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Always on the lookout, Bright Food is poised to finally put one foot in Europe. The Chinese group was confirmed Thursday it had made an offer for 60% stake in British Weetabix, now owned by Lion Capital. The London private equity funds would retain control of 40% of the group, famous for its breakfast cereals. Bright offers itself as a brand and a story. Founded eighty years ago, "Weetabix has an excellent product portfolio, starting with the famous brand Weetabix, but also more upscale brands like (muesli) Alpen," said Wang Zongnan, president of Bright Food . The group promises to its target development in Asia and China.

The group's offer would value the Chinese company in Europe to 1.5 billion euros, according to Bright. Still subject to approval by Chinese authorities, the transaction should be finalized before the end of the year. Wang Zongnan has not hidden, in recent years, its ambition to increase its sales to nearly 18 billion euros in 2015, against 9.6 billion last year, 30% would be realized abroad. So he put on one of its upscale brands and international development.

Created in 2006 by the authorities of Shanghai in full effort of industry consolidation, Bright Food is present in milk, snacks, wine or sweets. The conglomerate, which is a shareholder of Shanghai Municipality, is virtually unknown outside its borders except for his white candy White Rabbit, the texture of fudge.

And his Chinese passport seems sometimes penalize its attempts to internationalize. In 2010, he has successively acquired the Australian sugar and CSR of United Biscuit Manufacturer – UK too – of Choco BN. He lost to a competitor Singapore for the first and threw in the towel for the second American to win the GNC, a manufacturer of nutritional supplements and other vitamins. In vain again.

Market access to China

In early 2011, Bright was a close interest in Yoplait, while seeking a buyer. His first offer was even more generous. But it is the American General Mills prevailed. Last summer, Bright is however managed to buy 75% of the Australian Manassen.

Today the rich Chinese group is continuing its efforts and hopes to interest foreigners with an attractive and access to the huge Chinese market. China has already overtaken the U.S. as the first grocery market in the world, with 737 billion euros in turnover. The steady rise in living standards and further changes in eating habits still promise a bright future for industry players in the Middle Kingdom.

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Research in Motion (RIM) launched Operation Last Chance. The Canadian group yesterday presented a prototype of the interface it wants to develop its next smartphone called BlackBerry 10, scheduled for the end of the year. Great break with previous phones brand, there will be more keyboard, the main element that differentiated the BlackBerry of its major rivals.

RIM programmers gathered in Orlando, Florida for its annual meeting and gave them the prototype of its operating system so that they begin to develop compatible applications. A specific series of video games is also being prepared by the publisher Gameloft.

The group, which saw sales of its BlackBerry decline from 25% last quarter, hopes its new interface will help him return to the market to compete with the leaders, Apple – former direct rival of RIM today ahead – and Samsung phones side, and operating systems, Apple and Google holding 80% market share.

The new RIM will also be used by the tablet group, Playbook, whose sales have failed to take off since its launch. Models include the keyboard will continue, also, to be produced.

The announcement of the Canadian group has in any case, not to enthusiastic markets. The action of RIM fell 5% on Tuesday afternoon in Toronto.

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"Te koop," panels "for sale" are hung at the windows of apartments in Rotterdam as those of great houses in Het Gooi, privileged region of local stars. "On average, a rest house for sale 159 days, 80 days against five years ago: the number of properties for sale has doubled, while prices continue to fall," said Roeland Kimman, spokesman for the NVM.

The first quarter of 2012 was the worst since 2008. The number of transactions fell by 15.6% over the last quarter of 2011. During the same period, the average price of a property fell 2.8%. In April, the fall was even 4.7% over one month. "Buyers are desperately short of confidence," says Eduard Vaandrager, agent in Keizerskroon Makelaars in Amsterdam.

Lower prices undermines consumer confidence, which weighs on consumption. The government attempted to revive the market by lowering the tax on property sales from 6% to 2%. In vain. "To stabilize the market, we should reform the estate tax credit," said Peter Boelhouwer, housing expert at the University of Delft. Arrested in France, Great Britain, Sweden and Norway this grant does not exist in Germany. "In the Netherlands, this has driven prices in the 1990s and early 2000. This is an expensive item – € 9 billion per year – but nobody dares to touch it, because 58% of Dutch owners are, "says the specialist.

Risk loans

Apparently favorable first-time buyers, this grant supports the richest: "Consider a person who borrows at 5% for a house of 600,000 euros. If it is in the tax bracket higher, it may deduct 52% of his monthly payments of taxes and pay only 15,000 euros per year, "says Eduard Vaandrager.

