Qatar continues its buying spree abroad, entering the capital of the British oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and considering a stake in Italy's ENI, according to news reports.
Last month, Qatar had already strengthened the capital of French Total to 3%.
A Shell spokesman confirmed Friday that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund bought shares in the group but did not say how much this participation rose.
The journal Middle East Economic Survey reported earlier that the Qatari sovereign wealth fund was "in very advanced discussions" to take 3% to 5% stake in Shell.
"We are delighted to welcome Qatar Investment Authority as a shareholder in major long term Shell, particularly in view of our excellent strategic relationship with Qatar," said a spokesman in a statement ;.
According to Reuters data, a 5% stake would make the emirate's largest shareholder Shell.
At the London Stock Exchange, Shell action progressed from 0.46% at 10:20 GMT when the European sector index of the energy lost 0.49%.
According to the Middle East Economic Survey, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is also in talks to take a stake in Italy's ENI. The group did not wish to comment.
Qatari sovereign wealth fund has been very active in recent years, taking stakes in various sectors ranging from automobile manufacturer Porsche at the British bank Barclays.
Qatar is among the top five shareholders and Total also holds interests in several other French companies, including Lagardère, Vinci and Veolia.
A Alelmand on two rather see Nicolas Sarkozy won the presidential election, a four qur Francois Hollande. Others do not care.
A German on two rather see Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidential election and 55% of Germans support the policy of fiscal austerity Angela Merkel, according to a poll published Friday. According to the survey published in the German daily Die Welt, the German answer to 50% "Sarkozy" to the question: "What French President, the German perspective, would be the best choice?".
Of those polled, only 24% cite Francois Hollande. Other (26%) do not know or are not interested in the subject. When asked what they think the appropriate policy in this time of crisis for the euro: "maintain a policy of fiscal austerity or launch programs for growth," 55% of respondents advocate rigor advocated by Chancellor Angela Merkel . Only 33% say they prefer growth programs.
The survey was conducted among a representative sample of 1,004 people between April 30 and May 1.
Atos confirmed Wednesday all its annual targets after completing the first quarter organic growth of 2.4% of its turnover, driven by outsourcing, Germany and UK.
The computer services company, whose main competitors are Accenture and Capgemini, confirms this year include a slight organic growth of its turnover from the level proforma 2011 and is operating margin 6.5% compared to 4.8% on a proforma basis in 2011.
"We have confirmation now for three quarters as Germany, Eastern Europe, Central and Northern and the United Kingdom are now vehicles for growth, and continue to register a level 'satisfactory business, "said Gilles joined, executive vice president of Atos, during a conference call.
He told Reuters an acceleration of the group's organic growth in the second half compared to the first. He stressed the unfavorable comparative weighing of the second quarter, which has more public holidays in 2011.
The group achieved first quarter sales of 2.163 million euros, driven by organic growth of 3.9% of its center outsourcing (IT outsourcing) representing 45% of the activity.
Growth in Germany and the UK, its two largest markets, are also more than offset declines in the Benelux and France, which however had a recovery "in step".
Accenture has on his side out at the end of March a good resistance to its business in Europe.
Closely watched indicator, the ratio of new orders to billings (book-to-bill) stood at 107%, with a backlog of 14.5 billion euros at March 31, or 1.7 year of sales.
Gilles joined Atos has also stated its continued "close discussions" with Thales and Orange, the social project of "cloud computing" was approved Friday by the French government.
He said this could be done via Canopy, the partnership announced in February with the U.S. EMC and VMware in this activity.
"Cloud computing" ("cloud") is to store data in supercomputers called servers, grouped by hundreds of thousands in large premises belonging mostly to large IT groups.
WORLDLINE CRUCIAL FOR ATOS
Gilles joined also wishes to continue developing its cluster electronic payments and secure transactions, which includes Atos Worldline.
Rumors had been circulating there for ten days on this division following a note from Morgan Stanley essentially assuming that the integration of SIS, the IT division acquired from Siemens, promised to die pledge more synergies.
Gilles joined observed that these were "comments outside the company."
Atos Worldline is a "major division" Atos, which will help the group reach its operating margin target of 7% to 8% by 2013, he said.
"We are a management that is not dogmatic," but added Gilles joined. "It is our duty by definition never exclude any option that could accelerate and support the further development of this activity in our company."
Atos also aims to achieve a cash flow of around 250 million euros in 2012, against 194 million in 2011 to support an increase in operating margin and a tighter control of investment and working capital needs.
