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Employees searching for meaning at work? Corporate foundations may well be a response to this need. These structures serve the general interest in working relationship with associations, involve more and more widely in staff actions.

This is certainly one of the conclusions of the first barometer of corporate foundations, led by "IMS-take to the City" (*), ring exchange chaired by Claude Bebear, accompanying 230 companies to date in their "social commitment".

Eight out of ten foundations to offer and company employees to get involved. "We support only for projects likely to involve employees," said Severine Coutet, secretary general of the Fondation HSBC created in 2008 around the educational and environmental themes. "This involvement strengthens the sense of belonging to the company," she says. Ultimately 30% of the employees involved, which is huge.

The study also reveals that this patronage focuses on the causes that are related to the company's business (52% say this), with behind the idea, attractive to employees, the company and Foundation share similar values.

Review the social contract

Created two years ago, the fledgling foundation Monoprix, has directly asked his staff to define its field of action. Three were identified: the integration of young people, improving mobility and accessibility of elderly and disabled, the fight against isolation. "Things related to the mission that Monoprix is ​​to provide basic necessities and be a social city," says Catherine Ranieri, general delegate of the foundation, which speaks of "significant internal tool federation " pay day advance. It turns out that these problems are not unlike that of some of its employees, 80% are at the minimum wage

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Upon the establishment of the foundation Monoprix, the works council has also questioned the direction of the actions put in place for its own employees … The answer was quick to come with the announced creation of a social fund for employees. Foundations and would require companies to review their own social contract

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What about the causes supported by the foundation? The barometer reveals top education (59%), advocacy (58%), and employability (52%). Young people are the target audience (52%). And despite the crisis, companies are investing as much explains IMS: third has a budget of over 1 million euros.

Since the creation of foundation status of companies in 1990, 450 structures have emerged, the 2003 Act, concerning patronage (with 60% rate of tax deductions) having accelerated the movement.

(*) Quantitative study conducted in fall 2011 conducted among 68 foundations, supplemented by a qualitative study of 12 foundation leaders.

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Response hardens at Bouygues Telecom. Since the arrival of Free market of mobile telephony, on January 10, the operator suffers. With packages available from 0 to 19.99 euros, the newcomer had already robbed some 134,000 Bouygues Telecom customers to March 1. To limit the damage, he had already announced, on January 13, lower rates of low-cost brand B & You via two packages one at 9.99 euros and the other 19.99 euros . An "Operation Seduction" which has clearly left its customers with marble.

Therefore, on Monday, Bouygues Telecom bounces back. According to Le Monde, it will offer price reductions on its range Eden, his main family of packages. A reduction that will go up to 40% for unlimited plans. "We have simplified our offer and have made more generous in offering our customers three unlimited voice plans from 39.90 euros per month with a terminal at competitive prices," said Frederic Ruciak, director of the consumer market, the daily. The package "Eden Classic" 2 hours of communication, it will be shaved by 10%. Bouygues Telecom has tempered, however, the "Free Indeed" by telling AFP that the price drop was a "rate adjustment from quarantine completed each year flexcheck cash advance."

Havoc on the stock market

The price war launched by Free has done well havoc on the mobile market. In fact, Bouygues Telecom expects a decline of 10% of its turnover in 2012 to 5.14 billion euros. In total, the group offers Niel have attracted over 1.5 million customers, estimated in early March of Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom. Orange said 400,000 of its customers had left for Free Mobile. SFR, meanwhile, had lost 1% of its customers, or 200,000 people, in late February. Markets, investors are nervous. Vivendi, France Telecom and Bouygues suffer attacks of Iliad, the parent company of Free.

Result, Bouygues Telecom will certainly not be the only review it. Orange, who had drawn the first by announcing on 11 January prices down Sosh of his crimes, is expected to unveil a new fee schedule on April 6, with reductions on its range Origami, according to Le Monde.

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Entrepreneurs can now expect to spend less time on paperwork they must complete to satisfy the administration. The National Assembly finally passed the bill Wednesday on the easing of administrative procedures despite the guerrilla led by the left. Socialist deputies and senators have decided to seize the Constitutional Council on this legislation. François Rebsamen, President of the Socialist Group of the Senate, said the referral should be made Friday.

"Francois Hollande has displayed duplicity and said on TF1 to a contractor who asked that it was essential to reduce the administrative burden on enterprises when, at the same time, François Hollande, the Socialist member of the Assembly national, and Jean-Marc Ayrault defended a motion to dismiss on the simplification of the text. Simplification is neither right nor left. It is pragmatic and expected by economic agents, "said Frederic Lefebvre Thursday, Secretary of State for SMEs, with more of the 145 measures that will be implemented in the presence of Jean-Luc Warsmann (UMP), President of the Law Committee of the National Assembly and author of the bill payday loans.

