Economic Analysis and Indicators

The French construction group Vinci has been chosen by the government for the concession and construction of the airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes must resume from 2017, air services from Nantes-Atlantique.

"The concessionaire will invest roughly 400 to 500 million euros in implementing the new infrastructure, complying with a specification particularly demanding in terms of environmental adaptability," said Department of Ecology.

The decision to build the new airport is strongly opposed by local politicians and associations defending the environment for this new infrastructure that go against the government's commitments in the fight for global warming.

The French Sanofi-Aventis plans to make a formal offer on Genzyme after the failure of his informal approach on U.S. biotech specializing in the treatment of orphan diseases, we learn the source familiar with the matter.

The Board of Directors of Sanofi met in Paris on Wednesday and voted to make a formal offer on Genzyme, although details were not immediately available.

Another source said no formal proposal had yet been made and that the project could still be changed.

According to Bloomberg, the board of Sanofi has authorized management to offer up to $ 70 per share, or about 18.7 billion dollars.For a higher bid, management should come before the Board.

In Stock, Genzyme is 18 billion dollars (14 billion euros).

Sanofi, which must publish its second quarter results on Thursday, has wanted to "no comment", according to a spokesperson.Genzyme could not be reached in the immediate future.

Analysts said Sanofi greater need of a major acquisition that some of its competitors when it is threatened by generic competition for some of its important products.

Last Friday, Sanofi lowered its forecast for earnings per share for 2010 after approval by the U.S. FDA for a generic version of the anticoagulant Lovenox, his second top-selling drug last year with sales of revenues exceeding 3 billion euros.

Pressure

The top-selling product is Genzyme's Cerezyme, a treatment against Gaucher disease, a rare genetic condition, with a turnover approaching 800 million dollars.

Treatments to treat orphan diseases, which are a small number of patients at high prices, are less easy to copy and make generic versions of the companies that produce attractive takeover targets.

Sanofi's proposal could take the form of "open letter" that would detail the proposed takeover of the French laboratory and attempt to pressure it to Genzyme opens negotiations, it says.

Genzyme, which is currently trying to divest certain assets deemed non-strategic, not trying to sell, some sources have said previously.

Information concerning the interests of Sanofi Genzyme back to Friday, which has dramatically raised the action of 30% since then, investors believed that a Cambridge, Massachusetts, was entitled to demand a significant premium for be redeemed, given its portfolio of treatments for neglected diseases and its compounds in development.

A RANGE OF 60 TO 85 DOLLARS

Many analysts believe that Genzyme could be worth between 60 and 85 dollars per share, related in particular to estimate market value of drugs in the group being tested and the arrival of any other proposals.

Some observers, however, shareholders of Genzyme could accept a price ranging between 70 and 80 dollars per share, including the most recent investors who were attracted to the company when she was in the crosshairs of the speculator Carl Icahn.

In off-market transactions, Genzyme earned 5% to 71.20 dollars Wednesday after finishing up 0.72% to 67.995 dollars.

Based on the closing price of nearly $ 68 per share, representing a market capitalization of $ 18 billion, Genzyme is treated four times its revenues.

In 2007, Britain's AstraZeneca acquired MedImmune for $ 15.6 billion, ten times its turnover.In 2008, Eli Lilly has put his hand on ImClone Systems for $ 6.5 billion or about nine times its sales.

Both operations were mounted by Carl Icahn, whose representatives have recently obtained two seats on the board of directors of Genzyme.

Given the multiple paid by MedImmune and ImClone, Sanofi would pay almost $ 150 per share Genzyme, "said Scott Harrison, an analyst with Argent Capital.

"It will be difficult for a company like Sanofi to justify such a figure," said he.

According to an analysis this year by a shareholder of Genzyme, Relational Investors, whether Genzyme would divest non-strategic assets and make better use its capital, biotechnology could be worth $ 93 per share.

In early July, the rumor gave Sanofi-Aventis, faces the expiration of patents on several important drugs, looking for acquisitions in the 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.

Alcon Announces a 15% increase in quarterly profit and raised its profit target for 2010.

The specialist eye care products has relied on sales growth in key areas such as lenses implanted and treatment of glaucoma.

Net income for the second quarter stood at $ 670 million, or $ 2.21 per share, against 582 million (1.94 dollars / share) a year earlier. Excluding items, EPS stood at $ 2.22 (consensus Reuters Thomson I / B / E / S: $ 2.03).

"It seems very solid.He beat the consensus and our forecasts in each subsidiary, "commented Joshua Jennings, an analyst with Jefferies & Co.

Alcon, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is to acquire, is also recorded in the second quarter margin of 77.4% against 75.8% in the previous quarter.

Its margin increased 200 basis points over the comparable quarter of 2009, analysts say.

Turnover rose 12.5% to $ 1.89 billion.

Citing improved organic growth, Alcon now expects 2010 earnings per share from 7.45 to 7.62 dollars against a range of 7.30 to 7.55 dollars previously.

