BP said Friday that the cost of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico reached eight billion dollars and he would need another two weeks to completely seal the well to the source of this pollution.
BP also reported that there had been no major upward revision in the amount of compensation paid to victims of the spill.
The compensation fund for victims of 20 billion dollars, called Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) and active since August 23, pays about 3.5 million per day.This figure is broadly in line with what BP paid himself before the fund takes over.
Under pressure from the White House, the British oil giant pledged in June to fund an escrow account of $ 20 billion over four years.
The European financial stability, to assist Member States in the euro area experiencing solvency problems, became fully operational Wednesday after weeks of uncertainty about the ratification of its Statute.
European fund, which can now raise up to 440 billion euros with the security of countries in the euro area, is part of an overall mechanism developed in the emergency early May, during the debt crisis of the European and capable of raising up to 750 billion euros with the involvement of the IMF.
The mechanism became fully operational on August 4 when Italy has confirmed its commitment to provide its guarantee for any loans issued by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV or "mutual fund assets"), said the representatives of the European Stability financial (FESF).
'I am pleased that Member States of the euro area have reached the final stage in the development of FESF, said in a statement Klaus Regling, Director General of the fund.
"The FESF is now fully operational and can if necessary, issue bonds with the assistance of the Office of the German debt, which would be guaranteed by member states of the eurozone."
No financial score has yet been assigned to the SPV, based in Luxembourg.This step constitutes an essential element for the cost it would have to agree to issue debt, if ever he has to do.
The funds should in theory receive the maximum "AAA" by the major rating agencies, the same rating as that assigned to debt securities issued occasionally by the European Commission with support from EU Member States.
END OF THE PROCESS OF RATIFICATION
The mechanism of financial stabilization, which had been agreed by Heads of State and Government of the eurozone at a special summit in Brussels on May 9, would then be transposed National in each participating state.
Its application has been suspended, however long the ratification of Slovakia, who was crossing a tense election period in which the issue of financial support to Greece's participation in the stabilization fund arose as European.
The new Slovak Minister of Finance appointed in early July has finally ratified the European Agreement on July 16.The surprise of the notification without approval of Italy August 4 marks the end of the process of ratification of 16 member states of the euro area.
After the recovery of financial markets, halting the fall of the euro and the favorable report of the EU and the International Monetary Fund on Greece, it is possible that the Fund, whose life is in principle limited 3 years, will ultimately not used.
Zurich Financial Services, Fourth European insurer, has seen its profits decline by 10% in first half as a result of provisions for defective mortgage loans and an increase in claims, including the earthquake in Chile.
The net profit of down 16% to $ 1.64 billion in the first half, against $ 1.97 billion during the corresponding period of 2009, Zurich Financial announced Thursday, said in a statement.
Operating profit activities (Business Operating Profit, BOP) declined 10% to 2.23 billion against $ 2.55 billion.
These declines are attributed to 330 million of provisions recorded in the second quarter in commercial real estate in Great Britain and Ireland.
In the first quarter, the group had recorded $ 200 million because of the earthquake in Chile.
Total depreciation amounted to 763 million during the first six months of 2010.
Zurich Financial has, however gains in net capital investment and depreciation of 418 million.
As usual, ZFS did not provide guidance for the full year.
The combined ratio deteriorated to 98% at end June 2010 against 96.2% a year earlier, and return on equity has deteriorated to 11.5% after 17.6%.
The solvency ratio has however improved to 232% at the end of the period under review.
Business volumes have expanded from 3% to 34.9 billion dollars, and 1% in local currency.
Telefonica announces a 9.4% increase in earnings in the first half, exceeding expectations, the strength of its overseas operations to compensate for the weakness of its domestic market, Spain.
The Spanish division of the group, which generates one third of total turnover, has been hit hard by the recession and caused concern to investors. But the group said Thursday she was showing signs of improvement.
He has limited the decline in sales to 3.2% in the second quarter, against 5.7% in the first three months of the year.
"These results are solid at all levels, a recovery in Spain offsetting recent fears of a slowdown in consumption.Business in Latin America is solid, "said David Wright, an analyst specializing in telecommunications from Deutsche Bank, adding that the group's activities in Britain and Germany will also reflect well.
The first operator of the euro zone by market capitalization has made a net profit of 3.78 billion euros in the first half, against forecasts for 3.68 billion euros by 10 analysts polled by Reuters.Its first half sales rose to 29.05 billion euros against 28.55 billion expected.
After weeks of fierce fighting, Telefonica has achieved his ends Wednesday in announcing an agreement with Portugal Telecom to repurchase shares of Portuguese in the Brazilian mobile operator Vivo.
