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Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia Environnement, on Wednesday defended his project of "transformation" of the group to its shareholders by ensuring that they should be measurable results within two years.

During the general assembly of giant utilities, Antoine Frérot, who escaped in February in an attempt to destabilize linked to ; its restructuring plan, acknowledged that it would be "demanding" but he promised it would allow Veolia to adapt to the "new deal" world. 

Forced to deleverage, Veolia plans to disengage from some forty countries on 77 in which he was present last year, and sell for five billion euros assets, starting with its transport activities, which met in the center Transdev cellmate with the Deposit and Consignment Office (CDC), and considered too "greedy capital ".

"Within two years, we will benefit fully from all the positive effects that should give us the size of our group," said Antoine Frérot, adding that Veolia would then have found "the weight of an athlete ; you who followed a diet and is ready for competition ". 

Antoine Frérot was destabilized in February by news reports suggesting its replacement by the former Minister of Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo, but he managed to keep the trust board and has since initiated a reform of the management team.

He said Wednesday that the redesign of the executive committee was to "create a new dynamic management team with a tight and solid." 

The group's shareholders also approved Wednesday the change in the composition of the Board: Esther Koplowitz and Jean-Francois Dehecq, former head of Sanofi lose their seats while Jacques Aschenbroich, the Director General ; General of Valeo, Maryse Aulagnon, CEO of Affine land or Nathalie Rachou, founding partner of Topiary Finance, are entering the CA.

These amendments were approved by an overwhelming majority at the AGM.

On the eve of it, Jean-Francois Dehecq had criticized the strategy of Mr. Frérot in an interview with Le Monde, accusing it of "abdicating global ambition" of the group to focus "a vision of their accounting." 

As Esther Kolplowitz, Jean-Francois Dehecq is deemed close to the positions of the former CEO of Veolia Proglio, now head of EDF.

European shares were down sharply in early trade Friday, sealed by the political stalemate in Greece and by banking stocks after announcing heavy losses by JPMorgan.

At 9:11, the CAC 40 index, which lost more than 1% in the first minutes, yield 0.78% to 3105.82 points.

The London Stock Exchange fell by 0.3%, the Frankfurt 0.54% and 0.99% instead of Madrid. The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index drops 0.82%.

The Stoxx European banks index lost 1.2%.

In Greece, the Socialist Party leader, Evangelos Venizelos, will meet this Friday the Conservative Antonis Samaras in a last attempt to form a coalition government and avoid new elections, officials European Union have warned that the maintenance of Greece in the euro zone was at stake

Moreover, the first U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, has cast a pall over the markets by announcing Thursday night that registered a trading loss of two billion dollars (1.5 billion euros) following the failure of a hedging strategy, which has forced its CEO media to apologize.

BNP Paribas, which posted first quarter net profit boosted by a gain on the sale of a block of Klépierre, said Friday be able to complete its plan to reduce the size of its balance sheet this summer.

The French bank said it had to end in March made 80% of its plan, launched at the beginning of last fall at the higher of the debt crisis in the euro area, after be reduced by 63 billion euros of its risk-weighted risk, including 16 billion over the first three months of the year.

"We can lock him in the summer," said Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, the CEO of BNP Paribas, in an interview with Reuters. 

At the Paris Stock Exchange, BNP Paribas, which had opened lower, was up slightly from 0.43% to 29.22 euros at 9:29, outperforming the bank Europé in (0.29%).

Some managers pointed out that despite good results on bills in the first quarter, the French banking stocks suffering from uncertainty about the macroeconomic environment and concerns over the euro area . In France, banks are also under threat of a major reform of the sector if the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande wins the presidential election Sunday.

"I found good results, in almost all divisions. Solvency is still a very important point," said Yohan Salleron, manager at Mandarine Gestion. "Nevertheless, we see some negative reaction, linked to the problem of the banking room, especially on the French market where investors expect a little clarification side of politics. "

NO NEW DISCONTINUED POSTS

Are feared while new waves of industrial restructuring after the presidential election, particularly in the banking sector, BNP Paribas ensures not to provide new measures of job cuts after presidential election.

Nearly 1,400 positions are already about to be deleted in the banking and investment banking. The voluntary separation plan should be completed by end June

In the first quarter, net earnings from BNP Paribas was up by nearly 10%, to 2.86 billion euros, after integrating in its accounts a gain 1.8 billion on the sale of an interest in the property group Klépierre.