Despite the crisis, the government decided to maintain the subsidy, so as not to accelerate the fall in prices. But it now requires borrowers to repay their loan in 30 years maximum. This concludes a series of mortgages, that only allow full reimbursement of the loan and the sale of the property.

Comfortable in times of rising prices, borrowing against the value of the property become very dangerous when prices fall. "If the owner can not sell his property at the agreed price with the bank, he finds himself with a very large debt," says Ivo Arnold, a professor at the Erasmus School of Economics. As a result, owners waive sale. "Thank goodness that there has been no speculation, as in Spain!" Says Peter Boelhouwer.

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Our Berlin correspondent Continuing uncertainties related to the euro crisis will not prevent the German economy to continue its momentum insolent. The five major economic research institutes across the Rhine released Thursday of predictions on the rise: they are forecasting growth of gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.9% this year, against 0.8% previously, and anticipate a accelerated growth of around 2% in 2013.

In their spring report, institutes, very famous in Germany and analyze which twice a year the country's economic health, expect a 3.1% rise in exports for 2012 and a further increase of 5.1% exports next year.

According to experts, the debt crisis, however, continue in the coming year to weigh heavily on several partners from Germany within the European Union. The measured optimism is thus based on export growth in Asia, the U.S. and in emerging countries.

Divisions on the role of the ECB

As in 2011, domestic consumption should also support strong growth. Institutes predict an increase in domestic consumption of 0.9% for the current year and 1.3% in 2013. It should rely heavily on investments in housing construction, up 2.3% in 2012 and 5% next year, according to these forecasts.

The Germans, who fear that their savings melt due to the risks of inflation in the euro area, are turning increasingly to the housing market, which has risen significantly in recent months.

Result: unemployment should continue to decline, but at a more measured pace. The number of unemployed is forecast at 2.6 million annual average for 2012. End of 2010, the number of unemployed had risen in the symbolic three million, for the first time since German reunification.

The five major German economic institutes have confessed their divisions on the role of the European Central Bank (ECB), in a report that contrasts with the usual image of a Germany grimly determined by monetary policy. They note in particular that the ECB faces a "dilemma" because governments have so far "rested on the assumption that the ECB will always take over in case of need." Some will see a rally in the implicit position of France, which advocates a more active role of the ECB.

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"We know what's wrong and we know how we will fix it." Philip Clarke, Tesco's boss for a year, has compiled a table Wednesday uncompromising problems that led the UK's leading retailers' bottom of the escalator. " As at Carrefour, what are the activities of the brand in its home market, the UK, who sin the most. For the first time in twenty years, profits in the country decreased (- 1%), offset by an increase of 18% of profits abroad. More worryingly, sales at comparable areas (excluding new stores) fell 1.6% in the last quarter, yielding market share to competition. "A year which can not be proud," the president lashes.

After thanking the boss of UK operations, Philip Clarke resumed them live. In shirtsleeves and red tie, like the logo of his sign, the native of Liverpool who has spent his entire career at Tesco, where he began putting teen-shelf, announced a plan to invest 1 billion pounds (1.2 billion) to revive the case.

Stores gray and poorly maintained, frequent breaks in radius, fresh products that are not always too high prices, inadequate staffing and unhelpful … Consumers have taken a dislike Tesco, which was regarded as, ten years ago, a model followed for all major retailers.

While sales of magazines fell 3.1% in France last year, according to OJD, a jury of press and publicity on Wednesday unveiled the list of the "Best Magazine of the Year "organized by the Press Union Magazine (SPM). This tenth edition awarded it (in the "Ten Years of Success"), The Express ("hit" journalism), Geo (media brand), GQ (application for tablet) and The Good Life (innovation), a bimonthly masculine "lifestyle" launched last October by Lawrence White, the founder of Ideat. Paris Match, one of the flagship titles of Lagardère Active, a leading news magazine in France that she also edits or Tele 7 Jours, was named "Magazine of the Year".

The jury praised the fairness of treatment by the media weekly highlights of 2011 (Arab spring, tsunami in Japan, weddings …) with a "constant quality editorial and photographic." "This award recognizes the work to densify our editorial offer (…) and the professionalism of a team engaged in all fields of news," said Edward Minc, editor of the news division of Lagardère Active.

United front of national press info

It's The Point who won the award last year. Among the families of magazines, it is also general news headlines (Paris Match, Le Figaro Magazine, World Magazine …) and "news" (Le Nouvel Observateur, L'Express, Le Point, Marianne … ) that have best withstood the erosion of broadcast in 2011, falling by respectively 0 paydayloans.55% and 0.76%, according to the latest release of the Observatory of OJD published on March 22.