In Latin America, which generates 40% of sales, group sales rose 10.2% and gross operating income of 6.1%.
The control of Vivo should allow the group to increase the number of subscribers in Brazil, giving it top spot in this coveted market.
For its part, France Telecom said Thursday a decline in sales and profit margins in the second quarter, but he confirmed the level of its dividend until 2012.
The pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis, seeking a major acquisition, has approached the U.S. biotech Genzyme, we learn the source familiar with the matter.
Discussions are still in their infancy and there is no agreement expected in the immediate future, it says.Issues such as price and management have not yet been addressed, it adds.
The Wall Street Journal, which has revealed the information, officials of Genzyme, which specializes in products for the treatment of orphan diseases, are studying the amount that Sanofi would pay.
In Stock, Genzyme is 14 billion dollars (10.8 billion euros) but the group can require a significant premium given its portfolio of drugs, analysts said.
"If we take as a starting point the figure of 20 billion dollars that has been discussed before, this puts Genzyme to $ 75 (per share)," said Michael Yee, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
In exchange, the share of Genzyme blazed nearly 18% to 63.84 dollars at end of session.
Sanofi declined to comment.
Faced with competition from generic drugs, many pharmaceutical companies are looking for external growth.
In early July, the rumor gave Sanofi-Aventis, faces the expiration of patents on several important drugs, looking for acquisitions in the United States.
The sales of Sanofi made in the USA by its anticancer Eloxin fell sharply after the launch of generic versions, while its other cancer drugs, Taxotere, will drop its patent to the public in November in Europe and United States.
In late June, Sanofi announced the acquisition of American TargeGen for 560 million dollars (458.5 million euros) in order to strengthen the fight against cancer.
Late June-early July, the French laboratory has met its board of directors on the topic of acquisitions, had been taught to the time source familiar with the matter.
Friday, Biogen and Allergan, whose names had been mentioned as potential target for Sanofi alongside Genzyme, lost 5% and 2.5% in stock.
Angela Merkel said Wednesday that the euro had stabilized and he had a better basis than before the debt crisis of the Greek through measures to reduce the debt established in the euro area.
"The euro has stabilized," Merkel said in an interview with German television station N24, according to the text released by the media.
"This is an important signal that banks are conducting stress tests and we have more transparency in the system.And it is gratifying that in contrast with what was in the spring, almost all European countries are now saying that we need to reduce deficits and reliance has structural reforms. "
She added: "Once fully implemented the measures decided reliance has, it will mean that the euro is a stronger base than before the crisis. We must await the results of resistance testing. But we are ready, aves rescue measures of the euro, to stabilize the euro at any time. "
Atos Origin will display an order book to date higher than the corresponding period of 2009, which supports the software houses in anticipation of a resumption of growth in coming quarters, said Tuesday its chief executive Thierry Breton.
He said Atos was in line with annual targets to increase by half a point to point margin at 6.2 to 6.7% from year-end debt reduction and cash generation flow of the same order as that of 117 million euros posted in 2009.
"We have a backlog that is higher than last year and which is constructed dynamically," said Thierry Breton in an interview with Reuters.
Atos, which counts among its customers Renault, EDF, KPN and Dexia, had earned in the first half of 2009 a backlog of 7.5 billion euros.
"What we had anticipated in the model of re-growth is consistent with what we see," added Thierry Breton.
He confirmed the expectation of a negative organic growth in the first half of the same order of magnitude as the 3.7% decline throughout 2009 and then a resumption of growth in coming quarters.
Atos, whose main competitors are the American Accenture and Capgemini, is well equipped to face the situation in Europe, where it generates most of its sales, since two thirds of its activities are recurring, "he stressed.
CONSOLIDATION IN THE AREA OF THE DECADE
Thierry Breton, 55, has led Thomson (now Technicolor), and France Telecom, before becoming Minister of Economy and Finance between February 2005 and May 2007.
He arrived at the head of Atos Origin in November 2008, replacing Philippe Germond, the strategy which had opposed the funds Pardus and Centaurus activists.
PAI Partners is the largest shareholder with 25% of Atos's capital, with 8.5% to Pardus.
Thierry Breton said he expected in the decade to a consolidation of the sector, still "fairly fragmented" worldwide.
Atos, which continues to look "systematically" all targets of acquisition talks with Royal Bank of Scotland and its partners for an industrial partnership with its subsidiary WorldPay electronic payments, he said.
"On this asset, we are positioned somewhat industrial partner rather than private equity funds.Is discussed with all partners and also with RBS, "said Thierry Breton.
