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.

In his televised speech Sunday night, Nicolas Sarkozy praised the German model of a good dozen times. The Head of State made an apology for Germany to justify its economic reforms – tax shield yesterday, the TFR reform, reinforcement of learning, social VAT, employment agreements competitiveness today and rule of budget or tomorrow. "Germany comes so often in political discourse that can be asked whether the president will not be a referendum on the German economic model," writes on his blog the deputy editor of Le Figaro Pierre Rousselin. Before voting, the French need to know what's behind the brilliant success of their neighbors across the Rhine.

Germany for the second straight year was the locomotive of the European economy in 2011, with growth of 3% after 3.7% in 2010. In comparison, France has recorded growth of 1.5% in 2010 and should reach painfully 1.7% in 2011. This strong growth has allowed Berlin to reduce its public deficit to 26.7 billion euros, or 1% of GDP. The deficit lights is five times higher. The other great success of Germany, is the dramatic decline in unemployment. The number of unemployed in Germany last year reached 2.976 million on average, the lowest level since the reunification of the country, and 263,000 fewer unemployed than in 2010. The unemployment rate in the country has crude dropped him in 2011 by 0.6 percentage points to 7.1% on average. In France, the opposite: the number of jobseekers rose by 152,000 last year and the unemployment rate is approaching 10%. At our defense, the French population is growing while that of Germany decreases.

The keys to success are known: a specialization in products where global demand remains strong (automotive, chemicals, capital goods, mechanical engineering), a significant number of medium-sized companies (between 250 and 5000 employees) called "Mittelstand" across the Rhine, a tradition and know-how in new markets, a training system in favor of including in business, the massive use of short-and a good social dialogue on wages and employment. "The secret of the German model, the industry, firm size, the co-decision and competitiveness," notes Jean-Claude Betbèze, chief economist at Credit Lyonnais, which does not hide his admiration for Economic Policy the country. Left to accept the painful counterparties.

Excessive wage compression German

For this coin has several setbacks. To restore its competitiveness, which had deteriorated sharply in the years following 1990 reunification, Germany has practiced under the leadership of the former Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a moderate wage policy in the early 2000. Policy that has increased sharply in 2003 and 2005 when launched an unprecedented series of reforms to the labor market more flexible. Known as the "Hartz" reforms including creating the mini-jobs, jobs that pay can not exceed 400 euros per month, which can be exercised in parallel on welfare or in more than one job "traditional".

Their goal is to encourage theoretical maximum of the unemployed to return to the world of work. Benefit to employers: "mini-jobs" are almost completely exempt from payroll taxes. Employers have tended to replace the mini-jobs to full-time classical contracts taxed, resulting in a sharp increase in part-time and an additional downward pressure on wages. Result: While Germany has expanded its exports increased between 2000 and 2010, but wages have declined in nominal terms (they have risen less than inflation). The median net monthly salary has lost 7.4% in 10 years across the Rhine, while the average annual wage increased by 10.8% in France.

"The compression of wages granted, if it were necessary because of the low productivity of the former East Germany, has gone much too far, deplores Ferdinand Fichtner, an economist at the research institute DIW (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung) in Berlin. This has affected the purchasing power of households and the share of consumption in GDP has contracted. Exports jumped and much faster than imports and Germany is now too dependent on foreign trade, "said he. We saw in 2009 at the height of the global economic crisis: German GDP fell 5.1% against a decline of 2.7% in France. And this year, while the euro area – which represents 40% of German exports – is on the brink of recession, the country's GDP expected to grow by only 0.3% according to the IMF.

A growing impoverishment of the population

The other side of the coin is a very strong impoverishment of employees. During the last decade, Germany has created 2 million jobs part time (and some full-time), while France has created 2 million full-time (and very few part-time). The proportion of part-time increased by one third across the Rhine in this period, while it remained stable in France. Germany is the fourth and part-time employees, including 19% (7 million) of mini-jobbers. Yet nearly 90% of these small jobs were classified low or very low wages (less than 9.76 euros gross per hour to the west and less than 7.03 euros per hour to the is). 20% of German employees are paid an hourly minimum wage below the French and 40% have a net monthly salary of less than 1000 euros.

