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European societies inspection and certification expect to benefit from tighter rules in sectors such as oil drilling or toys after a series of incidents and product recalls that have prompted authorities to show more stringent.

The spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent recalls of toxic toys and defective car had the effect of encouraging the authorities to create new rules, opening up lucrative opportunities for inspection companies.

This development could result in two or three percentage points of growth in turnover in testing, inspection and certification (ICT) sector by the end of 2010, said Laurent Brunelle, an analyst of Exane BNP Paribas.

The relatively high valuations of listed companies in the sector highlight investor optimism about their potential. The Swiss group SGS, the market leader, is trading at 17.7 times estimated earnings for 2011, the French Bureau Veritas at 15.8 times and 16.6 times Intertek English, is above average 12.2 of the European sector index.

The share price rose by SGS 17% since the beginning of the year and those of Intertek and Bureau Veritas have won over 30% while the sector index took 13%.And analysts believe this upward trend will continue.

In response to the disaster that struck the Gulf of Mexico, a new U.S. law may force oil companies to work with security firms will soon be on the agenda of Congress.

"Currently, there are some great players on the market for offshore oil drilling, such as Bureau Veritas, which holds about 10%," said Laurent Brunelle, noting that the French would be the winner if small rivals were not able to match the requirements of a market much more regulated.

A fragmented market

The market inspection and testing is in fact highly fragmented and composed a large part of small companies specialized in niches as diverse as testing raw materials, consumer products, agriculture, environment automobiles, all areas where government offices are also present.

The trend to increased regulation, globalization and therefore to the outsourcing of testing specialists to ensure the relay three market leaders, whose combined sales totaled about 7.8 billion euros 2009.

"Areas affected by oil spills from BP are the inspection and verification platforms so that companies that should benefit companies are active in the classification of ships.This is the case of Bureau Veritas, American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and Germanischer Lloyd, "said Laurent Brunelle.

SMS is also well placed to benefit from U.S. laws more stringent because of its expertise in testing materials.

"SMS is strong in oil, gas and services to chemistry with almost one billion Swiss francs in sales (in 2009) and is very active in North America," says Jean-Philippe Bertschy, Vontobel analyst.

Bureau Veritas has recently strengthened its position in the testing of raw materials by buying the British Inspectorate for 450 million pounds while the SGS search acquisitions.

"SGS would like to enter the marine services," said Laurent Brunelle, adding that Bureau Veritas was best placed to buy the German Germanischer Lloyd if it became a target.

NEW SEGMENTS INVOLVED

In consumer products, the turnover of companies in the sector rose last year after the adoption of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), in reaction to recalls of toys produced by Mattel in China that contained lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed by children.

'The CPSIA could be extended to all consumer products ", said Chris Burger, an analyst at Helvea."But it's a very political issue and the government does not burden companies with new constraints. This could jeopardize the return to growth."

The new EU directive on toy safety, which comes into force in July 2011, will have a positive but less significant on the testing of major consumer product that CPSIA because it applies only to new toys.

Furthermore, new EU rules that require tires to be tagged for fuel efficiency, the wet grip and noise will be effective as of November 2012. They may require certification companies to strengthen their motor units.

The European Commission gave its approval Friday to fund financial stability of 10 billion euros to recapitalize banks in difficulty as Greek by the credit crisis, considering that this mechanism is compatible with European Union rules in respect of aid.

This fund is part of a device based emergency loans to three years made in May by the euro area and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stem the contagion of the Greek debt to other countries.

"I am satisfied that the conditions under which Greece can use the funds comply with rules on support schemes for the financial sector during the crisis," he said in a statement Joaquin Almunia, European Commissioner for Competition.

The EU executive announced that the fund could be used until June 30, 2017.

Carrefour said Tuesday net income of 82 million euros in the first half against a loss a year earlier, and confirmed its guidance for full year 2010 by including a demand that remains strong in emerging countries .

The number two worldwide in distribution, after Wal-Mart, said in a statement it is an operating profit around 3.1 billion euros, as already stated mid-July.

The first six months of year, operating profit has already reached nearly 1.1 billion euros.

"We're quite pleased with the sales in July, a little disappointed by sales cons of August," said Pierre Bouchut, Carrefour's chief financial officer, during a conference call."The trend in emerging markets remains strong."

