The Boeing, co-owned by the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs and Onex, concluded on May 3 an agreement with its creditors for erasing about $ 2.5 billion in debt under Chapter 11, which aims to allow business to continue trading.

"This debt will no longer hamper our business," said Shawn Vick at a news conference at EBACE business aviation in Geneva.

"The procedure of Chapter 11 should not be confused with the liquidation or bankruptcy. There is too much value in Hawker Beechcraft for this to happen, "he said, denouncing the" misinformation "and" speculation "

. Shawn Vick

stressed that the group would continue to honor its orders and anticipated output of the procedure of Chapter 11 "before the end of the year" …

…… Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the private equity funds of the bank, and Onex, the first Canadian company takeovers, had bought Raytheon Aircraft Raytheon in early 2007 and were renamed Hawker Beechcraft

. Under Chapter 11, the group of Wichita (Kansas) will have their money transferred to some of its creditors, Goldman Sachs and Onex retaining only a minority stake. 

Acquisition, made at the height of the bubble and in the hope of a growing market, came at the wrong time. The 2008 financial crisis and severe economic recession that ensued led to a fall in business jet deliveries of small and medium – the segment of choice Hawker Beechcraft.

Asked about a possible reduction in its range which would reduce the complexity of its production, said Shawn Vick Reuters that it was not the order of day.

"This company is more than capable of building many aircraft in all segments," he said.

Although it acknowledged that competitors had benefited from his troubles to him take market share, it highlighted a trend of more favorable order in 2011. 

He also expressed confidence in the ability to remain independent at Hawker Beechcraft:

"We have no other project to grow the company on a freelance basis," he said to Reuters. "That does not surprise if others were interested in the company, but more than able to stand on both feet."

Sales totaled 800 million euros over the period while the division "connected home" which includes the manufacture of decoders has successfully stabilized its sales with an increase of 1.5%.

This activity, for which the group wants to find a partner, is expected to reach its goal of returning to breakeven in 2012, said former Thomson. 

The group, a debt of over one billion euros, said it had seen its debt reduced in absolute terms but as a result of an expected cash flow, "net debt to end March 2012 was higher than December 31, 2011. "

Technicolor, however, indicated that all of its first quarter results allow the group to keep its commitments.

"This performance confirms my group's ability to meet its objectives for 2012 adjusted EBITDA of between 475 million and 500 million euros, and the pursuit of a generation a cash flow positive, "said a statement from the CEO Frederic Rose. 

Compete with Motorola Mobility that Google is about to redeem, and the British Pace, Technicolor is a leading manufacturer of "set-top boxes" providing access to Internet, television and telephone.

The group is in talks with potential buyers for its manufacturing of decoders Angers (Maine-et-Loire).

The scheduled shutdown of the last French production site of the former Thomson has caused alarm in the middle of a presidential campaign led by the theme of "Made in France ", and employees of the group expressed earlier this month to express their fears of a dismantling of the company. 

The group, which has already gone through a long restructuring process after a backup procedure in 2009, intends to continue its mutation difficult by the challenge of innovation.

Attention statistical trapped. While the real situation of employment is being debated in the U.S., including the Fed, the Labor Department announced Friday that the unemployment rate fell 0.1 points to 8.2% in March. But this apparent good news is accompanied by a slowdown in job creation to 120,000 against 240,000 the previous month Analysts had expected at least 200,000 more jobs created last month.

Hiring was strongest in the first two months of the year, especially in January (275,000). But economists were concerned that these figures have been inflated by an unusually mild weather, making an increase in activity that would be offset by a slowdown in March.

Unemployment can evolve differently in job creation: it is determined by household surveys as they are derived from company surveys, it is sensitive to changes in the labor force (which increased less in March in January or February), and is calculated to a tenth of a percentage point, from which threshold effects.

Since summer, the trend unemployment rate is significantly to the decline, which had reached 9.1% in August yet. This trend is also clear for another measure of the labor market, unemployment and underemployment (including among other employees working part time against their will, or people who have abandoned the active search for work) , which fell to 14.5% in March against 14.9% in February. This is the lowest rate since January 2009. The number of unemployed also declined: 12.67 million in March, against 12.81 million in February.