Although the editors were at the party at this annual event that promotes the vitality of the media magazine, Lesouëf Bruno, president of PMS and CEO of the Lagardère Active magazine, did not fail to recall " difficulties of the logistics sector and trade "sector. Thinly veiled allusion to the fragility of current NMPP, the first distributor of the press in France, near "breaking point", he said. He called for "general mobilization" and "solidarity" among publishers, stating the proposed merger between PMS and Professional Union of magazines and opinion (SPPMO), chaired by François Orcival ( current values), "engaged on a concrete project, governance, a roadmap and timetable."

The union of the national daily press (SPQN) could support this initiative as part of a new "national press association of political and general information," said Bruno Lesouëf. "We experimented in the past, at our expense, the dispersion of the representation of magazine publishers. Let us draw the consequences for upcoming deadlines, "he pleaded.

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Experts have not yet returned their verdict about the seriousness of the situation on the gas platform of Total in the North Sea. But analysts have already whipped out their calculators and trying to measure the cost of the incident for Total and stakeholders. The range of estimates is very wide: it extends to the French oil group, 150 million dollars (113 million) to $ 10 billion (7.5 billion euros) in case of explosion of the platform.

In all cases, it appears that the bill implied $ 16 billion (12 billion euros), deduced from the fall of Total shares on the stock market, is largely overestimated, says Societe Generale. "A loss of over $ 7 billion (5.3 billion euros) for Total (which holds 46.2% of the platform) seems particularly severe," wrote analyst Societe Generale. The impact on production will remain relatively moderate and the final cost in a worst case scenario hardly exceed the amount implied by the Exchange.

150 to 200,000,000 dollars

To try to guess what the final bill of the incident, calculate how much is the cessation of production from the platform evacuated Sunday at midday. According to CM-CIC Securities, the daily loss would rise between 10 and 15 million. "For Total, one can estimate a minimum cost of 150 to 200 million dollars in the best case (limited to two weeks off) or even more if the situation were to persist for several months' advance CM-CIC Securities. The shutdown could last from six months to a year, according to various analysts. An official of Total recognized that blockage could last up to six months.

$ 10 billion in case of explosion

The bill also depends on the solution proposed to solve the crisis. Exane BNP Paribas, estimated that operators of the platform may have to dig two relief wells, each costing about $ 44 million (33 million) direct payday lenders. Remains a possible explosion on the platform would jump costs for operators. The bill could reach 7.5 billion according to analysts at BofA Merrill Lynch. This amount includes the loss of deposits and the platform (about 2.8 billion euros) and nearly $ 1.5 billion to clean up environmental damage, but excludes any fines.

Analysts agree on one point: this incident, which involves gas and not oil, will not scale environmental or financial cost of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The operator of the platform involved in this disaster, the oil BP, had to set aside $ 37.2 billion (24 billion euros).

Between 100 and 200 million pounds less for Crown

Stopping exploitation of the Elgin platform in the North Sea could also have an impact on … tax revenues of His Majestys. "If the site remains closed door for six months, this could result in a revenue loss of between 100 and 200 million pounds (119 and 238.4 million euros)," David has calculated Tinsley, an economist at BNP Paribas . This amount, compared to 43 billion pounds collected by the British state in 2011, does not include any costs of cleanup. The invoice is not limited to the tax shortfall. British production, already amorphous, could also be slowed, says the analyst, who concluded that the country's growth could even be reduced by 0.05% in the second quarter.

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After the Millers last week, it was the turn of the manufacturers of dry dog ​​and cat to be sanctioned by the Competition Authority. In a country of 8 million dogs and 10 million cats, groups Nestle (Purina), March (Royal Canin) and Colgate-Palmolive (Hill's Pet Nutrition) were sentenced to pay 35.3 million euros for cartel with their wholesalers.

According to the sages of the Rue de l'Echelle, Nestle and Mars agreed for five years (2004-2008) with their wholesalers, who then sold their stores croquettes (BHV Jardiland, Leroy Merlin, Truffaut …).

The two market leaders have imposed their resale prices, exclusive territorial or customer, thus limiting competition between them. Royal Canin had already been convicted in 2005 by Constable competition.

As for the subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive, she has arranged with its veterinary wholesalers to ban the export of its products outside the Hexagon.

If Nestlé and Mars are the most heavily penalized (19 and 11.6 million fine), they nevertheless benefited from reductions of approximately 20% penalty for not contesting the facts. They also set up compliance programs to competition rules. Finally, they reorganized their distribution system and p

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Organic products seem immunized against the crisis. Last year, sales were nearly $ 4 billion euros, an increase of at least 10%, as estimated by the Bio Agency. A sacred performance. Over the same period, sales of consumer products (food and hygiene products) have indeed stagnated in volume, and increased by only 3% in value.

