Carrefour, which announced results in line with its forecasts in the first half, on Tuesday confirmed its guidance for full year 2010 thanks to the dynamism in emerging countries, while expressing disappointment in the sales of July .
The number two worldwide in distribution, after Wal-Mart, reported a net profit of 82 million for the first six months of the year against a loss a year earlier.
Its operating profit stood at 1.096 billion euros over the period, according to the prediction of Carrefour in mid-July.
The group at the same time reiterated that it was an ordinary profit of 3.1 billion for all 2010.
"We are on track to achieve our 2010 targets," said Lars Olofsson, Executive Director of Carrefour, at a conference presentation of results.
"We're quite pleased with the sales in July, a little disappointed by sales cons of August, for his part said Pierre Bouchut, the group finance director of distribution, during a conference call. "The trend in emerging markets remains strong."
Around 9:50, after having opened down nearly 2%, the action Carrefour did not yield more than 0.3% to 36.00 euros.She is spending time in positive territory for the sole and increasing value within the CAC 40 index.
Since the beginning of the year, the title was up over 7%.
"The first half is in line with forecasts of July 15, 2010 target is unchanged and our point of view, (Crossroads, Ed) is a title" on hold "with a value greater than in the rest of the industry "said Justin Scarborough, analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland.
NO COMMENTS ON THE ASIAN ASSETS
Over the half, Carrefour has benefited from the dynamism of emerging economies to reach a turnover up 6% to 41.3 billion euros, offsetting a contraction in sales in Europe, mainly France, Belgium, Spain and Italy, as well as in other countries of southern Europe such as Greece or Romania.
Sales fell 0.4% in France and 3.1% in the rest of Europe. At constant exchange rates, they climbed 16% in Latin America and 8.9% in Asia.
The group, which seeks to save 4.5 billion euros over three years to improve its margins, also points to have reduced its costs by 236 million euros in the first half of the year, a target of 500 million euro per 2010.
Asked about the Asian assets of the group, Pierre Bouchut has refused to comment on reports about a possible sale of assets Malaysian, Thai and Singaporean group.
"We do not comment on such rumors," said the CFO.'Our goal is to build on certain markets and, over time, probably, to take the decision to abandon certain other markets. "
"At what point will we take this decision? Will we really?" Everything remains open, "he added.
According to several sources, Carrefour tries to sell its assets in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore to focus its efforts on China and India.
This could generate some 800 million euros in the French distributor.
PTT, Thailand first group in the energy sector, has already expressed interest in taking over the assets in Thailand.
Sanofi-Aventis is planning acquisitions in the United States, including one or two that could cost him at least $ 15 billion, told Reuters a source familiar with the matter.
Speculation that laboratories such as Biogen, Genzyme and Allergan may be targets of the French pharmaceutical group drove up the price of these companies at the NYSE.
In the afternoon in New York, the action took 4.4% Biogen, Genzyme 5% and 6% with Allergan stock market valuations of approximately 13 billion, 13.5 billion and 18 billion dollars respectively.
The Board of Directors of Sanofi met in Paris this week and discussed several options for acquisitions, but no decision has been taken on potential targets, said the source told Reuters.
The latter, which is not authorized to speak to reporters, spoke on condition of anonymity.
In turn, a spokesman for Sanofi, the world number six from the pharmacy, simply stated that "the group's policy is to not comment on market rumors."
The Bloomberg had initially reported that Sanofi was preparing to acquire a U.S. company worth at least $ 20 billion.
GOOD STRATEGIC DECISION
Faced with competition from generic drugs, the group is actively looking for potential targets, which should enable it to find new sources of growth.
"In the big pharmaceutical companies, everyone is watching and there are whole departments that work on potential acquisitions," says Thierry Verrecchia, analyst at Raymond James.
The acquisition of a U.S. biotech is an excellent strategic decision, observed Fabian Wenner, an analyst at UBS.
"They need essentially biological expertise in antibodies," he says, adding that, therefore, Biogen and Allergan may be on the radar screen of Sanofi, while Amgen Bristol-Myers Squibb or appear to be too large pieces to swallow for French.
Sanofi announced Wednesday the acquisition of American TargeGen for some 560 million dollars (458.5 million euros), an operation designed to strengthen the group's positions in oncology.
The title Sanofi closed Friday at 47.06 euros, down 2.42%, giving a market capitalization of nearly 61.7 billion euros. The action has underperformed the DJ Stoxx sector index (-1.17%) and the CAC 40 (+0.25%). She has lost 12% since the beginning of the year.
"The share price decline as investors worried about the price. But if the acquisition was accretive, it would not be that bad," observes Fabian Wenner.
The Icelandic economy is technically out of recession but the risk remains and the financial sector is still subject to uncertainty after a court decision on loans related to exchange rates, said the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF said it expected that the recovery of the Icelandic economy takes its momentum through the rest of the year, but said a decision by the Supreme Court of the country presented a number of risks .
"The stability of the system is not in jeopardy because of the coverage of government guarantees," said Mark Flanagan, Director of the IMF mission in Iceland.
"However, the decision (on loans) could have an impact on public finances, the pace of liberalization of capital control and other aspects of the program."
The highest Icelandic court ruled June 16 that some loans related to exchange rates of foreign currencies were illegal. Borrowers would therefore have no obligation to repay the principal of their loans as the Icelandic currency.
This decision poses a risk that creditors may large losses for the Irish crown plunged after the collapse of the Icelandic banking system there nearly two years.