New areas

The measures apply to both the conditions of entitlement to holiday pay as procurement of low value, the secured cabinet containing all the digital business information required by the government that the 240 million ballot wages published each year. The latter, with up to 30 lines, will be simplified in several steps. The items on the Social Security taxes and social contributions will be easier to understand from the 1st January 2013. Those on unemployment contributions, pension contributions and additional pension will be from 1 January 2015.

The device of the rescript in office, which allows a company to ask its opinion to the administration, will be improved. It will be extended to new areas such as rules for calculating payroll. The administration will respond within a specified time.

Most companies only file with the court an annual report containing information that can benefit their competitors. To monitor the implementation of 145 measures, Frédéric Lefebvre install the March 19 Committee of the reduction of paperwork consisting of officials and entrepreneurs.

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Qatar Airways, the first customer for the A350 XWB, the new long-haul Airbus will have to be patient. EADS, the parent of European manufacturer, announced on Friday on the occasion of the publication of the results of nine months, the factory of the competitor of Boeing Dreamliner will be the first half of 2014 rather than late 2013. The assembly of the first aircraft factory in Toulouse, will begin in the first quarter of next year and not at the end of this year. This delay will cost 200 million euros at EADS, which has set aside that amount in its accounts.

These announcements reflect "what we know today," said Hans Peter Ring, Chief Financial Officer of EADS. The band plays caution. He prefers to deliver defect-free devices instead of doing everything to meet its production schedule. The European giant draws lessons from the excesses of the A380.The announcement of the delays of the A380 in June 2006 caused a collapse of the action and the most serious crisis in the history of the company.

This decision revealed seventy-two hours before the opening of the Dubai Air Show was predictable. In June, during the Paris Air Show, Airbus announced a year and a half behind two of the three versions of the A350 XWB. Management had set the stage by explaining the weeks preceding the calendar was tense for "a very risky program."

In late September, Thomas Enders, CEO of Airbus, told the BBC: "We always start date for the final assembly of the first aircraft in late 2011. But there is no magic date. We learned a lesson simple enough for the A 380: it is useless to push sections of the aircraft on the assembly line if they are not ready. "

France will she run out of stones in 2030? The threat is real lack for material needed to build roads, homes and offices, according to the National Union of Aggregates (UNPG), who sounded the alarm in the spring.

This seems incongruous. With the crisis, sales of aggregates are indeed increased from 431,000 tons three years ago to 365,000 tonnes in 2010. "But over a long period, the annual consumption of the Hexagon is around 400 million tonnes, says Nicolas Vuillier, president of the UNPG. One kilometer of highway requires 30,000 tons of aggregates, construction of a hospital between 20,000 and 40,000 tons. But with environmental constraints, a lot of careers close.Today, there are still 2500, 5000 against fifteen years ago. "

This intensified competition among the three main French actors, groups BTP Vinci and Bouygues (through their subsidiary road, and Eurovia Colas, respectively), followed by building materials giant Lafarge. Eurovia built last year a turnover of 500 million euros, extracting 55 million tonnes of its French quarries.

The pebbles are attracting ever-increasing appetite, because this business can secure the supply of concrete for groups of building materials, and asphalt for road specialists. In addition, their operation is a high margin business. On average, operating income up 20% of their turnover. "Careers require a lot of investment grade Guy Vacher, Chief Operating Officer of Eurovia.

"What will happen if the people say no? The risk is that the international community shuts off the money and the country will eventually leave the euro. There is matter of serious concern investors, "said Christoph Weil for his part, an analyst at Commerzbank. As for the CM-CIC analysts, the referendum "opens a Pandora's box about the size of the losses to be borne by financial institutions."

At a time when Thiriet just walk on its turf, the company put more than ever on its local image no fax payday loans.

Creditor banks in Greece will have to accept losses "substantial" in the new bailout of the country, warned Saturday that the European Ministers of Finance. Last night, the central bankers of the euro zone had "agreed to say that we had to have a substantial increase in the contribution of banks" in the form of a depreciation of their claims, said the leader of European finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker.

• Discount of up to 60% of the Greek debt

According to diplomatic sources, the ministers agreed to effectively negotiate with the banks at a discount of "at least 50%" against a target of 21% decided on July 21 with the banking sector. They thus de facto endorsed the conclusions of an expert report which was presented by the troika of donor funds in Greece (EU, ECB and IMF).The paper believes that a discount of 50 or 60% hope to stabilize Greece without having to increase in the amount of gigantic international loans that have already been promised.

A "discount" is the term used in relation to the financial depreciation of the value of loans taken by creditors in this case private banks and investment funds that hold government debt. A discount of 50% borne by the private sector, the second program of financial support pledged July 21 to Greece, however, should be slightly revised upwards with government loans (Europe and IMF) to 114 billion euros, against 109 billion euros.To maintain the envelope of 109 billion euros unchanged, it would bring the discount to 60%, according to calculations by experts.

