News & Financial Advice

The French energy group GDF Suez is interested in acquiring sites for storing gas sold by Exxon Mobil and Shell and recovered approximately one billion euros, Le Figaro reported Saturday.

Citing a source close to GDF Suez, the daily wrote that the French group is competing in this issue with the infrastructure management subsidiaries of Deutsche Bank, Axa and Prudential.

GDF Suez declined to comment, saying it fails to confirm or invalidate this information.

Shell and Exxon have sold their joint ventures German gas storage BEB Erdgas and Erdoel last June.

While GDF Suez already has 600 million cubic feet of storage in Germany, the company chaired by Gerard Mestrallet will see its capacity increased to approximately 1.5 billion cubic meters if she can buy the two sites Uelsen Harsefeld and north-west of the country, "said Le Figaro.

Germany is the third market of the French group in terms of gas supply.

The source quoted by the newspaper also reported that GDF Suez continued interest in the Polish energy market and remained in contention for the redemption of Enea, the third power in Poland.

Arkema plans to double its EBITDA this year after a second quarter marked by record sales amid robust demand in Asia and recovery in North America.

The chemist has done on the previous quarter sales of 1.6 billion euros, up 38%.At constant perimeter, sales rose 27%.

It's his best performance since its IPO in May 2006.

"The level of first half performance allows us to review our annual target of strong EBITDA to rise, which should exceed 600 million euros (…) approximately double the EBITDA reached in 2009," said the CEO of Arkema, Thierry Le Henaff, in a statement.

In the second quarter, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came out to 241 million euros, more than tripling the profit for the period of 2009 and similar growth of 76% over the first three months year.

Arkema has posted a net profit group share of 119 million euros in the quarter, while it had a loss of 114 million a year earlier.

The Arkema share closed Monday at 34.985 euros, giving a market capitalization of around two billion euros. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has taken more than 30% after more than doubled in value over the whole of 2009.

Ericsson, the world leader in mobile network equipment, reported second-quarter results below analysts' expectations, the Swedish group, suggesting a difficult market including the continued reluctance of operators to invest.

The telecom equipment market begins to show signs of life but the level of customer spending is still very far from what it was before the crisis.

Ericsson, which has made tens of billions of crowns in savings to cope with falling demand, said that reducing costs would continue to be his priority as business conditions remain difficult.

In the second quarter, operating profit excluding joint ventures and excluding restructuring charges, stood at 5.3 billion kronor (564 million euros) against 6.1 billion a year ago and an average forecast of analysts of 5 8000000000.

Revenues fell 8% to 48 billion crowns, while analysts had forecast on 50500000000.

On Thursday, Nokia Siemens Network (NSN), one of his main rivals, posted a decline of 5% of its turnover in the period.

Like NSN, Ericsson said its sales had been affected by supply shortages of certain components.

"We believe (the break) weighed negatively to height of three to four billion kronor on sales for the quarter," the company said in a statement.

Ericsson's gross margin, 39%, came out at a level well above expectations, the group has benefited from the effect of cost reductions and a "mix" positive activities.

The NYSE closed up 0.18% Monday, the Dow Jones 30 Industrial 18.24 points to 10,216.27 winner.

The S & P 500 is broader, took 0.77 points, or 0.07%, to 1078.73. The Nasdaq Composite fell on his side of 1.91 point (0.09%) to 2198.36.

These data are likely to vary even slightly.

The latest version of the legislation on the reform of financial regulation has been adopted Friday by a committee of Parliamentarians American.

To be finally ratified, the text must still be approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives, then be subject to presidential signature by July 4.

U.S. legislators have therefore put a stop to the proposed overhaul of financial regulation in the country, having reached agreement on new restrictions on banking activities and proposed a compromise on the issue of derivatives.

It was around midnight at the U.S. negotiators Democrats have managed to find a first ground on the two thorniest issues of the bill.

The two clauses in question are intended to protect the banks' assets in risky activities of proprietary trading, causing the financial crisis of 2007-2009 which resulted in a deep recession and have led the state to fly to the rescue of the banking sector.

The Democrats were under pressure to complete their work within the next few hours, before President Barack Obama becoming engaged in discussions with leaders at the G20 summit in Toronto this week-end.

After 15 hours of intense negotiations, Democrats have finally agreed on a modified version of the so-called "Volcker rule" designed to restrict trading on own account and prohibit banks or the least strictly regulate their involvement in hedge funds and private equity investment.

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This relaxation would allow such banks to invest up to 3% of their total Tier 1 capital, core capital in hedge funds and private equity investment.

The project oversight of the derivatives market has however more trouble for lawmakers.This market 615,000 billion has to exacerbate the crisis and led to such a rescue of 182 billion dollars of public money for the insurer American International Group.

Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln has reached a compromise with Treasury representatives aimed at forcing banks to divide their swaps which will also offer the opportunity to reach a wider variety of house swaps.

After hours of negotiation, other Democratic lawmakers have finally reached its position.

Dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives, saying it would strengthen offshore activities, threatened to vote against the entire bill if continuation of this proposal.

Carrying out such a bill would be for Democrats a victory on the legislative front, after the health reform passed this year, more significant than the midterm elections will be held in November.

If the purpose of this bill, which has nearly 2,000 pages, is to avoid a global crisis similar to that which began in 2007, it will create a strong contrast constraints on the banking sector and could deprive him of several billion dollars in revenue.

Wall Street has launched major maneuvers to sink the project, despite a growing popular protest criticizing the bank failures and bonuses of executives. The Democrats had to suppress their ambitions, however radical overhaul so as not to deprive the votes of parliamentarians "centrist".