In the second quarter, Carrefour has benefited from the dynamism of emerging economies to reach a turnover exceeding expectations, nearly 25 billion euros, up 6.3%, offsetting a contraction in sales in Europe, mainly in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy, as well as in other countries of southern Europe such as Greece or Romania.

The group, which seeks to save 4.5 billion euros over three years to improve its margins, said he also cut costs by 236 million euros in the first half of the year, a target of 500 million for all 2010.

Asked about the Asian assets of the group, Pierre Bouchut has refused to comment on reports about a possible sale of assets Malaysian, Thai and Singaporean group.

"We do not comment on such rumors," said the CFO."Our goal is to build on certain markets and over time, without doubt, take the decision to abandon certain other markets."

"At what point will we take this decision? Will we really?" Everything remains open, "he added.

According to several sources, Carrefour tries to sell its assets in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore to focus its efforts on China and India.

This could generate some 800 million euros in the French distributor.

PTT, Thailand first group in the energy sector, has already expressed interest in taking over the assets in Thailand.

At the Paris Bourse, the Crossroad action won 6.42% but underperformed the CAC 40 rose 19.43%.

The stock closed Monday at 36.11 euros, up from just over 1%.

APRR has benefited in the first half of the resumption of road traffic, especially HGVs, which illustrates the improvement in economic conditions.

The net number four European sector, which has already published in July sales up 6% in the second quarter, up 16.3% to 174 million euros and EBIT of 5 , 1% to 422 million, as the EBITDA (+5.1% to 631 million).

Traffic, measured in number of miles traveled is up 3.1% over the first half of 2009.

Traffic car (VL), which had been assigned to the first quarter by multiple snowfalls in France, has benefited the reverse in the second quarter of prolonged disruption to air transport and rail in April. Eventually, it rose 2.6% over the first half of 2009.

The truck traffic (PL) has benefited from improved economic and confirmed its recovery with an increase of 5.8% over the first half of 2009.However, there remains 12% lower traffic recorded in the first half of 2008.

"The summer so far confirms the recovery of HGV traffic since the beginning of the first quarter, and the positive trend of development of light vehicle traffic," the group notes in a statement.

APRR estimated that the increase in toll revenue resulting from traffic recovery in 2010 will allow a further improvement in EBITDA margin (67% off construction at S1 and 68% in 2009).

Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône, a subsidiary of construction group Eiffage and concessions, is currently the subject of a bid withdrawal Eiffarie initiated by the joint venture between Eiffage and Australia's Macquarie has a concession at the network APRR Privatization of French motorways in 2005.

The President of the General Council of the Saone-et-Loire, the Socialist Arnaud Montebourg took the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) to try to block the exit of the Exchange APRR, because the privatization of the concessionaire would be integral.

Before the publication of these results, the action APRR closed Friday at 54.0 euros (+0.15%), which translates into a market capitalization of around six billion euros.

The action Accor is the largest increase in the CAC 40 Tuesday morning at the Paris Stock Exchange after the announcement by the group of transfer walls 48 of its hotels in Europe for 367 million euros and an insurer a property company.

"The achievement of a significant number of assignments, the return of property investment companies in the market for hotels and good conditions of the transaction, all this confirms the potential value creation of the group's property portfolio," said a trader.

He added that Accor, which publishes Thursday its first half results, "is ahead of its targets on asset disposals, which confirms the willingness of management to accelerate the deleveraging of the group.

CM-CIC Securities considers the "positive set" and also stresses that it "is in line with the strategy" asset-right "Accor launched this year and will result in debt reduction the coming years.

It "also addresses the second goal of Accor, namely get flexibility on the rent with a lease variable," said the broker, which reiterates its advice to buy with a target price of 32 euros.

Credit Suisse is neutral and maintains its price target to 26 euros in the expectation of semi.The broker believes that the disposals will have a limited impact on earnings per share.

The bank added that its 26 euro price target incorporates the potential for recovery of Accor.

The sale announced Monday walls was performed for 80% of the amount with Predica insurance arm of Credit Agricole, and the rest with the Land Walls, a subsidiary of Land Regions.