The French bank said that excluding special items, net income for the period spring down 22% to two billion euros.

According to the Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S, analysts on average expected a net profit of 2.344 million euros. 

For comparison, Societe Generale reported Thursday a net profit of 732 million euros for the first three months of the year, down 20%, supported by the results of its operations on interest rates, currencies and commodities.

"TOO SOON" FOR A TARGET ROE

Hired as many European banks in a program to reduce the size of its balance sheet and strengthen its financial strength, BNP Paribas is to end on March 1 capital ratio 'hard' to 10.4%.

The bank said the coup had "substantially" exceeded the goal of equity of 9% required by the EBA to late June. 

Due to lack of visibility on the new regulatory environment, it refuses to give a target return on equity (ROE) for the future. This amounts to 11.5% at end March.

"It is too early to give this kind of goal," said Jean-Laurent Bonnafé. "We still need clarification on the new regulation on liquidity ratios on capital requirements."

If he refused to make any comment on the election issue for banks, the CEO of BNP Paribas notes, however, that Francois Hollande and the president-candidate Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to fight the deficit and to support growth.

One out of two was at least once in unemployment during its first three years of active life and the third was six months or more. Furthermore, the majority (70%) of the first jobs of CSD.

One out of two (52%) was at least once in unemployment during its first three years of active life and the third was six months or more, according to a survey by the Centre for Study and Research qualifications (Cereq) published this week. For this survey "Generation" triennial, the Cereq interviewed in spring 2010 a representative sample of 25,000 young people left education in 2007. After initial results released in 2011, it deepens a series of themes.

Of the 739,000 young people leaving initial training in 2007, a majority (62%) began his working life in a period of unemployment. After three years, the dominant path among eight "trajectory types" identified is that of a rapid and sustainable access to employment (58%). After six months, 80% of young people at least once landed a job (even very temporary). The trajectory analysis shows however that 12% had access "deferred", 10% are "dropout" and 9% have been unemployed for persistent or recurrent.

Thus, among those who experienced early unemployment, 20% have never managed to land a job within three years. The duration of the unemployment spell depends on the level of education: 56% for non-graduates (18% of generation), it was more than a year, for 27% of high school graduates and 9% of graduates (42% of the sample). Non-graduates are increasingly more difficult to find a place on the labor market. When 72% of young people generally work after three years, they are only 48% in employment in 2010 against 59% in 2001 and the unemployment rate reached 41% (30% in 2001).

"Precarious employment has become the standard for first jobs held," also highlights the Cereq, with 31% of the first hires made on permanent jobs. Since 1992, this study center, which depends on the ministries of Employment and Education, conducts every three years this type of investigation, interviewing the same age group after three, five, seven, and then decade of life.

Demand for credit from businesses and households in the euro area is expected to remain weak over the coming months, which should limit the risks of inflation, said Thursday the European Central Bank in its monthly bulletin.

Injection of more than 1,000 billion euros in three years by the ECB does not have a dramatic impact on taking credit, consumers and businesses continuing to play the card of caution because of the climate uncertainties.

"Leading indicators suggest that demand for loans to households and non-financial companies should remain low, at least during the first part of 2012," said the ECB.

She also notes that the trend that banks are tightening lending is confirmed. 

Thursday, also, Peter Praet, Executive Board Member of the ECB decided that the world economic situation remained "extremely complicated".

The main European stock markets opened on a note undecided Tuesday after a sharp rise, investors showing a wait before important deadlines, including the policy meeting currency of the European Central Bank Wednesday and the monthly report on employment in the United States Friday.

In early trade, the CAC 40 was down 0.1%, the DAX 30 is stable (0.04%) and the FTSE 100 gained 0.1%.

Values, gaining 2.62% Accor to 27.79 euros. Barclays raised its advice to overweight from equal weight with a target price of 31 euros.

Sodexo was down over 3%. Morgan Stanley said Tuesday it has reduced its board of equal weight to underweight.

0.38% total wins. The tanker has said it wants to maintain its goals of investment and dividend after the gas leak on one of its platforms in the North Sea, which he declined to ; quantify the future impact on its accounts.

Finance ministers of the euro area have agreed to bring the total response capability for emergency funds to some 800 billion euros, said Friday the Austrian Minister of Finance Maria Fekter.