By business segment, the slowdown in job creation is significant in the private sector (121,000 in March after 233,000 in February). In the public employment was flat in March while on a decline the previous month. Hiring in the manufacturing sector were virtually unchanged (31 000), while those in the service sector fell (90,000 against 204,000 in February).

The government increased job losses in temporary employment (7500), generally considered a leading indicator of economic activity. But he welcomed the increase of 3.6 million since February 2010 the number of jobs in the U.S. economy.

Serge Kampf, aged 77, had reserved the option when renewing his term as CEO in 2010.

The Board of Directors of Capgemini, met on Wednesday, decided "to return to the classic formula of a CEO (and …) to appoint Mr. Paul Hermelin this function from the date of the next Annual General Meeting ", May 24, announced the leading European IT services, in a statement ..

……. Serge Kampf was appointed honorary president of Capgemini vice president and board to greet his "immense contribution" to a company he founded in 1967 and he led for 45 years

. In exchange, the action Capgemini earned a , 2% to 31.58 euros at 9:22, outperforming the CAC 40 (0.4%) and giving a market capitalization of 4.9 billion euros

.

The Nikkei lost 55.50 points to 10,086.49 points, away from its highest of eight and a half months reached Monday to 10,172.64 points. The Topix broader, yielded 9.57 points (1.1%) to 858.78 points.

The export values ​​have suffered from profit taking. Toyota was down 1.54% but still up nearly 38% since the beginning of the year. Nissan has lost 2.92% and Sony dropped 4.47%.

The increase is in line with market expectations.

In January, prices showed an increase of 0.2%.

Gasoline accounted for more than 80% of the increase in consumer prices in February, said the Labor Department.

Excluding volatile prices such as food and energy, inflation remains subdued with an increase of 0.1% in February after a 0.2% gain in January.

The February increase is below market expectations (+0.2%).

The price of gasoline jumped 6%, their largest increase since December 2010. They had gained 0.9% in January.

Food prices were flat last month after rising 0.2% in January.

Over one year, the consumer price as a whole jumped 2.9%, as in January.

Excluding volatile, they rose 2.2% after rising 2.3% in January.

The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that soaring energy costs would result in a temporary rise in prices. In the long term, inflation is expected to be more than 2%, the objective of the central bank.

This has lent almost 530 billion euros to banks, bringing to more than 1,000 billion the total amount of capital lent to three years for financial institutions in order to avoid a credit crunch.

If the mutual bank BPCE warned that it would not borrow cash to the ECB, the other three major French banks have refused to say if they had chosen to take advantage of 1% currently offered by the European institution. 

Yet some analysts say they have obtained information on these establishments participating in this exercise refinancing.

And the Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note published Thursday that BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole had participated.

BNP Paribas "has confirmed that they have participated and made billions," writes Morgan Stanley.

In any event, communication of French banks in this regard calls observers.

"I think it is a blunder from the time when other banks have clearly responded, saying they were not gone, either by saying that there had gone and how much, "Judge Christopher Nijdam, an analyst at AlphaValue. 

For him, the banks had nothing to lose by playing transparency. "They would have won in the shot image," he adds.

"COMING OUT"

For connoisseurs of French capitalism, is the fear of being stigmatized and considered financially fragile that discourages big banks to play the transparency.

Another argument cited the desire to keep a low profile and not be open to accusations of some politicians who accuse them of gorging cash while restricting access to credit say in France.

Another analyst suggests in turn a possible directive of the Prudential Control Authority (ACP).

Contacted by Reuters, nor the French Banking Federation, nor the Banque de France nor Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole have desired s express on the subject. 

For an official of a foreign bank based in Paris, the silence of French banks in this case falls rather within the culture of secrecy and reluctance to transparency of their own.

To this financier, this attitude is all the more "archaic" or "grotesque" they risk no stigma.

Indeed, 800 banks went to the counter of the ECB and those who have formalized their participation in LTRO were not punished the stock market.

