BBVA, Spain's second largest bank, announced Thursday a 34.8% drop in net profit in 2011 as a result of provisions for impairment of its property assets and exceptional charge .
Its net income amounted to three billion euros, a result set back from the expectations of 3.18 billion, according to a Reuters poll of 11 analysts from financial.
The amount of its bad loans declined slightly to 4% of all of its claims, against 4.1% in September.
Carrefour Friday categorically denied press reports suggesting the replacement of its CEO Lars Olofsson, but according to a source familiar with the matter, George Plassat, Vivarte boss, has been recently approached and declined the proposal.
Georges Plassat, CEO of owner signs Andre Minelli or Kookai, was approached by the shareholders of Carrefour and declined the offer this month, said the source told Reuters.
"It has been proposed and he said 'no'.It was during November, "said the source.
"There is still no candidate to succeed Lars Olofsson."
Le Figaro wrote in its Friday edition that George Plassat was approached to lead Carrefour.
"It is courted for months by the main shareholders of Carrefour," the newspaper said.
"He refused the post of CEO before the summer because it was hard to find a successor to lead Vivarte (…) More and more interested in a challenge to his position, George Plassat has not closed yet the door to negotiations. On the contrary, "continued the newspaper.
The major shareholders of Carrefour are the fund Colony Capital and Groupe Arnault, the family holding company LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.
The European Commission estimates that the pooling of borrowing countries in the euro area could quickly alleviate the current crisis. The counterpart would be a strengthening of fiscal discipline. The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso (here at a press conference in Brussels April 13, 2011)
The European Commission Wednesday will propose the creation of eurobonds, a system seen by its promoters as a means of achieving sustainable solutions to the debt crisis, but that divides Europeans and has as its corollary a strengthening of fiscal discipline. In a "Green Paper" seen by AFP, the European Commission considers that this pooling of borrowing countries in the euro area could "rapidly reduce" the current crisis.
Antonio Borges, director of the Europe Department International Monetary Fund (IMF), has resigned with immediate effect, the Fund announced Wednesday, while the euro area hit by the debt crisis for over eighteen months.
The IMF notes that the Director General intends to appoint Christine Lagarde Reza Moghadam, Director of the current strategy to succeed Borges, effective Thursday.
This decision was welcomed by analysts who see a clear change of policy that could result in greater IMF involvement in the management of sovereign debt crisis that threatens to plunge the world economy into recession.
Geniki Bank, a subsidiary of Societe Generale, said on Tuesday doubled its losses during the period from January to September over the same period of 2010 due to significant loan loss provisions and write-downs of bonds.
The Greek bank, purchased by his French counterpart in 2004, lost 617.8 million euros in the first nine months of the year after losing 304.1 million euros the previous year.
"The deteriorating economic environment has had a negative effect on the quality of our loan portfolio and, therefore, our provisions amounted to 377.2 million euros over the period," said the bank.
Geniki also reported a depreciation of 230.1 million euros in its portfolio of Greek government bonds.
The Greek economy is expected to contract 5.5% this year and the country will register a new recession in 2012, due to stringent fiscal austerity measures taken by the government, while unemployment is 16.3% of the labor force.
The loan portfolio of the Greek bank fell by 14% to 3.01 billion euros.
The participation of the General Society in the capital of Geniki increased from 53.9% to 88.4% in November following an appeal for 340 million euros to strengthen the equity of the bank.
Ryanair said Monday it has increased by 10% its profit forecast for 2011-2012, the high fuel costs to be offset by higher revenue per passenger per kilometer.
The first airline to European low-cost, which reported a quarterly taxable income above expectations, said not having seen virtually no impact of the decline in consumer confidence.
The Irish company added, however, she anticipated a decline in traffic in the coming months due to his decision to nail to the ground some aircraft in response to the high cost of kerosene.
Of the three months to September, the taxable income stood at 404 million euros against an average forecast of six analysts polled by Reuters de393 million.
Lufthansa and International Airline Group (IAG) both announced last week the results strongly affected by rising fuel costs.
The top leaders of the euro area was completed last night. It provides for a discount of 50% of Greece's debt and strengthening of the EFSF to 1,000 billion euros. The details. The European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel in Brussels.
The top of the eurozone, which ended in the night between Wednesday and Thursday led to a series of measures to resolve the crisis, including the deletion of 50% of the Greek debt to private creditors and the strengthening of the Fund stability in the euro area.Here are the details of decisions taken by all European leaders.
A discount of Greek debt to 50%
Banks and private equity funds that hold Greek debt have agreed to voluntarily relinquish 50% of their claims on the national debt by 2020: specifically, from January 2012, they will exchange their debt obligations Greek against others whose value will be halved. This represents a deletion of 100 billion euros of Greek debt, currently at 350 billion euros. Fund stability in the euro area (EFSF) will bring to these private creditors 30 billion euros in guarantees on these new claims.The plan of 109 billion euros in public aid (EU and International Monetary Fund) for Greece decided on July 21 is replaced by another, amounting to 100 billion euros, until 2014, who s will accompany closely monitored by the creditors of the implementation of reforms required in the country. Athens will have to find 15 billion to reduce its debt through privatization.
