Business News & Financial News

The trade deficit of France widened to 4.18 billion euros after 3.72 billion in July (revised) the previous month, according to data CVS / CJO published Wednesday by Customs.

Eight economists polled by Reuters had expected on average a deficit of 4.0 billion euros, with estimates ranging from -3.0 to -4500000000.

The remainder of June was revised to 3.718 billion from the $ 3.796 billion announced in the first estimate, one month ago.

In the first seven months of the year, the cumulative deficit CVS / CJO trade of France stood at 28.454 billion against 24.397 billion for the corresponding period of 2009.

Exports FOB data CVS / CJO emerged to 33.678 billion euros against 33.037 billion in June

The imports amounted to 37.858 billion 36.755 billion against the previous month.

In July, France has sold its 30 Airbus reported 2.002 million euros against 26 aircraft to 1,719,000 euros in June

Germany has emerged on the same month of July in a trade surplus of 12.7 billion euros after 12.4 billion the previous month, according to data released earlier in the morning by the Federal Office of Statistics.

In contrast, German exports have registered an unexpected fall in July, the first in three months, falling 1.5% in seasonally adjusted data from the previous month.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to sell nearly 2.4 billion euros of its majority stake in its subsidiary WorldPay payment systems to two private equity funds, the latest step in its restructuring plan .

After Friday increased its quarterly results, RBS said it would sell 80% of its business Global Merchant Services, which oversees WorldPay to Advent International and Bain Capital in a transaction valuing the company up to 2.03 billion pounds (2.4 billion euros).

Advent and Bain were in exclusive talks for this operation since late July, had said last month a source close to the matter.Analysts had estimated the amount of the transaction between two and 2.5 billion pounds.

The two companies capital that they are looking to develop activities WorldPay and added that they could conclude other acquisitions.

RBS will however keep a stake of about 20% in WorldPay.The added value generated by this transaction would be approximately 850 million pounds and increase the solvency ratio "core Tier 1" bank by about 30 basis points, the bank said.

"A NEW IMPORTANT STEP"

RBS will receive an initial cash payment of £ 1.7 billion once the deal is finalized and could obtain additional 200 million depending on performance WorldPay.

"The sale of Global Merchant Services is a new milestone in the restructuring program the company," said chief financial officer, Bruce Van Saun, in a statement.

Around 4:45 p.m. GMT, RBS yielded 0.38%, to 51.8 pence in London Stock Exchange, outperforming the Stoxx 600 index, however, brings together the main European banking stocks, which retreated at the same time by 0.74%.

This occurs after the Wednesday of the sale of 318 branches RBS UK counterpart Santander for about 1.65 billion pounds.

Before announcing the sale of WorldPay, the bank reported Friday in an increased profit in the second quarter due to recovery of its loan portfolio and improved its net interest margin, while bad debts Ireland remain problematic.

Several European banks such as HSBC, BNP Paribas and Barclays, have reported strong results this week in favor of a reduction in expenses related to bad debts, but some investors are questioning their prospects.

"THE PERFORMANCE IS A LITTLE LIGHT GBM"

RBS, for its part reported an operating profit of 869 million pounds for the quarter ended June 30, after a profit of 713 million in the first quarter.

The retail banking and commercial banking at RBS have seen their net banking income increased during the quarter but the division of investment bank GBM has had difficult times with a 31% drop in GDP over the first quarter.

"The performance of the GBM is a bit light, but the plus side, the British retail banking seems to be doing well," said Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at London brokerage firm Execution.

RBS said it had seen no return of the investment bank in July, which is fueling fears that the sector does not meet the expectations throughout the year if the soft trend in May and June is confirmed.

"July is generally consistent with the trend of the previous two months," said Stephen Hester. "If customers, uncertain, remain on the sidelines, there is less money in the investment bank."

Impairment losses accounted for 2.49 billion pounds in the second quarter, against 2.68 billion in the first.Excluding the gain on the recovery of its own debt, the bank posted a net income of 250 million pounds, down from the first three months of the year.

Carphone Warehouse, the first European distributor of mobile phones, publishes quarterly results above its forecast, thanks to smartphone demand, pushing up the stock price of more than 5%.

The British group showed some caution about the economic climate but said he was confident, however, achieve its goal for the year in April.

Of the thirteen weeks to July 3, the first fiscal quarter, sales in stores open at least a year rose 3.7% at constant exchange rates in the European market.

This increase is greater than analysts' forecasts that anticipated growth of 2%, according to a survey conducted by the company.

Carphone has also said that the three new stores opened since April in Britain under the name Best Buy have been successful had a "very positive", without giving figures.

Asked by Reuters about the economic outlook, the group general manager Roger Taylor said: "I am not a prophet of doom. But I do not presume to rapid growth, either."

The title gained 5.09% to 227 pence at 10h00 GMT, the FTSE 100 yielded 0.19%.

Nicolas Sarkozy announced Monday the appointment of Rémy Pflimlin, current head of the press operator Presstalis (ex NMPP) to chair the group France Televisions in place of Patrick de Carolis.

56 years old, Remy Pflimlin, former director of France 3, is the chief executive of France Televisions appointed by the Head of State under the reform of public broadcasting, which had already brought Jean-Luc Hees to head of Radio France.

The term of five years Patrick de Carolis ends next August 24.

"The President intends to appoint Pflimlin Remy as president of the company France Televisions," said a statement from the Elysee.

After the Act of March 2009 on the appointment of chairmen of public broadcasting, the choice of the Head of State requires the favorable opinion of the Supreme Council of Audiovisual (CSA) and the cultural affairs committees of the Senate and the National Assembly.

The CSA has already received the proposal from Nicolas Sarkozy, said the statement from the presidency.

A recurrent rumor until recently gave Alexandre Bompard, current head of Europe 1 (Lagardère Group), a favorite for the job.

Alexandre Bompard is regarded both as close to Nicolas Sarkozy and the businessman Stephane Courbit, which almost redeemed, in tandem with Publicis, the advertising of France Televisions.

THE SITE OF THE BOARD

Remy Pflimlin among other tasks will take a decision on restarting the process of privatization of France Television Advertising, suspended in mid-April by the Board of Directors, chaired by Patrick de Carolis.

The board was then raised uncertainties about the possible maintenance of advertising on its antennae day after 2011, especially after an attack in this direction led by Jean-Francois Cope, president of the UMP group in the National Assembly.

The law of March 2009, which endorsed the decision after the fact of advertising from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 in January 2009, provides for the complete elimination of advertising screens on satellite public in late 2011, when the extinction of the television broadcasting analog.

France Televisions has earned 405 million euros in advertising revenue between 6 hours and 20 hours in 2009 – against 260 million originally projected in its budget.

These advertising performance helped France Televisions to rebalance their accounts in 2009 three years ahead of its business plan and generate a net profit of 19.6 million euros instead of a projected deficit of 135.3 million.

The Board of Directors of France Television said Tuesday, June 29 that a return to balance the books reached in 2009 should continue into 2010.

The British oil giant BP has already spent 1,250 billion dollars trying to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, "he said Monday, indicating also be collected Saturday a total of 10,500 barrels after the installation of a funnel flight.

Between 3 and 5 June, BP and 16,600 barrels of oil collected with this new device.

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The amount advanced by the group does not include $ 360 million promised for the construction of artificial islands to Louisiana, he said.

"The optimization (device) continues and we hope to improve the collection in the coming days, but it will be some days yet before we can evaluate the success of this attempt at containment," BP said in a statement.

BP also said it was too early to quantify the total costs of the oil spill caused by the explosion late April of the platform Deepwater Horizon, in which 11 employees were killed.