The transaction is valued at 1.3 billion euros including debt Orange Austria amounting to around 1.1 billion euros.

France Telecom, owner of 35% of the operator, said it expects to receive "about 70 million" for the sale of its interest. The balance of the proceeds from the sale back to the investment fund Mid Europa Partners, owner of 65% stake in Orange Austria.

The owner of Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, to expand its presence in Europe. It is already present on the Austrian market through the brand "3".

After the acquisition of Orange Austria, Hutchison claims the number three spot in the Austrian mobile phone with 2.8 million subscribers and 22% market share.

The combined turnover of the two sociétésa exceeded 700 million euros in 2011 (nearly 500 million for Orange Austria).

In a second step, Hutchison will divest certain assets of Orange Austria (including the mobile operator Yesss!) To Telekom Austria for EUR 390 million, announced it.

The agreement, subject to approval of regulatory authorities telecom and competition, should be effective in mid-2012. 

THE ASIAN ASSETS IN EUROPE

Asian societies, with substantial funding, have increased the asset purchases in Europe in recent times while the euro area is mired in debt crisis.

Chinese Shandong Heavy Industry has acquired last month 75% of Italian yacht maker Ferretti Group. And the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp has acquired 8.7% of the holding company of British Thames Water.

The group of Li Ka-shing, looking for infrastructure investments in Europe, has already acquired the UK Northumbrian Water for 2.41 billion pounds last year. He also acquired $ 5.8 billion book distribution network of UK electricity from French EDF in 2010.

Li, nicknamed "Superman" by Hong Kong media for his business acumen, began his career in artificial flowers. It employs 26,000 people in 55 countries.

Hutchison also has activities in the 3G mobile in the UK, Italy and Australia. In the UK, it is in competition with, the number one mobile phone, Everything Everywhere, a subsidiary of Orange and T-Mobile.

FRANCE TELECOM CONTINUES REVIEW OF ASSETS

For France Telecom, Orange Austria exit is the second operation in the curly part of its review of assets, which aims to disengage the group of mature markets low growth while giving rise to additional returns to shareholders.

The operator has already defeated its subsidiary Orange Switzerland, sold at the end of December to fund Apax Partners for 1.6 billion euros.

In a statement, the group was pleased to have reached a new milestone in its "strategy to optimize the asset portfolio." 

Analysts at Raymond James estimate that the incumbent is likely to announce a program of share repurchases by an amount of up to 800 million euros, half of the proceeds of both sales .

"This would not enough to pay half of the minority interests of Mobistar while the other half could be addressed by potential tax synergies", added the analysts in reference reference to the Belgian operator France Telecom which is the majority shareholder.

At 12:30, the action of the French group was down 0.22% to 11.4750 euros while the CAC 40 rose 0.41%.

The title of Hutchison has in turn made up 3.8% to 76.20 Hong Kong dollars to the announcement of the transaction in a generally stable market.

Berlin has been sold for 3.644 billion euros in loans to ten years against 6 billion expected, so that the Bundesbank, the German central bank, had to buy the remaining 39% to avoid failure of the operation.

The very low yields offered by the Bund have dampened the appetite of investors, already concerned about the cost that will impose on Germany a spiral of debt crisis in Europe.

"This is a complete disaster, absolute," said Marc Oswald, strategist Monument Securities in London.

The first European bank also warned that it could leave the United Kingdom, where its headquarters for more than twenty years, due to new rules on capital that could cost him dearly.

Over the period from July to September, HSBC made a profit taxable underlying decline from 36% to $ 3 billion (2.18 billion euros).

The bank has already cut 5,000 positions from the first quarter of the 30,000 cuts announced by 2013.

HSBC said its provisions for credit risks, and charges were up $ 700 million at quarter end compared to their levels of last year at this time, partly because of the moratorium on foreclosures in the the United States.

"The outlook for the global economy are very difficult, as problems in developed markets beginning to affect the growth rate worldwide," said HSBC.