After intense discussions, in the opinion of several sources, the 17 euro zone countries have chosen a minimal agreement that suits countries like Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, which the public does not want to pay for bailouts, sources said the European Union. 

This includes $ 500 billion of the European Stability Mechanism (MES), the permanent emergency fund that will be operational in July, and 200 billion already committed by the Europe Fund in financial stability (EFSF), the temporary emergency fund to be disabled in July 2013, told reporters Maria Fekter.

She said that this was added the remaining 49 billion of European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM), which had been the first response to the debt crisis of the euro area, and 53 billion bilateral loan to Greece.

A senior official of the euro area has confirmed these amounts. 

The EFSF has a total capacity of loan of 440 billion euros and 240 billion would not mobilized a mattress in an emergency within 15 months, during which the EFSF and MES will be operational in parallel, said Maria Fekter.

The European Commission, France and several other major economic powers wanted to help build the capacity of the euro area as possible in the hope that, faced with such a display of force , markets regain confidence in the long run, thus avoiding having to commit any such capacity. 

But Berlin did not want such a mobilization in advance, not accepting that if it is really necessary, while noting that the markets were already over and placated implementation of agreed reforms was more important.

With such a decision, the euro area will have something to present to the G20 finance ministers in Washington in April, during a meeting that will discuss higher global contributions to the International Monetary Fund.

Capacity building of the eurozone bailout is, for most countries of the Group of Twenty (G20), a prerequisite for increased allocations to the IMF. 

From this perspective, the euro area is now well placed to discuss the matter, said Friday French Finance Minister Baroin.

"This is a good signal," he has said.

Groupama, forced to sell assets to strengthen its financial solvency, announced Thursday an annual net loss of 1.81 billion euros, its accounts have been sealed by heavy dice depreciations linked to the crisis.

The mutual insurer said in a statement on spending in fiscal 2011 to 3 billion euros of writedowns and exceptional losses, including $ 1.55 billion on Greek sovereign debt.

In late 2011, its equity capital amounted to EUR 5.3 billion against 7.0 billion a year earlier.

Groupama has sold its subsidiary EUROCOURTAGE and its activities in Britain.

European shares ended higher Friday, boosted by the creation of jobs higher than expected in the U.S. and the high rate of private sector participation in the Greek debt restructuring.

In Paris the CAC 40 closed up 0.26% (9.12 points) to 3,487.48 points. For the week, the Cac 40 lost 0.39%. In London, the FTSE took 0.47%, the DAX in Frankfurt 0.67% and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index 0.54%.

European banking stocks, the most directly affected by the Greek record, started the session up but the sector index is then passed into the red and finished down 0 , 48%. Commerzbank has sold 2.48%, 1.03% Societe Generale and Credit Agricole 0.96%.

The Italian bank lost 2.76%, suffering from profit taking.

The success of the exchange offer of securities of Athens with its private creditors should allow a rapid disbursement of the first tranche of the new aid package of 130 billion euros to Greece, thus avoiding the latter a disorderly default.

The U.S. economy created 227,000 non-farm jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained at its lowest level in three years, to 8.3%, according to Labor Department statistics.

The euro fell back, however, significantly against the greenback, around $ 1.31.

European shares widen their losses Tuesday mid-session, and Wall Street should also open in downturn, fears of an economic slowdown in China and Europe, prompting investors to reduce their risk exposure.

In Paris, around 12:30 pm, the CAC 40 lost 1.48% (51.77 points) to 3435 points. London yields 1.00% and Frankfurt was down 1.43%. The pan-European FTSEurofirst index yields 1.29% to 1,066 points, its lowest in a week.

The values ​​of the automobile are among the largest declines. The European sector index losing 2.5%, weighed down primarily by PSA Peugeot Citroen.

PSA loses more than 4.4% in the Paris Stock Exchange after the announcement of the terms of the capital increase of a billion launched after its alliance with General Motors. The French group also announced it would not pay a dividend this year.

Traders also cited a market rumor that the Greek debt restructuring will not occur until next week. Athens has denied any extension of time debt exchange, planned for Thursday, but it is unclear what level of participation in this proceeding, which should enable ; Greece to delete some 100 billion euros of debt as part of its second aid package of 130 billion euros.

Monday, Athens had expressed its willingness to force private creditors to take losses on their debt as Greek, saying the agreed discount of 53.5% on face value of their shares was the best offer they can expect.