The acquisition of Alcon by Novartis is not smooth, since the Swiss pharmacist provides minority significantly less than Nestle's majority stake.

In fact, Joshua Jennings, the quarterly "support the argument that the offer must be increased.

The shares closed at 154.24 dollars on Wall Street Monday.

So few banks have failed this test of strength by 91 European institutions passed that investors should focus on groups which narrowly passed the test when markets open Monday.

Only seven European banks have failed these tests, including five Spanish settlements, and may need to raise 3.5 billion euros of capital, significantly less than expected.

However, quality testing, to assess the resilience of banks to a new recession over the next two years, has been criticized, including some judging too easy.

The results of these tests has also been somewhat overshadowed by a plethora of data on European economies suggesting that banks may face less severe economic pressures and defects on smaller loans previously imagined.

Accordingly, investors should make their own judgments on a case by case, largely due to additional data from tests such as those for the portfolios of sovereign debt, to determine what could be the next sector weaknesses.

QUESTIONS ON THE SEVERITY OF SELECTED SCENARIOS

"With so few banks have failed, investors will question whether the economic scenarios have been sufficiently severe," said Jon Peace, an analyst at Nomura.

"It is natural for investors to consider the margin with which banks have gone," he adds, citing the large margin of success of Scandinavian and British institutions, while banks Greek, Spanish and Italian 's have come out with more difficulty.

Then he was asked banks to manage to maintain a solvency ratio of less than 6% to pass the test, Sept. 10 institutions reported a Tier 1 ratio between only 6 and 7%.

Among these facilities include Deutsche Postbank, Piraeus Bank, Allied Irish Banks, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca UBI, Bankinter and eight small Spanish settlements.

If an objective test was to facilitate the financing contracts with banks recently met with difficulties in this area, schools still considered too risky could nevertheless continue to have problems, except to raise more capital.

INVESTORS COULD MAKE THEIR OWN TESTS

"History is not necessarily complete, and if financing costs do not improve for some banks, then we would not be surprised to see additional resistance tests (carried out) by some central banks to future, "warns Jon Peace of Nomura.

But authorities could not be solely to achieve their own tests, investors could also do.

"We have all the data on exposure to sovereign debt, and we can move forward and do our own testing," said Nial and O'Connor, an analyst with Credit Suisse.

As investors take position on the results of resistance testing Monday at the opening of markets, central bank governors and heads of Supervisors will meet in Switzerland to discuss the reform proposals on the strengthening of the capital own banks.

But after their success in tests of strength, European banks may find it difficult to argue that they can not apply a stricter financial regulation.

"Banks are ready to begin implementing the new rules are necessary to strengthen the capital reserves and liquidity management of banks," also told Reuters Insider, after the publication of results of resistance testing, Vitor Constancio, Vice-President of the ECB.

The Greek government is ready to participate in the capital increase announced by ATEbank after the bank failed the public stress tests passed by 91 European banks, said Friday the Ministry of Finance in a statement.

"The Ministry of Finance, being the main shareholder of the bank is ready to strengthen its capacity in the capital (the bank), participating in a capital increase after agreement from the European Commission", reads the statement.

A source inside the facility has previously announced that the bank would raise at least 250 million euros to strengthen its capital, slightly more than 242 600 000 missing identified by resistance testing.

The source had also said that the Greek state will participate in this operation.

The pharmaceutical group Roche Holdings said Thursday net profit in half-year net increase, albeit slightly below consensus, and confirmed its targets for the year 2010.

Consolidated net income increased 37% to 5.6 billion Swiss francs, slightly below a Reuters poll that gave 5.73 billion.

This increase is primarily attributable to "a net decrease of exceptional expenses incurred for the transaction Genentech first half of 2010 compared to 2009," said the laboratory in a statement.

The total turnover stood at 24.6 billion, up 3% in Swiss franc and 5% in local currency, roughly in line with the consensus that gave $ 24.7 billion.

The Pharma division grew by 4% in local currency and 1% in Swiss franc, to 19.4 billion francs (consensus: 19550000000) and the Diagnostics Division rose by 9% in local currency and 7% in Swiss franc, to 5.3 billion francs (consensus: 5.2 billion).

Net sales from sales of Avastin appears to 3.39 billion francs, slightly below a consensus which was 3.43 billion).An advisory panel recommended Tuesday to U.S. health authorities to revoke the authorization of Avastin for treating breast cancer.

Earnings per share came to 6.91 francs against 6.32 francs a year earlier, well below the consensus which gave 7.11 francs.

Operating profit before exceptional items rose 11% in local currency and 10% in Swiss franc, to 8.76 billion, above the consensus of 8.23 billion.This increase was due to sales growth, "but also to improvements in productivity," Roche notes.

Based on the results of the first half, Roche confirmed its outlook for the year 2010, despite "the context in which faces tough market" and despite "the decline in sales of Tamiflu," expected in one billion francs for the current year against 3.2 billion in 2009.

