Hot Economic News Releases

Credit Mutuel said Monday the resignation of its chairman Etienne Pflimlin and its replacement by Michael Lucas, the current CEO of the French mutual bank, effective October 14.

"I decided, for personal reasons, to end my functions as president of the National Confederation of Credit Mutuel, and the Federation of Credit Mutuel Centre Est Europe," wrote Stephen Pflimlin in a statement released to the press by the Mutual Credit.

"I propose to relevant statutory bodies that Michael Lucas, currently CEO of both institutions, I followed these functions," he says.

Born in Thonon-les-Bains, in Haute-Savoie, and father of two children, Etienne Pflimlin is currently 68 years old.

Alumni of the Polytechnic School, graduated from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (IEP) of Paris, Etienne Pflimlin, son of the former mayor of Strasbourg Pflimlin chaired the National Confederation of Credit Mutuel since 1987.

Before formalizing his resignation, a source close to the management of the Mutual Credit had confirmed to Reuters that information revealed earlier in the morning by the newspaper Les Echos.

"Yes, there is a press release that starts tonight at 18 hours, but I think I'll try to move forward," said the source had told Reuters.

Credit Mutuel, CIC's parent, announced in late July that they had formed a partnership with Casino in financial services. The agreement provides that the Credit Mutuel – CIC will take a 50% stake in the bank subsidiary of Casino.

The French bank has also entered into an agreement with Banco Popular to create a new banking platform in Spain, after which the Credit Mutuel will take 5% stake in Spanish bank.

Crédit Mutuel in 2008 also acquired the network of retail banking at Citigroup in Germany, became Targo Bank, and took control last year of the credit company Cofidis consumption.

Ebay announced Friday that the Court of Appeal of Paris asked to pay LVMH 33 million euros in the American group in the context of infringement case between the two companies.

The online auction site had been sentenced in June 2008 by the Commercial Court of Paris to pay a total of 38.6 million euros to repair luxury group for dissemination and distribution of counterfeit perfume out of approved circuit.

Ebay does not detail the decision of the Court of Appeal but the Chief Executive in France, Yohan Ruso, said in a statement that the injunction against the U.S. group has been "reduced in scope" .

LVMH believes his side that "the principle of responsibility, this decision confirms the decision of 30 June 2008 by the Commercial Court of Paris.

The group emphasizes that the Court condemns eBay to pay $ 5.7 million in damages and interest and open "the possibility for applicants to hire additional remedies in foreign courts for compensation for damage suffered in their territories.

The Commercial Court had held late June 2008 that eBay had committed "serious misconduct by failing in its obligations to ensure that its activities do not generate illegal acts."

Despite the appeal of eBay, the court ordered the provisional enforcement of financial sanctions.

It was the first trial of this magnitude on the sale of branded products on the internet. The court had held at first instance that the auction site could not hide behind the fact that he was only putting in connecting buyers and sellers.

Before LVMH, Hermes also had won a ruling against eBay but for a sum much smaller. The site had been convicted by the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Troyes to pay 20,000 euros in damages to luxury goods group in the Rue St. Honore.

Commercial judges had sanctioned the sale of counterfeit goods from eBay imitation leather goods from Louis Vuitton and Dior Couture clothing.They had also sanctioned the sale of authentic fragrances and cosmetics brands Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain, on the ground that LVMH had not chosen this diffuser.

List of key values to follow Monday on Wall Street.

CAMPBELL SOUP *

The group is considering a power supply of 1.5 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars) on the activities of Britain's United Biscuits Cookies, reported the Sunday Times.

The U.S. group is not interested in the industry "snacks" of United Biscuits bought in 2006 by Blackstone and PAI Partners and that they intend to sell, according to information published by Reuters last month.

Closing price: 36.64 dollars.

* HEWLETT-PACKARD

* 3PAR

* DELL

Hewlett-Packard said Monday it proposed to acquire the data storage company 3PAR priced at $ 24 per share in cash, competing with the offer made last week by rival Dell.

The proposed HP is 33% larger supply of Dell, which accounted for at the time of its announcement a premium of 87% over the course of 3PAR.

The action of 3PAR blazing 37% in pre-market trade after the announcement of the offer from HP.The action of the computer group yielded 1.0%, however.

Closing Speaker: U.S. $ 39.85

Closing 3PAR: U.S. $ 18.04

Closing Dell: 12.07 dollars

* AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP

The U.S. Federal Reserve plans to reduce approximately 3.6 billion dollars (2.8 billion) credit line open to the insurer, which illustrates the growing confidence of the authorities in the group's ability to do without public support, Bloomberg reported, quoting an informed source project.

In addition, ILFC, the aircraft leasing subsidiary of the group, has paid nearly four billion dollars by the Fed after raising capital from private investors, officials said Sunday close to the matter.

Closing price: 35.17 dollars.

* 3M

The U.S. industrial conglomerate could spend about two billion dollars (1.6 billion) on acquisitions this year, twice more than its previous estimate, said Monday its chief executive in an interview with Reuters.

Closing price: U.S. $ 80.66

* AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS

The share of industrial gases group could grow by 20% within a year if its offer AIRG fails or if it ends at a price less than $ 70, says Barron's in its latest edition.

The offer values currently Airgas to 63.50 dollars per share.

Closing price: 75.01 dollars.

* WASHINGTON POST

After declining in recent weeks, triggered by concerns raised by its Kaplan education subsidiary, the title is outrageously cheap, says Barron's.

Closing price: 347.68 dollars.

The Paris Bourse continued its consolidation Wednesday despite a series of good results of the CAC 40 falling in the wake of Wall Street reacted negatively to the latest figures on the eve of consumption and the U.S. real estate.