Atos, which has issued 250 million euros Oceane in October 2009, had been in the running to acquire Italian SIA-SSB, which the British group Xchanging Outsourcing announced last week the takeover a 51% stake.
Atos should announce the end of July to finalize its new division Atos WorldGrid specializing in technology management Intelligent Energy, also said Thierry Breton.
The objective with this division, whose goal is to adapt the energy demand to the available power among producers and distributors, is to achieve a turnover of 150 million euros in 2010 and have doubled end of 2014.
Atos, which employs 49,000 people worldwide, has to hire 4.000-4500 this year, including 500-600 engineers in France, said Thierry Breton.
The staffing offshore Atos amounted to 5,000 in late 2009, over 70% in India where the group account increase from 800 to 1,000 people this year.
INSEE confirmed the modest growth of 0.1% of GDP in the first quarter but revised the figure up in the fourth quarter 2009 to +0.6% +0.5% instead announced May
The figure for all of last year remains unchanged at -2.5%, the worst recession known the French economy in the postwar period.
In late March, the acquired growth for 2010 came to 0.8%.
Consumer spending by French households have stagnated in January-March when they were up 1.0% at end 2009 (0.9% in the previous estimate) before the reduction of vehicle scrappage.
The total investment fell by 0.9% (after -1.1% in the fourth quarter), with declines of 0.6% for household investment and 1.0% for non-financial firms.
The government spending stagnated after rising 0.6% in late 2009.
The total final domestic demand (excluding inventories) contributed negatively to growth (-0.2 instead of -0.1 points initially estimated), after +0.5% in October to December.
Changes in inventories also contributed negatively by 0.2 percentage points (instead of -0.1) to the growth in the first quarter as foreign trade contributed positively to the tune of 0.4 points.Exports increased by 4.1% (instead of 3.9%) in the quarter, almost twice more than imports (+2.1% instead of 2.0%).
Detailed results of the national accounts also reveal that the disposable income of households rose 0.4% in fourth quarter, after rising 0.2% in the previous three months.But the benefits have slowed, increased taxes and inflation accelerated, so that the purchasing power of disposable income fell 0.1%, after stability in the fourth quarter.
The savings rate has meanwhile declined slightly to 15.7% from 15.8% in late 2009.
Last indication given by INSEE, the margin of non-financial corporations increased by 1.2 points to 30.5%.
Greece will overcome its fiscal crisis without having to restructure its debt, said Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou in an interview published Wednesday by the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
'We still have a credibility problem, he acknowledged, adding that the country would not need to restructure its debt.
'We must not let the single currency to be destroyed by the markets overreacted.
A delegation of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB) said last week that Greece put in place economic reforms, according to plan massive aid over three years 110 billion euros to save the country from bankruptcy.
"I see the end of the tunnel," said the minister.
"We hope to finish the year better than we expected, out of the recession more quickly and return to growth from the mid-2011," he said, while acknowledging that "Spain and the Portugal [were] in a much better position than Greece.
In return for IMF assistance plan / EU, Greece has promised to cut its budget deficit to 8.1% of GDP this year to comply with the requirements of Brussels and under the 3% of GDP by 2014 .
Why oil markets do not react to the catastrophe of BP in the Gulf of Mexico?
It is true that oil prices have finally been little impacted by this disaster. For two reasons. First, it was thought a few days after the disaster, the movement of tankers in the Gulf would be disrupted, which could affect the evolution of very short-term U.S. oil inventories. This was not the case. Meanwhile, outside the six-month moratorium on the exploitation of new platforms, markets await the outcome of the commission, (introduced by the Obama Administration) regarding the future development of deepwater drilling. For the moment nothing has filtered out on the progress of discussions. Yes, President, stuck in the oil slick bomb on his chest and hardens ecological discourse.But for the United States, deprive themselves of deepwater drilling and oil from the Gulf of Mexico equivalent to increasing its short-term dependence on foreign and thereby increase its imports and the movement of tankers. But from a strictly ecological point of view, the likelihood of oil spills associated with tanker accidents is much higher than that related to problems occurring on a platform …
The survival of BP is threatened?
BP is not dead but its future is very bleak. The total cost of the disaster will obviously staggering, at least about 10 billion dollars. But the slate will not pay a single blow and will be paid over several years, which does not undermine the cash short-term business.It remains, however, the cost in terms of reputation and image especially in the United States. Can you imagine, when referring to obtain from the U.S. Administration to permit new drilling in the United States that This case does not come back on the carpet. But the U.S. market is essential for BP. It represents 26% of its oil and gas worldwide, 40% of its sale of petroleum products and 56% of its refining capacity. This ecological disaster is challenging deep and lasting development of BP across the Atlantic.
