countries have shown their determination to rethink the regulation of the financial system, particularly for states to prevent digging into the coffers filled by taxpayers to save banks the bankruptcy crisis.

In Europe, there are already many discussions on this aspect of bank failures. And in Germany, recently adopted a tax credit that would put money into a rescue fund to be used in case of difficulty of the banking system. Such a tax would yield between 1 and 1.3 billion euros per year. What remains poor compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars injected by the German state banks. But pre-election period in Germany is already a good way to reassure taxpayers, who are also voters no fax cash loans.

Such a tax is not she justified since it was introduced in all countries?

Yes. But he must first of each country working at national level.Last Wednesday, while Christine Lagarde was alongside his German counterpart Wolfgang Sch?uble, France went in the direction of a tax credit. But it would fuel the state budget.

Whatever the allocation of such a tax, these are national decisions that will prevail, but will add a European, and even to globalize this process predominates, partly to avoid distortions of competition.

Already, the Franco-German cooperation is a strong sign of the desire to bring the case to the European level.A global control is obviously essential and the principle of transforming debt of banks capital seems consistent with the desire to take arms against a possible new crisis and save the taxpayers of the world's financial woes.

History:

• Basel I: In 1988, central bankers from the G-10 countries have issued recommendations to "ensure the stability of the international banking system by setting a minimum limit to the amount of bank capital.It showed the famous "Cooke ratio, established in 1992, which required that capital in relation to all lending commitments do not exceed 8%.

• Basel II: In 2006, the New Basel Accord, has established standards constitute a prudential perspective to improve understanding of banking risks, mainly credit risk or counterparty and capital requirements.

• Basel III: The governor of the Bank of the Netherlands, Nout Wellinck, chairman of the Basel Committee, announced December 31, 2009 "a profound change" prudential rules. The application of new standards will not happen until the world economy will not be permanently out of the crisis.Experts believe that Basel III should not occur before 2010 and 2011.

ALSO READ:

"Paris and Berlin ready to tax the banks

"Berlin is overtaxing its banks

"Lagarde is considering a new tax on banks

"Banks: DSK is a comprehensive solution