"If we find that (effective) our work is undermined by a lack of efforts of national governments, then we must ask us to question the effect (of interventions)," said he in an interview published Sunday by the newspaper La Stampa.We discuss all the time. "

This is partly because the yields of Spanish and Italian sovereign bonds in early August had reached a level considered difficult to sustain over the long term for these countries to more than 6%, the ECB had resumed its buyback program obligations.

Since the last three months, it bought for about 100 billion shares, of which over half were Italian government bonds.

Friday, the yield on Italian 10-year loans reached a new high since the creation of the euro area, 6.43% due to the distrust inspired investors in the country, where a vote of confidence in the House planned Tuesday could bring down the coalition government led by Silvio Berlusconi.

Around 4:05 p.m. GMT, group, owner of the trademarks Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies, lost 7.00% to 50.25 dollars while the S & P 500 advanced 1.04%.

In 2010, the company had to recall millions of boxes of Froot Loops, and other cereal brands, due to suspicious odor.

She reached the third quarter net earnings of $ 290 million (211 million) or $ 0.80 per share, against 338 million ($ 0.90 / share) a year ago.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Monday decided to submit the European Agreement on the rescue plan of the euro zone to the approval of its citizens. This plan, adopted in pain by 17 members of the euro area on October 26, provides for the deletion of a portion of the debt of Athens, in exchange for austerity and still more vigorous supervision of a strengthened donor country (EU, ECB and IMF), the famous "troika".A meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, the EU and the IMF is also scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday in Cannes, which is scheduled for the G20 summit.

Papandreou's why he called the referendum?

The Greeks "do they want the adoption of the new agreement or reject it? If the Greeks do not want it, it will not be adopted," said the Prime Minister on Monday night before the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party (PASOK ). "The will of the Greek people be binding on us," he added. What is certain is that the announcement of the referendum is a real surprise. Members of the majority, including Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, were not aware. Two Greek Socialist MPs already challenged the decision of George Papandreou, the one announcing his defection, the other calling for a cabinet "national salvation".A poll published last weekend showed that a majority of Greeks believe the decisions of the European Summit negative, only 12.6% considering them positive.

What will happen if the majority rejects?

This is the future of Greece in the euro area is at stake the Cypriot economy Christopher Pissarides, Nobel laureate, is not optimistic. "If no victory, Greece would fail immediately. I do not see it stay in the euro," he predicted. "The risk is that the international community shuts off the money and the country ends up leaving the euro," said Christoph Weil, an analyst at Commerzbank. The negative consequences of this event for Greece would be immense. Of course, out of the eurozone would allow Greece to devalue its currency and become competitive.

What is a happy retirement? For a large majority of French people (seven out of ten) is to be financially secure before health, reveals a study by HSBC on the future of pensions published Wednesday. The survey found that 42% of French people associate retirement with financial difficulties, against 38% in the UK and 35% in the United States. 70% think that their standard of living in retirement will be worse than their parents, against only 37% of Americans and 22% of Britons. "Overall, in all developed countries, where growth is low, assets are worried about their retirement, said Jean-Pierre Wiedmer, Chairman of HSBC Insurance.But the extreme pessimism of the French! "

How to explain it? "There is a structural reason, argues Jean-Pierre Wiedmer: French are world champions of pessimism, according to a BVA poll published earlier this year. And one reason more cyclical: the public debate on pension reform in 2010 has alerted the French that the future of the PAYG was not insured. In fact, the ratio between active and inactive will worsen in the coming years. Today, France has 2.1 active Inactive for 60 years and over. In 2060, the ratio will be 1.5 or 1.4 for an idle asset, according to INSEE. This is because the number of seniors in the labor market does not increase enough to offset the increase in life.

Especially as senior on the labor market does not mean senior employment.The crisis and the deterioration of the labor market have indeed violently hit the elderly: the number of registered employment center for over 50 grew by 60% since 2007. The employment rate of older workers in France (41%) is thus one of the lowest in Europe. And the French questioned by HSBC do not envisage improvement: only 8% believe that the pension reform of 2010, which pushes two years the legal age of retirement, will solve the problem of unemployment of more than 55.