Britain's Lloyds Banking Group said on Wednesday he borrowed £ 11.4 billion (13.7 billion euros) to the ECB and the Italian Intesa Sanpaolo has done the same, saying he had borrowed ; 24 billion euros.

French banks would then, according to this official, nothing to fear. 

"It's like a coming-out: you most afraid to announce it but once that's done, you quickly realize that everyone cares," joked it.

Financial analysts also note that this is partly due to LTRO that much of European banks have experienced a sharp rebound in stock.

This aspiration may seem ambitious for a group whose time some investors doubted the chances of survival and that has cleared its first profits than last year, five years after the merger of its two entities.

Although he admits that all the targets were not achieved, Ben Verwaayen suggests that the company has turned a corner after three years of restructuring designed to make a business group "normal".

"Did we talk to our customers on the question of our future? No. On one of our financial future? No. It's over, "he said in an interview with Reuters

. Even if he fails any forecast figures beyond 2012, the leader, of Dutch origin and former boss of BT operators, spares no ambitions for Alcatel-Lucent ….

….. "We see some of our colleagues in the industry achieve double digit returns," said Ben Verwaayen …….

.. "By definition, it is therefore in the art of the possible (…) Between where we are today and these figures, there is a road we must travel in the coming years. "

The march will be high to cross yet

. Alcatel-Lucent

generated an operating margin of 3.9% last year, compared to 11.6% while Sweden's Ericsson China's Huawei has reached the figure of 15.8% in 2010. 

The Franco-American group said a target margin improvement this year, but without providing any numerical target, so it set a horizon of 5 to 9% % in terms of margin in its three-year recovery.

"That was before the crisis, said Ben Verwaayen. What is the art of the possible for the sector given the changing conditions and competitive environment is slightly different in 2012 than it was in 2009. " According

industry experts, telecom operators could tighten the purse strings this year as the de gradation of the economy at the expense of telecom equipment

. STILL A WAY TO DO …….

. In this difficult context, the group has to work extra hard to complete its turnaround plan that was originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2011

. At the end

it was set to become a business "normal" – growing, profitable and generates cash – Alcatel-Lucent is in fact also a way to go

. "We have almost reached all our goals. We do our best to make sure it is completed by the end of 2012, "assured Ben Verwaayen, who gave up the granting of stock options and performance shares for 2012 ….

….. "I had the feeling of not completing the contract, he said. The share price was heckled during the year and I thought it was the right decision. "

. ……. Led by Ben Verwaayen, the group has made significant progress in overcoming weaknesses in the mobile with its product offering in the 4G enabled him to win major contracts in the U.S., with AT & T and Verizon in particular

. It also cut its costs to the extent of one billion euros in order to lower its equilibrium level, notably by hiring a rationalization of its product portfolio. 

These developments were greeted with the stock market euphoria during the first part of 2011, before the cold shower of third quarter results which showed a high consumption of liquidity , reviving concerns about its cash and dropping the title.

In the fourth quarter, the group partly reassured by stopping the bleeding of its cash, which caused a surge this time of the action Alcatel.

"The response was overwhelming as every time," said Ben Verwaayen. "I think this demonstrates that the market is still nervous about us."

Finally, the action Alcatel has lost 44.6% of its value in 2011, signing one of the worst performances of the CAC 40 index.

The group in 2012 will rely on the proceeds of the sale of its Genesys nugget for $ 1.5 billion (945 million) as well as a license agreement designed to monetize its patent portfolio .

"We will be more robust in 2012," predicts Ben Verwaayen, the group expects a high level of positive net cash at the end of this year.

The French surveyed by INSEE in November have also never been more pessimistic about their future standard of living and are more likely to anticipate an increase in unemployment, which has already reached a peak of 11.

The composite indicator of consumer confidence stood at 79 on Friday in November and pushed a lowest since February 2009.

Floods in Thailand will also affect exports significantly in the last quarter, disrupting supply chains across Asia, warned the BoJ in its report of November.

"Exports and production should show more or less stable at the moment and then increase moderately, reflecting mainly an acceleration of the recovery of overseas economies," said the central bank, warning however that the economic outlook remained uncertainty.