The unemployed – 2.9 million people – are not better off. The last law passed by Schroeder, "Hartz IV", has in fact merged the long-term unemployment benefits and social assistance. Thus, since 2005, after a year of unemployment, the unemployed no longer receive an allowance of 850 euros, including housing assistance. 70% of German unemployed and live below the poverty line. More generally, Germany has 12 million poor (less than 940 euros a month, or 15% of the population against 13.5% in France. At the other end of the scale, hold 2 825 000 Germans, 6 million euros of assets, or 1% of the population who share a quarter of the country's wealth. "The policy of wage deflation conducted in Germany has led to an increase in income inequality at a speed never seen before, even during the shock of reunification after," denounced the International Labour Organization in a report published on 24 in January.

The ILO will even say that Germany is responsible for the crisis in the eurozone. "Improving the competitiveness of German exporters are increasingly identified as the structural cause of the recent difficulties in the euro area," said the UN agency based in Geneva. "In Europe, it created the conditions for a prolonged economic slump, because other countries are increasingly a policy of wage deflation even harder as a solution to their lack of competitiveness," said she . This view is shared in part, Ferdinand Fichtner. "Germany is of course not solely responsible for the debt crisis countries in the euro area, said the German economy. But it is true that the absence of inflation in Germany, due to the contraction of wages, has led the European Central Bank to conduct monetary policy too expansionary [low interest rates, note] for Greece, Spain, Portugal or Ireland. In these countries, access to easy credit Cheap and fed an artificial increase in wages and housing bubbles. "

The German model has, in the end, the virtues of which France would be right to draw, particularly in respect of industrial specialization, the ability of firms to be exported and enter new markets or the quality of dialogue social development. But every copy would be to bring down our social model, model once touted by Nicolas Sarkozy for his ability to have cushioned the shock of the global economic crisis.

Finance Minister (Chancellor of the Exchequer), George Osborne, warned that the UK economy might slide into recession if the debt crisis was not quickly resolved.

"If the rest of Europe is heading into recession, it may be difficult to avoid in the UK," he told parliament in his address to the biannual budget.

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.

Saab, which has hardly produced a car for six months, is in receivership.A loan of EUR 70 million guaranteed by the Chinese Zhejiang Youngman Automobile Lotus is still not activated.

According to Dagens Nyheter, Youngman would withdraw and abandon its commitment to put money into Saab over the long term.

"But Geely is interested in everything, in terms of production and development," one told the newspaper.

Geely, which acquired another Swedish Volvo cars in 2010, approached the administrator of Saab, is there still told the newspaper.

But Lawrence Ang, executive director of Geely Automobile Holdings, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Geely, denied the information.

"As far as I know, we do not have that kind of project," he said, stressing that Geely was very busy after its acquisition of Volvo cars.

A Saab spokesman declined to comment.

Ian Fletcher, automotive analyst at IHS, sees no interest in such an alliance.

"Volvo and Saab, in fact, fighting for the same space for years. I think in the end, Volvo would be happy with the release of Saab."

He recalled that Geely does not need additional production capacity in Sweden and he can do without technology from Saab.

"I see simply no reason they could intervene," said the analyst.

Saab has gone from crisis to crisis this year.It closed in April, unable to pay its suppliers to whom he owes more than 150 million euros. In August, it was no longer able to pay salaries.

Saab was bought by Spyker, now Swedish Automotive, General Motors in early 2010, as he was leaving another period of bankruptcy.

The sale of the Spyker sports cars in the Swedish Automobile Vladimir Antonov Russian investor has also failed. These cars must now be sold to a private equity investment.

At 9:05, the CAC 40 index advances 2.57% at 2923.78 points.

The London Stock Exchange gained 2.27%, 2.15% that of Frankfurt and Milan up 1.34%.

The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 2.1%

European banks index was up 2.98%

The rise of Wall Street, in the first significant trade occurs despite not particularly favorable statistics, the jobless claims first.

The Dow is 0.8% to 11,335.55. The S & P 500 ahead 0.74% to 1197.44.The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6% 0 2588.