• Recapitalization of banks to the tune of 108 billion euros

The question is whether the banks that have so far dragged its feet to give the pot, will accept a negotiated settlement does not pass through a default of Greece. In return for the effort required on the Greek claims, there are plans to recapitalize banks in Europe. Following a meeting of EU finance ministers, this Saturday, in preparation for the summit Sunday, no agreement had been finalized on this point, due to the persistence of disputes.

"We have made some progress on the banks" and "we have laid the groundwork for an agreement" which will still be subject to "discussions between heads of state" and called for European governments to meet in summit Sunday said Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg. Countries of the European Union are considering a recapitalization of its banks to the tune of 107 or 108 billion euros to help them cope with the crisis, has also said a source familiar with the matter.

But according to European diplomats, "there is no agreement on the recapitalization, it gets stuck a little." According to one of these diplomatic sources, "Spain insists on having a comprehensive, not only on the recapitalization of banks but also on strengthening the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF)." On the other hand, "the ministers are trying to agree on the minimum capital."The European Banking Authority (EBA) has proposed that banks reach a level of capital of 9% by mid-2012. A diplomat acknowledged that some countries in the viewfinder of the markets, like Italy, Spain or Portugal, feared that the recapitalization will further undermine public finances.

• The Fund will not support a bank

Moreover, the French proposal to grant a banking license to the Fund support the euro area (EFSF) so he can refinance with the European Central Bank "is no longer on the table," said Minister Dutch Finance Jan Kees de Jager. Only two options are being discussed to increase the firepower of the device, he told reporters Saturday.These two tracks on the agenda now that the mechanism acts as a partial insurance of the public debt of countries in difficulty or higher participation of the IMF to the device, according to a German government source. But there is "significant differences between countries" on the issue, said Jan Kees de Jager.

How to leverage the capacity of the EFSF was the main sticking point between Berlin and Paris at the approach of the EU summit. France, worried about its budget deficit and are "triple AAA" prefer tap into the existing European funds, starting with the ECB. Germany, also sensitive to the separation of powers as inflation risks, refuses anything resembling a crisis by printing money in Europe.France was not only to advocate the involvement of the ECB, arguing that this system worked very well in the United States or Great Britain. She was supported by Spain, Italy or Belgium.

The European Relief Fund currently has a lending capacity of 440 billion euros, part of which is already committed for Ireland and Portugal. This envelope is considered insufficient to prevent contagion of the debt crisis in countries as large as Italy and Spain, increasingly in the firing line of credit rating agencies.European countries negotiate so hard for weeks on the best way, via a "leverage" to multiply by up to five response capacity of the Fund's financial debt of fragile countries.

(With agencies)

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Politicians and leaders of employers' organizations concerned regularly extinction risk of thousands of business for lack of buyers. Their fears are great, but it is impossible to quantify accurately the number of companies involved, lack of national statistics. "The market for the transfer of SMEs is opaque," said Gregory Bush, President of Epsilon Research, a consultancy specializing in financial analysis, acquisitions of unlisted companies in Europe.To better understand this market, Epsilon Research and National Society of mergers and acquisitions (CNCFA) created last year, a barometer of the transfer of SMEs in France.

The second edition of the barometer, which analyzes the SMEs employing between 20 and 249 employees and transactions with a value between 1 million and 50 million euros, the market potential is estimated at 4 130 SMEs on a total of 87,000. The SME market for family businesses in 2840 a total of 44,400. It consists of 710 transfers and 2,130 internal transmissions. For SMEs subsidiaries of large groups (42,670 businesses) in 1020 and 260 sales outlets LBO.

Rising prices

Direct consequence of the crisis, the market recorded transactions from the database professional has experienced sharp declines in 2008 and 2009.The value of transactions fell from 5 billion euros in 2007 to 2 instant personal loans guaranteed.1 billion in 2009. "The activity was slightly recovery in 2010 with a 7% increase in volume and 7.5% in value," says Gregory Buisson. The price of SMEs increased by 10% compared to 2009. However, the number of transactions, which had risen to 862 in 2007 was only 698 last year. LBO funds "were the only engine of the recovery," while industry groups have remained cautious in their procurement policy.

Purchasers of the euro area are the most active (35%) on the French market. They regained their 2003 level. Europeans outside the euro area, that is to say mainly the British, are increasing. North Americans are sharply down. They are at their lowest.Asians, who were increasingly active since 2002, are also down.

2011 will probably be a difficult year. The recovery in 2010 seems compromised. "According to preliminary figures, the market fell by 45% by volume in the first three quarters of 2011 compared to 2010," says Gregory Buisson. But the valuations of companies that are fit are high, thanks to the appetite of the funds.

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