At 11:10, Accor gains 0.49% to 23.475 euros while the CAC 40 lost 1.37%. Property Walls is 0.35% and Land areas lost 1.21%.

The Spanish bank Santander has agreed to buy 318 branches from RBS in the UK for about 1.65 billion pounds (1.98 billion euros).

The Spanish giant has also announced it would inject 4.46 billion pounds of capital into its UK business to "support the organic growth and inorganic and finance the reorganization of group companies in the United Kingdom."

Santander is considering an IPO for a portion of its UK business, told Reuters sources familiar with the matter.The product of such an operation would allow it to recover some of his investment.

Santander was in exclusive talks with RBS having long been considered the frontrunner to buy these agencies, which should enable it to develop its activities towards small and medium enterprises.

Santander said the recovery of this agreement could be adjusted to the date of its completion, expected in December 2011.

The price represents a premium of 350 million pounds compared to the net assets, valued at 1.3 billion pounds in late 2009.

"Santander buys assets at very reasonable prices in the countries it already knows where it already has a presence, technological infrastructure, which makes easier the realization of synergies and it brings out a higher return on equity , "said Arturo de Frias, an analyst at Evolution Securities.

The Spanish group made nearly 17% of its profits in Britain, against 22% on the Spanish market of retail banking.

The methods of making and release of stress testing banks continued Tuesday to divide the states of the European Union, which will continue discussions on this subject in the coming days.

Meeting in Brussels on the occasion of the monthly meeting of Ecofin, the finance ministers of the Twenty-Seven have reported an agreement in principle to have the greatest possible transparency in the publication of test results but no have not provided clarifications on the exact criteria that will be made public.

"Introducing stress test, which was held this morning and repeated by the Commission, Ministers, Central Bank, it really will give the greatest possible transparency," said the Belgian minister Finance Didier Reynders, on behalf of the six-month presidency of the European Union.

"This is the reason we have confirmed that States were ready to respond with action if necessary to consolidate the position of either institution," he added.

Nearly one week after publication by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) from the list of 91 banks that are under the stress tests and outline the options chosen, the exercise remains unclear.

According to several European sources, several countries have expressed reluctance to publish certain ratios obtained in these tests.

PUBLICATION IN TWO TIME

France, in a contribution to the work of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), the body which prepares the meetings of the Ecofin council, has asked these days in particular the question to reveal whether or not the exposure of banks to sovereign debt ., "said one of those sources.

She also stressed the difficulty of harmonizing one institution to another to calculate the ratio of Tier commitments of a bank compared to its equity "hard".

Finally, a ratio to take into account the exposure of banks to a potential liquidity shock is also one of reflection and discussion with other countries, "said this source.

Regarding publication, it will be done in two stages, Didier Reynders said: July 23, the consolidated results of the 91 banking groups will be published then, within two weeks, institutions with branches of other countries will detail the results unbound.

Asked how he decided whether a bank will succeed or not the tests, the Commissioner of Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, has said his side should be that banks are resistant to the criteria individually, but also in whole.

"All this will be covered by stress testing," he said.

These discussions around the criteria for publication are particularly difficult and sensitive because they can greatly alter the ranking between banks need recapitalization and healthy banks.

"Everyone looks at his door (…) And everyone has their own definition of transparency," said one diplomat.

TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS

Didier Reynders said the CEf had been instructed to continue technical discussions to coordinate and organize the publication of results.

"There is no problem on the selection (criteria).It is simply a problem of coordination, ensuring at the same time to publish all the figures, "he said.

Monday, after a meeting of the Eurogroup, the French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde, said that several criteria had been detailed by ministers.

"These include situations are very stressed in higher CDS (credit default swaps) and spreads," noted the minister, while noting also that the deliberations and discussions would continue until the eve of publication of results, scheduled for July 23.

"Our work will continue until July 22.There will also Teleconference (finance ministers) that day and the conversations will take place until the last moment, "she said.

Asked about possible bank recapitalization, the minister said several countries had "underfoot", including France, Spain or Germany, which plans to support the sector, introduced at the height of the crisis in late 2008 are still active or can be reactivated.

The Nikkei closed up 2.76% Thursday in favor of upbeat earnings outlooks from State Street, bodes well before the season results, especially as investors consider too the recent decline in spot Tokyo.