Despite prices 20% to 50% higher, organic products, which represent less than 2% of the food market, continue to attract consumers. However, they are less likely to try the bio. In 2011, 40% of French reported consuming at least once a month for organic products, when they were 43% in 2010 and 46% in 2009, according to a survey by the CSA institute. "In a crisis, the curiosity of consumers is less, recognizes Elizabeth Mercier, Director of the Agency Bio. But market growth in 2008, the year of crisis, was 25% and 19% by volume. " In contrast, 18% of those who consume at least one organic product a week they intend to increase their intake this year. "This allows us to expect a further growth of organic products in 2012," said Elisabeth Mercier.

More visibility on the shelf

"The potential of new consumer stays there, half the French having no problem purchasing power," said Didier Perreol, group president Ekibio (Priméal, Bisson, My life without gluten?), Which states that Organic consumers are mostly from the wealthier classes.

"The market continues to grow as a supply effect contributes mechanically to increased purchases," says Isabelle Senand, author of a study on the bio for Xerfi. This is the result of the number of openings specialized brands (Naturalia Biocoop, La Vie Claire?), Pioneer of organic and enlargement of the assortment in supermarkets and hypermarkets. Today, 10% of milk sales are conducted in organic section, over 15% of sales? Eggs but only 6% of sales of fruits and vegetables. Last year, innovations in the organic section have increased among the national brands, ham Fleury Michon Pom'Potes Materne to Mont Blanc.

"The distributors have established themselves in this market with their brands and national brands, explains Isabelle Senand. All signs now have their own organic brand, which is largely the democratization of the market. "

The price gap has in fact reduced in grocery, fruit and vegetables or dairy products. "In five years, our prices are down 15% due to higher volumes, which allowed us to increase productivity," says Daniel Tirat, CEO of two cows, the brand of organic yogurt from Danone, the second mark market.

In three years, the market for organic fresh dairy products has doubled to 100 million euros. "We are in a logical recruitment of consumers, two thirds of our buyers who have never eaten organic yogurt, adds Daniel Tirat, which will test next month at Monoprix sales of butter and cream The two cows. We need the bio is even more visible rays. "

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Committee for the Six Nations, the puzzle of the new date of the France-Ireland postponed last Saturday, should be completed tonight. This is not the case of French Rugby Federation (FFR), she also faces the unpleasant consequences of the postponement at the last minute of the match on the second day of the Six Nations tournament.

And for good reason: about 78,000 spectators, with the majority of them paid for their seats, were present in the stands Saturday night. In addition to travel expenses and accommodation, went up in smoke, they had paid to enter the Stade de France between 36 and 110 euros for the major shows of European rugby. "The general conditions of sale do not provide reimbursement for these tickets, it says in the FFR. However, the different parts (FFR, insurance, Consortium Stade de France …) studying the subject and the possibility of compensating the injured fans the most. " If the hypothesis of simple reimbursement of tickets for spectators unable to return seemed logical at first glance, it is not acquired at all.

Necessarily financial compensation pa

If the game is postponed from this Sunday, it will be difficult for the FFR, lack of time to fill the shortfall by the potential resale of tickets redeemed. In the event that the Committee of Six Nations would choose the date of March 3, the leeway to the FFR to re-market these tickets would be wider … and could therefore support the decision of any reimbursement, in whole or part , tickets. The Federation also confirms that no final decision will be taken before choosing the new date, but an official communication will be made on the site of the FFR, when setting the terms of any repayment online payday loans. It also emphasizes the study of "compensation, not necessarily financial supporters the most affected." In case of default, there are still more likely that the fans away from Paris trying to resell their tickets on the black market.

A weekend in 1000 euros for two

In addition to sporting disappointment, the financial damage is also for fans of rugby. Mainly for the fans from the south-west, but especially Ireland. For the latter, the cost of the weekend in Paris often resort to over 1000 euros for two people.

Another player injured by this fiasco: France Televisions. Often questioned, as her sisters, to put pressure on the maintenance of programming events to large audiences, the public broadcaster said, however, have fought to advance the game in 15 hours. Without success. Cost of operation: 130,000 euros, according to Daniel Bilalian, sports director of France Televisions.

Finally, in the Stade de France, the loss is more difficult to assess. According to the task, the final match between France and Italy on February 4 was generated € 1.5 million profit, and a recipe for 300,000 euros for the FFR. The France-Ireland being postponed, not canceled, the loss on the sale of products, beverages and other sandwiches should be controlled.

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