"Unless exceptional events, Roche expects a growth rate of sales falling in the mid-single digit range in local currencies for the Group and Division Pharma (excluding sale of Tamiflu)," says he said, adding the project to grow well above the market rate for the Diagnostics Division.

"Roche is also growing at double-digit earnings per share reported for core activities at constant exchange rates.

Apple on Tuesday said quarterly earnings well above Wall Street expectations, boosted by sales of Mac computers, making progress on its share of over 3% after closing.

The strong performance of the firm at the apple may alleviate concerns of investors and to silence the critics, many on its management of "antennagate" reception problems around the iPhone 4.

"These figures should help make people forget the antenna problems," said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones.

If the iPhone and iPad products were the most prominent is the Mac that has largely contributed to the group results.

Apple sold 3.47 million Macs during the period, representing an increase of 33% over the same period last year, exceeding the 3.2 million sales expected by Wall Street.

The Cupertino, California company posted a net profit for the third quarter of its fiscal year ended June 26 from 3.25 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros), or 3.51 dollars per share, cons 1.83 billion, or 2.01 dollars during the corresponding period last year.

Analysts on average expected a result of $ 3.11 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S.

Its turnover rose to 15.7 billion dollars while Wall Street was expecting 14.75 billion dollars.

For the current quarter, Apple expects earnings per share of 3.44 dollars on a turnover of 18 billion dollars.

Shares in Apple closed up 2.57% to 251.89 dollars on the Nasdaq. It climbed 3.0% to $ 259 in after-hours exchanges.

The manufacturer of equipment for mobile networks Ericsson has won the largest contract in its history to providing services in China, which pushed its stock price.

The Swedish group has signed a three year agreement with China Mobile for the maintenance of 22,000 base stations in the province of Hebei.

Ericsson has not disclosed the financial terms of the transaction, but by late morning, his action gained 2.0% to 85.90 crowns, outperforming the European technology that took the same time 0.6%.

Hebei China Mobile has 35 million subscribers.

"This is one of the largest contracts they could win (in China) and obviously they continue their good cooperation with China Mobile," said Morten Imsgard, an analyst at Sydbank.

The three major Chinese telecom operators have spent about $ 21 billion (16 billion euros) last year to build 3G mobile networks after the late award of licenses.

In March of this year, Ericsson announced the signing of a framework agreement for one billion dollars with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator with more than 500 million subscribers.

But the Swedish group is to gain a bigger share of Chinese market for 3G.

Sony Ericsson Friday reported a second consecutive quarterly profit, while reaffirming its forecast for a slight increase in volumes of the global market for mobile phones this year.

After a depressing year 2009 during which consumers have turned away from electronic gadgets, the sector's prospects have improved in recent months, although competition remains fierce in the key segment of smartphones and the global economic recovery remains fragile.

The mobile manufacturer, owned jointly by Ericsson and Sony, posted pretax profit of 31 million euros in the second quarter against an average forecast of analysts of 16.5 million according to Reuters.

During the same period of 2009, the group had suffered a loss of 283 million euros.

At 8:45 GMT, Ericsson took 0.46% to 86.65 kronor, while the index combining European technology shares advanced 0.32%.

To restore profits, Sony Ericsson has slashed costs and given a facelift to its product line, offering more smartphones, combined with the function usually attributed to micro-computers.

REFOCUSING

The group has launched new models of smartphones, the Xperia X10 and Vivaz in the first quarter before marketing options Xperia Xperia X10 mini and mini pro at the end of the second quarter.

This strategy of refocusing activity smartphones has enabled Sony Ericsson to display an average selling price of 160 euros, while analysts predicted an average of 134 euros.

The Chief Bert Nordberg said the new aircraft "had been well received by operators and that we (Sony Ericsson) were well positioned for long-term growth."

He maintained, however, conservative projections that had announced earlier.

"Sony Ericsson maintains its forecast of a slight increase in the global market in 2010," the company said in a statement before saying he was an EBIT margin of 10%.

Earlier this month, analysts had anticipated an annual increase of 11.6% of sales volumes, supported by increased sales of smartphones. In April, the annual growth for 2010 was estimated at 2010.

"This is a good publication better (than expected) on sales, margins and EBIT" said Per Lindtorp analyst Erik Thinking.

"Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson is in a recovery situation in which things can change very quickly. But it seems very solid and the portfolio is good," he added.

Most members of the Federal Reserve have lowered their growth forecasts in the latest Monetary Policy Committee of the Fed, showed the minutes of the meeting of 22 and 23 June

They also felt they should be prepared to take further steps to support the economy if economic conditions continue to deteriorate.

"Drawing the consequences of changes in the financial context, most participants have slightly lowered their forecasts for growth," the minutes show.

"The Committee will consider whether to adopt more supportive measures if the weather deteriorates."

Meanwhile, the Fed will continue to evaluate the methods currently available to it to drain a huge volume of loans it has injected into the financial system, says the U.S. central bank.