Recapitalized banks to the tune of 106 billion euros
Hard equity banks (equity capital and retained earnings) will reach 9% "30 June 2012." To achieve this, "banks will have to appeal primarily to sources of private capital." Until this objective, "the banks should be subject to some constraints on the distribution of dividends and payment of premiums."The European Banking (ABB) was evaluated Wednesday at 106 billion recapitalization needs, which will involve 70 schools. Greek banks are the most concerned (30 billion) before the Spanish banks (26.16 billion) and Italy (14.77 billion).
The EFSF increased up to 1000 billion
The EFSF, currently has a capacity of loan of 440 billion euros, will reach a strike force of about 1,000 billion. Two mechanisms should complement each other for this purpose. The first will be to ensure some of the potential losses of private investors when they buy government bonds on the primary market. The other is to create one or more special funds (special purpose vehicles) to attract outside investors private or public, as emerging markets.The text mentions, without elaborating, "an even closer cooperation with the International Monetary Fund."
The ECB may continue to buy back debt
The governments of the euro area may have to count on the role of the ECB firefighter to support fragile states such as Italy and Spain. Its future president, Mario Draghi, has promised to continue to do so if necessary.
Golden Rules of generalized
The golden rules of a balanced budget will be generalized. Among the measures to strengthen fiscal discipline common EU monetary figure "the adoption by each Member State of rules on passing a balanced budget the Stability and Growth in the legislation, preferably at the constitutional level or equivalent end of 2012, "the statement said.
Highs in the euro area generalized
Highs in the euro area will be held twice a year.They will be chaired, at least initially, by the President of the EU, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy. A change in the EU treaty is considered.
The option of separate market activities and those of major European banks of deposit will be thinking in Europe, announced Thursday the EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, without going so far as to directly question the universal banking model.
This model, championed by French banks BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole and its major European competitors, is already under pressure in the United States and several European countries, like Great Britain.
"The logic is to identify risks and to face risks at the right level, adequate safeguards," said Michel Barnier at a press conference.
"Is it necessary to go further and move from the segregation of risk and prudential measures to separation, as I see in the report suggest Vickers in the UK or as the Americans wanted to do?"
"I'm not closed to the idea of separation (…) Before going further, I want us to objectively verify all the advantages of separation and the negative effects this could have," he said.
He then observed that the universal banking model, which predominates in Europe, played no role in triggering the financial crisis in 2008 and, in the same way, no model of the Atlantic had not preserved the United States in this crisis.
European officials working on these topics were then clarified that the Commission would not go head on universal banking model but would seek to ensure that the risks inherent in the business market are treated "totally sealed "to protect the activities of deposit.
THE CENTER OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
In France, the idea of separation of deposit banks and investment banks – or at least a separation of these types of activities – already among the themes of the presidential campaign.
It is defended not only by the Socialist Party, favorite in the polls, and the left parties but also, on the other side of the political spectrum, the National Front.
The project of the PS in 2012 and states that "we must return to a strict distinction and separation of banking activities of deposit and financial activities," an orientation also defended by the candidate Francois Hollande.
Two of his relatives, former Economy Minister Michel Sapin and the chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, Jérôme Cahuzac, recently told Reuters support the separation of deposit banks and investment..
French banks, supported by the Bank of France, for their part do not want to hear about this separation.
François Villeroy de Galhau, the network manager at BNP Paribas France had declared the end of September that such a separation would have been of no help when the financial crisis of 2008.
He wanted to show that Northern Rock in Britain was a purely retail bank while Lehman Brothers in the United States was only one bank and investment.
The French Banking Federation was not immediately available to comment on what Michel Barnier.
Bic confirmed on Wednesday its major predictions for 2011 despite the economic downturn and increased competition, both of which affected its sales in the third quarter.
The group aims for its Consumer division (pens, lighters and disposable razors), which generates 85% of sales, growth in annual sales on a comparable basis over 5% and a margin increase from the last year.
But the prospects for the division of advertising and promotional products (APP) are darker: Bic expects a decline in sales on a comparable basis "just under 10%" and a line "similar to that of 2010 ".
In the third quarter, sales of Consumer division rose 3.3% on a comparable basis (exchange rates and constant perimeter) but decreased by 2.1% as reported at 391.6 million euros .The PPA has fallen 10.0% compared to 76.6 million (-17.4% as reported).
The total quarterly revenue and a poster-like growth limited to 0.8% (-5.0% as reported).
In the first nine months of the year, sales to 1.354 billion euros, up 3.8% on a comparable basis (+6.8% for the consumer division, -10.1% for APP ), but fell back by 0.3% as reported in 1354.3 million.
Gross margin for the nine months rose 1.8 points to 49.1% of net sales and operating margin reached 23.5% standard, 3.2 points higher than last year.
"The Consumer activities remains strong despite a challenging economic environment and, most importantly, the group's profitability remains above historical levels," said in a statement the Director General, Mario Guevara.
About APP, he added that "the continued economic downturn and the challenges of integrating this activity was delayed more than we had originally anticipated, a return to growth" and evokes " necessary adjustments, "without elaborating.
In exchange, the action Bic ended Tuesday 65.61 euros. The stock has gained 2.1% since the beginning of the year while the CAC 40 index yields 17.44%.