The action Atos closed Tuesday down 1.57% to 20.04 euros, giving a market capitalization of 3.69 billion. She has returned 30% since the beginning of the year.
Volkswagen has further increased its stake in truck manufacturer MAN, as part of its planned merger of its two main activities of trucks.
The German automotive group now owns 73% of the shares of MAN and 71.08% of the total capital, MAN announced in a statement Friday.
Volkswagen previously held 55.9% of the voting rights and 53.71% stake.
VW wants to increase integration between MAN and Swedish Scania, he also controls, in order to save at least € 200 million in procurement, production and research and development.
In addition, the Wolfsburg group wants to encourage cooperation between the two truck manufacturers and its own activities to create vehicles capable of exceeding a set Daimler and Volvo.
Volkswagen holds 71.8% voting rights in Scania and 49.3% of its capital.
MAN has declined to comment, a spokesman for Volkswagen could not be immediately available for comment.
TPSA has renamed itself Orange before Poland hosts the Euro 2012 late June, hoping to compete with an integrated offering, said Thursday the CEO of the subsidiary of France T LECOM.
"Selling Orange and TPSA separately is not very sensible economically," he told Reuters Maciej Witucki. "Customers expect a bundle of four services, which is why it is better to sell them under one brand."
"Rename the brand was included in our 2012 budget and we confirm our objectives," he added. "It will be neutral on our EBITDA and we also confirm our objective of slowing the decline in revenues this year."
Free said Thursday a "huge success" for its mobile business launched earlier this year, but without giving the number of its subscribers, and promised to accelerate the deployment of its network, subject of much controversy.
The internet service provider has a spectacular entrance in January on the French market of mobile telephony with offers at bargain prices, forcing competitors to lower rates of part of their bids to try to stem the exodus of their subscribers.
The speculation is rife, since the number of subscribers attracted to entering the fourth, recently estimated at 1.5 million by the CEO of France Telecom.
The parent company, Iliad, does not figure in its earnings release issued on Thursday, making only a state of "tremendous success" commercial activity of its rolling the dice goal of the year.
The chief financial officer, Thomas Reynaud, said that the numerical results would be unveiled in May to mark the publication of first quarter figures.
At 10:04, the title earns 0.34% to 99.09 euros, while the sector index losing 0.2% in the same time.
The group led by Xavier Niel plans to accelerate deployment of its network in order to have 2,500 sites equipped by the end of the year, against a thousand now.
Nearly 250 million additional investment expected to be incurred in 2012, after more than 400 million euros last year, said Thomas Reynaud at an international ; Conference call.
In total, the group's investments jumped nearly 50% last year to 1.2 billion euros, largely as a result of deploying the new Freebox Revolution and the frequency acquisition "4G".
This sharp rise affected the free cash flow of the group that spring -413 000 000 euros for all of 2011 while net income excluding items declined 7% to 255 million.
Iliad has also released last year a turnover of 2.12 billion, up 4%, operating profit (EBITDA) of EUR 833 million ( also 4%), against 2.14 billion and 861.4 million euros expected on average, according to Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S.
For 2012, the focus group said a surge in sales with a growth of over 5% in the fixed without providing forecast figures for the mobile.
ACCELERATE THE DEPLOYMENT OF MOBILE NETWORK
Free Mobile has already upset the French telecom sector, only two months after its launch.
SFR has already said anticipating a decline of 12 to 15% of operating profit (EBITDA) this year while Bouygues Telecom expects a decline of 10% of its turnover.
France Telecom did not provide detailed forecast but also table for the whole group on a sharp decline in its operating cash flow from 2012 to 8,000,000,000 euros, and EBITDA of the incumbent is expected to decrease to one billion euros this year.
Stéphane Beyazian, analyst at Raymond James, said the mobile revenue per subscriber is expected to contract a third on average in the sector over the coming years. Nomura expects the bank for its part the result of operational activities of the three mobile incumbents expected to fall by 28% by 2015.
The launch of Free Mobile has however experienced some delays in the ignition. Some consumers have had to wait several days or weeks before receiving their SIM cards because of congestion of applications portability within the agency responsible for managing them.
The new entrant competitors were quick to question the proper functioning of its network and the controversy has been widely reported in the press.
Free Mobile has been charged off its branches to rest largely on the network of France Telecom, with whom he concluded a roaming agreement.
This series has led to many twists and turns of the policeman to lead a second telecommunications network inspection of Free Mobile, which demonstrated according to ARCEP, that it was meeting its commitments.
Thomas Reynaud acknowledged that about 90% of Free mobile traffic currently passing through the network of France Telecom, while stress that the network deployment of the fourth entrant in e ; silent still in its infancy.