At 9:28, the CAC 40 index shows a decline of 0.38% to 3733.14 points after losing 0.12% on Tuesday.

Investors will pay attention this afternoon at the United States publication of the ADP employment survey and the ISM services.

EDF wins 4.1%, highest increase in the ACC after the announcement of an increase in electricity tariffs from 15 August.These price increases are in the top end of market expectations.

Societe Generale, which opened up 3%, gaining 0.8% after posting better than expected results for the second quarter with a decline in its provisions and a stronger than expected growth in revenues.

Nexity yields 2.3%, largest drop in the SRD. Christine Lagarde, Minister of Economy, has announced a zero-interest loan to replace the enhanced tax credit on the loan interest.

Other major European markets are also down: London and Frankfurt lost 0.8% 0.52%.As for the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 yields 0.62% and 0.67% Eurofirst 300.

The euro is stronger after a break of recent days and is trading around 1.3205 dollars, as U.S. crude, which trades at 82.16 dollars a barrel.

BNP Paribas publishes a net profit increase of 31.2% for the second quarter, above expectations, thanks to a sharper than expected decline in provisions for bad loans, offsetting lower revenues from its market activities.

The second bank in the euro zone by market capitalization, after Spain's Santander, said in a statement that recorded a net profit of 2.105 billion euros in the quarter ended June 30, with net banking income up 11 , 8% to 11.17 billion.

His provisions for risk of loss on the credit fell by 53.9% to 1.08 billion euros.

The consensus of the writing for Reuters on average expected a net increase of only 8% to 1.7 billion euros and provisions were down 36%.

BNP Paribas also said to be "ahead" on its program of synergies from the integration of the Belgian bank Fortis acquired last year, with 402 million euros of synergies on a target of 900 million.

In corporate finance and investment, the decline in profit before tax is also less than expected at 16.4% in the second quarter against 20% expected by the market.

Elsewhere in Europe, Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse have also announced last week the quarterly results above market expectations.

The German group Deutsche Bank's side recorded a drop in supplies.

The European banking sector has benefited in recent days a series of good news.

The results of stress tests that have been submitted 91 banks in the European Union and the announcement by the Basel Committee that it would make its proposed regulations have indeed helped to allay investor concerns about the soundness of sector balance sheets.

Since the beginning of the year, the benchmark Stoxx 600 European banks rose 0.36%. The action of BNP Paribas has cut its losses recently but it is still in decline of 5.7% since 1 January.

Societe Generale, the second French bank by market capitalization, reports earnings on Wednesday.

The European Union announces it will appeal the conviction of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on subsidies provided to Airbus.

Airbus and Boeing accuse several years to receive public funding they deem illegitimate.

On 30 June, a panel of WTO experts found some illegal European subsidies provided to Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS, giving due in part to a U.S. complaint filed in 2004.

The appeal against this decision the EU will be filed before a special meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body of WTO, says a source close to the case.

The meeting, which started at 10:00, was convened at the request of the United States in the adoption of the June decision by the panel of experts, which would have forced the EU to end in 90 days to grant British, German and Spanish on the A380.

"This issue is too important to allow misinterpretations Group of Experts (DSB) without challenge," the EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht, in a statement.

The call of the EU must be treated within 90 days, according to WTO rules.

In the day Wednesday, a lawyer for Boeing reported confidence in Boeing regarding this procedure.

"We are confident about the outcome of this appeal, as we were when the U.S. had opened the proceedings," said Robert Novick, a member of the firm WilmerHale.

"We are confident that the outcome of this appeal will be known by the end of the year."

A complaint against the European American aid mechanisms to Boeing would be decided on July 16, but the decision has been postponed to mid-September.

Louis Welsh, CEO of EADS, has held this postponement unfair.

Industrial production increased in the U.S. in June, against all expectations, above-normal seasonal temperatures have boosted the use of air conditioning and therefore the production of electricity, official statistics show the Federal Reserve.

Production was up 0.1% in June while economists and analysts polled by Reuters had forecast an average decline of 0.1%.

The May figure was confirmed at 1.3%.

For the second quarter as a whole, industrial production has emerged up 6.6% yoy, lower than the 7.0% increase recorded during the first three months of the year.

The production sector of utilities rose 2.7%, higher than the Fed said the sharp rise in the use of air conditioning.

Manufacturing output fell for its 0.4%.

The utilization of production capacity has remained stable at 74.1%, but remains below 6.5 points to its average over the period 1972-2009.

The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring these statistics to assess the possible inflationary pressures, which could affect its monetary policy.

The Belgian bank insurer KBC sold its derivatives in Asia for about $ one billion, as part of restructuring promised in exchange for public assistance received during the crisis.

The buyer of Global Convertible Bond and Asian Equity Derivatives is Daiwa Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of Daiwa Securities of Japan.

The transaction will result in a strengthening of the capital of KBC and an increase of ten basis points from its Tier One ratio of liabilities to equity reported "hard".

The group, which received seven billion euros in state aid during the crisis, has agreed, in agreement with the European Commission to reduce its risky assets of 39 billion euros between 2008 and 2013, mainly by reducing its activities on financial markets and corporate lending internationally.

For its part, Daiwa seeks to develop its activities in Asia to take advantage of growth in the region after reducing its alliance in investment banking business with the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

KBC also said Monday it had sold to the Australian insurer QBE Insurance Secura its reinsurance subsidiary based in Brussels for 267 million euros.

QBE has made over 75 acquisitions over the last ten years to be present in 47 countries.

In May, KBC has raised 1.35 billion euros by selling its private banking arm KBL European Private Bankers to the Indian company Hinduja Group.

KBC closed the business in Japan in March. Analysts, traders and sellers of office of KBC in Tokyo have been committed by BNP Paribas.