The weekly jobless claims rose against all odds in the United States during the week to September 10, at 428,000 against 417,000 the previous week, said Thursday the Labor Department.

Manufacturing output in the region of New York against all odds the contraction accelerated in September, shows the Empire State index released Thursday, falling to its lowest level since November.

Other indicators were also published.

The inflation rate decelerated slightly in August in the U.S., thanks to higher gasoline prices has also slowed, while prices of new cars have not changed, said the Department of work Thursday.

An indicator was more favorable rating. Industrial production in the United States increased more than expected in August, announced Thursday the Federal Reserve, the manufacturing sector has offset the decline in electricity production.

Values, UBS shares traded in New York plunged nearly 9%. A trader suspected of being linked to losses of some $ 2 billion announced Thursday morning by UBS was arrested in London, said on Thursday from several sources.

China First is an economic interest: Europe is the largest market in terms of sales outlets abroad (22% of its exports against 17% for the U.S.). Therefore, it is important for China and European countries are in good economic health, they continue to consume and import products. Second, that it affirms its support for European sovereign debt "secure" as the outstanding debt that has already purchased. Finally, China's increasing diversification of its foreign exchange reserves in terms of currencies and assets, now dominated by U.S. treasuries. Now we have seen with the debt crisis in the United States, the issue of trust may arise.It is to avoid putting the eggs in one basket.

Is not it also an opportunity to do good business, interest rates on these bonds of sovereign states in difficulty in the euro area is currently very high?

It's a financial reason can be considered, but I do not think too much. When you look at the policy of managing its foreign exchange reserves practiced by China so far, this is not to make gains in the short term but to invest its huge – about 3.2 trillion dollars – exchange reserves. As such, the Italian debt buy – one of Europe's most liquid debt – would be beneficial for China.

And a way to strengthen its presence in Europe?

She was already, through direct investments in European industrial groups.Many economic actors in China are now present in Europe.

How much has China bought sovereign debt problems of countries in the euro area over the past year?

Unfortunately, we do not have any statistics on that. And we do not know the timing of the concrete after (or before!) Official statements of support from Chinese leaders.

The rumor – later denied – of an agreement between Beijing and Rome on the redemption of government bonds have been bouncing the exchanges. China Is the savior of the euro area in crisis?

Markets are currently very sensitive and tend to overreact to good news. Or do not deny it: the fact that China buys the debt of power markets is good news because it offers a breath of fresh air to these countries issuers seeking to raise money.But it is a short-term response in no way a solution to end the crisis in the euro area. China can not and will not redeem all the debt of European countries. This does not solve the structural problems of funds from European countries.

In return for its investments in Europe, China calls on EU to recognize his status as a market economy in the World Trade Organization (WTO). What would change for her?

Recognize China as market economy in the WTO will facilitate the resolution of anti-dumping investigation on behalf of China. Since this is not the case for China, the benchmark cost to complete an anti-dumping is the price of a country and not like that of China. China loses more "easily" anti-dumping investigations in the WTO because it is impossible to use its own production costs to assess the existence of dumping.

"It is clear that the recovery after the crisis was much less robust than we had hoped," he said in a speech he was to deliver at the annual meetings of the Fed's Jackson Hole ( Wyoming).

He added that the Fed would meet two days in September, instead of originally planned to study, among other things, the possibility of providing the economy with a new monetary stimulus.

Reduce unemployment long (more than six months) that a record will achieve stronger economic growth.

"In these exceptional circumstances, a policy that promotes a stronger recovery in the short term could also serve the long-term goals."

The number of job applicants in category A (those who carry on any business during the month) in France rose by 36,100 (+1.3%) last month to $ 2,756,500.

This is the highest figure recorded for that category since February 2000, according to ministry statistics.

In one year, the number of unemployed in category increased by 2.8%.

By adding the persons engaged in small (B and C), the increase in the number of job seekers is reduced to 0.6%, or 24.300 more people in one month, reaching 4,128,000. On an annual basis, growth for these three categories is 4.3%.

Labour Minister, Xavier Bertrand, said earlier in the day to expect the numbers "bad as were those of the previous two months."