"Our priority in 2012, is make up of mobile subscribers in the network and deploy as soon as possible", he said, adding that it was too early to say whether the group should pay more than a billion euros initially planned as part of the roaming agreement concluded for six years with France Telecom.
The tender rate to ten years back below 3%
France has raised a total of 9.479 billion euros, when issued to Treasury bonds (OATs) due 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2026, announced Monday the Agence France Trésor in a statement.
This is the third award in the long run of the year. On the line OAT 4.25% maturing October 25, 2017, tenders served primarily by the Treasury (ONC) totaled 233 million euros, bringing the total of the auction to 1.058 billion euros at weighted average rate of 1.91% against 2.42% in the last similar operation on 1 December.
On the line at 3.75% maturing October 25, 2019, the ONC totaled € 343 million bringing the total amount of ajdudication to 1.593 billion euros at weighted average rate of 2.48%. AFT does not provide a comparison on this line.
On the line at 3.00% maturing April 25, 2022, the ONC totaled 620 million euros, bringing the total of the tendering procedure to 4.535 billion euros at weighted average rate of 2.91% against 3.13% in the last similar operation on December 2.
On the line at 3.50% maturing April 25, 2026, the ONC totaled 292 million bringing the total of the auction to 2.293 billion euros at weighted average rate of 3.30% against 3.65 % in the comparable operation on 1 December. Regulation of these four lines will take place March 6.
EDF Group and Italian utilities A2A Thursday announced an extension until December 30 of the shareholders in Edison, the second electrical Italy, which the French group tries to take control through negotiation .
This new extension of a pact that came to an end Wednesday comes a month after an agreement on the principles of the reorganization of Edison, after several months of fruitless discussions that have long stumbled on valuation issues but also " patriotism "economy.
A2A, which leads the consortium of Italian shareholders engaged in discussions with EDF, had said Monday that the deadline for concluding the negotiations could be delayed until Christmas.
If final agreement on industrial restructuring and shareholder of Edison, EDF had its way by taking operational control of the Italian group, heavily indebted, with the stated objective to improve its performance but also to use it as basis for developing its gas business.
If the French electrician did not detail the agreement on Edison, A2A said last month that the new reorganization of the company would leave the core of Italian shareholders 31% stake in EDF and 50%.
The head of state Friday defended its commitment to nuclear and again criticized the agreement between the PS and EELV, which he said would cost 125 billion euros. Nicolas Sarkozy defended the nuclear industry in France during his visit to the nuclear Tricastin then the site of the uranium enrichment plant Areva to Pierrelatte, Friday, November 25, 2011.
Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that the agreement signed between socialists and environmentalists to reduce the share of nuclear energy amounted to a "destruction of the nuclear industry", in a speech in a factory in the French nuclear group Areva."It is not meant to start a simple reflection on the diversification of our nuclear power but to prepare, simply, an output of France's nuclear," said the French president, as part a trip to the uranium enrichment plant Areva Pierrelatte (Drôme, southern France). "How fresh take on the proposal to close 24 reactors and refrain from building new ones, if not the destruction of the industry," he added.
He for his part stressed his commitment to the industry. "Our fleet ensures our independence," he said. "I will not bear to leave thousands of homes by the weight of a decision that is purely ideological. I have no intention of selling out the legacy of those who came before us.
Eleven departments will experience from December the requirement for recipients of RSA to work seven hours a week. Explanations. EMPLOYEES ON A prepares the packages in a warehouse of the Food Bank in Strasbourg
During his visit to Bordeaux on the topic of social fraud, Tuesday, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that the government would try by the end of an obligation to work seven hours a week for RSA recipients. The trial balloon launched by Laurent Wauquiez spring has come into effect. The leader of the Social Right UMP, Minister of Higher Education, denounced in May the "cancer of the assistantship." Among his proposals to "treat this disease," he called to make the beneficiaries of RSA five hours of social work per week, for free.The idea has generated considerable controversy, but has found support among the electorate to the right.
Nicolas Sarkozy has instructed Marc-Philippe Daubresse to make proposals. The former minister of Active Solidarity, now Secretary General of the UMP, has taken over the idea of working a few hours each week recipients of the RSA, for a fee this time. And an objective "to offer a range of broader assisted contracts and respond to difficulties in accessing the labor market," said Marc-Philippe Daubresse. In six months, the UMP has made a major shift in meaning: it is no longer stigmatize the "profiteers" of national solidarity, but to sort of "homework" to "rights", according to the words of Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday.
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