Increase the contrast level of pensions

That's why 57% of the French think that the amount of pensions paid by the system of national solidarity (general system of pension insurance and supplementary pensions Agirc-Arrco) will decrease in coming years.Yet in 2030, pensions paid by the general will average above 2% to 2.5% they would have been without the pension reform of 2010, according to a study of NACHA. Indeed, the decline in the age of retirement will allow some policyholders to increase their pension rights, with more qualifying period and new wages, generally high end of their career and therefore probably included in Top 25 annual salaries used to calculate the pension.

The average percentage, however, masks significant heterogeneity according to the profile of the insured. If nearly 35% of the insured should receive a higher pension than 6% on average, 18% have a pension lower by about 5%. In fact, an insured who left at age 63 with 3 years premium before the reform would leave always at the same age but with only one year of premium.In addition, almost half of the insured would see their pension amount unchanged with the reform. These are mainly inactive.

Finally, the most interesting in this study HSBC is the paradox between fear and actions. As they anticipate the majority of financial difficulties in retirement and they are concerned about a decline of public pensions, only 30% have set up a financial plan to make additional income in retirement, against 50 % in the rest of the world. And when we ask the French what they will do if the level of public pensions decline, 43% say they are willing to work longer and 27% to take additional paid work.

The composite indicator of consumer confidence stood at 82, up two points from September.

The 17 economists and analysts polled by Reuters on average expected a figure of 79 and the most pessimistic estimates gave it to 78.

Fell to 77 in October 2008, the barometer of consumer sentiment had risen to 91 in early 2010.It evolves from September 2007 below its historical average of 100.

"The opinion of households on their personal financial situation, past and future progress: the corresponding balances each earn two points and households are also more likely in September to consider as appropriate to make major purchases" (3 points), INSEE said in a statement.

"Households feel the time is more favorable than in September to save. After the sharp drop in the summer (-8 points between July and September), the corresponding balance increased by 2 points," said INSEE.

In October, households are also less likely to anticipate an increase in unemployment.This indicator loses 12 points after a sharp rise this summer (23 points between July and September).

The INSEE survey is conducted each month (except August) by telephone from approximately 2000 households.

The rating agency Moody's Investors Service gave the first Monday penknife to the sacrosanct "AAA" rating of France, announcing that it gave three months to determine whether his perspective "stable" was still justified in view of the deteriorating economic situation."Over the next three months, Moody's will monitor and evaluate the stable outlook (the note of the country) in the light of progress made by the government to implement" the measures announced to reduce the budget deficit, said the agency rating in a statement.

France has currently the highest rating possible from Moody's (a "Aaa"), as from its main rival Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. This high rating allows it to borrow on the markets in very favorable terms to finance its budget deficits. If the prospect of this note should be revised to "negative", this would imply that Moody's would likely reduce the medium-term (usually for a term of three to twelve months).And France would become the new big country, after the United States to lose the precious talisman financially.

The agency is careful to note that this review is part of its annual study on the accounts of France and that it is not – at this stage – a decision on the note country. But it is the first of three major rating agencies and to cast a shadow on the "Aaa" French. Last week, Moody's had yet to confirm the strength of the French note, after the announcement of the restructuring of the bank Dexia.

Keeping the promise of deficit reduction

In addition to the ability of the French government to meet its budget commitments, Moody's says it will consider in its deliberations "new negative developments in the economy or financial markets."In its statement, Moody's notes that the financial strength of the French government, although still very high, "has weakened, as is the case for other countries in the euro area, as the economic and financial crisis in the world has led to a deterioration in its debt ratios, which are now among the lowest rated countries Aaa + + ".

For Moody's, so it is "crucial" for France to maintain "investor confidence in its ability and willingness to deal with unforeseen challenges."Or "France could face a number of challenges in the coming months – such as the need for additional support to other European countries or its own banking system, which could increase so significant commitments that must support the country's budget, "said Moody's.

"The deterioration of debt ratios and the ability to see new potential liabilities are putting pressure on the prospect of stable rating Aaa + + of the country," said the agency. For Moody's, the French government now less room for maneuver in 2008 (…) "during the crisis of" subprime "." The continued commitment to implement economic reform measures and budgetary and visible progress in the goals "for reducing debt" will be important for maintaining the stable outlook "of the note of the country, the agency warns.