The Nikkei gained 256.09 points to 9,535.74 points and the broader TOPIX, took 19.51 points (2.32%) to 861.02 points.

State Street, one of the largest institutional investors in the world, announced that its second quarter results would exceed expectations.

This ad has supported the Japanese banking sector.Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group jumped 3.38%, respectively, to 428 yen, and 2.96%, to 2,679 yen.

The optimism generated by prospects of State Street on the quality of the upcoming earnings season has also benefited the exporters.

The semiconductor equipment supplier Tokyo Electron, the specialist digital cameras Canon, the manufacturer of semiconductor Advantest, and automaker Honda Motor have thus gained between 3.3 and 6.03%.

American Airlines Continental Airlines and United Airlines (UAL) announced Monday their merger for approximately $ 3 billion to form the world's largest airline at Delta Air Lines. This fusion is done by exchange of shares with no added bonus, according to the statement released by United Airlines. Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders will receive 1.05 share of Continental United Continental title for each, valuing Continental at about $ 3 billion during Friday.

Following the merger, shareholders of United will hold approximately 55% stake in the merged entity and those of Continental 45%.The two companies expect annual synergies of about 1 to 1.2 billion by 2013 and the new company should reach an annual turnover of 29 billion dollars.

The transaction, which must still be approved by competition authorities, should be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2010. The new airline will be called United and based in Chicago. The aircraft will fly under the colors and logos of the company Continental, with the name United. The group will be led by current CEO of Continental, Jeff Smisek. Glenn Tilton, CEO of UAL will present non-executive chairman.

World number one passenger

If the merger is approved, the new company will rank first among world as a carrier of passengers to Delta Airlines.

Together, the two groups serve 370 destinations in 59 countries.They carry on board their aircraft more than 144 million passengers per year. "The two companies are complementary," last week estimated Jared Harckham, an analyst at consulting firm SH & E specialist, told AFP. "United is well positioned in the Pacific, Chicago, Washington, Denver and in California, while Continental is well established in New York, South America and the Caribbean," he stressed. The two companies had already negotiated a reconciliation two years ago, which had failed.

Since the economic crisis has reinforced the concentration scenarios in the aviation sector. The last important approximation goes back to 2008: Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines have merged to form the current world number one.

Britain and Germany in their sights the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next month to advance the case of a tax for international banking to avoid recourse to public funds if bailout .

A few months after Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched a whole series of ideas intended to pay for their own rescue banks, Finance Minister Alistair Darling said Tuesday that "there are now more countries that agree on the need for an international tax on systemic banks.

"We must put it out quickly and I urge as meaning the international finance ministers next month in Washington," said Alistair Darling in Parliament.

"I agree with those who say that such a tax must be coordinated at international level to go solo would cost thousands of jobs, not just in London but across the country, has he added.

If the tax credit follows the British model provided the United States or 0.15% annually on total assets, it would raise 3.6 billion pounds (4.0 billion euros) annually, according Reuters estimates.

The conservative opposition, which could win the May elections, said she would put forward its own proposal for a tax credit even if there was no agreement among the Group of Twenty (G20) .

The project of the Ministry of Finance shows that German banks will all contribute to a fund of any rescues in the future, contributions are based on the size and risks to the financial system.

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said on Wednesday that such a tax could help to raise one billion euros.

The German government hopes that a proposal be agreed next week at the Council of Ministers in order to convert the bill by the end of the first half.

"The resources collected in this fund will be available to finance future restructuring and divestiture measures for systemic banks," reads the German project."All banks in Germany will be obliged to contribute to this fund.

The document says nothing specific about the duration of levying the tax, but he noted that the Ministry of Finance will monitor continuously the application to see if it is "tolerable".

Legal experts say it's the depositor who ultimately pay the tax."The only real solution to this is to ensure that banks are not subject to this tax can not legally be put into competition in the territory covered, in other words, is protectionism National, "said Simon Gleeson of Clifford Chance.

NOT FOR TOBIN TAX

This idea of a tax that affects the balance sheets of banks began to take hold and is another approach to the problem of "too big to fail", a term designating the banks that have a position such that their bankruptcy would destabilize the financial system, as was the case of investment bank Lehman Brothers.

States want to put in place arrangements so that these banks can not now rely on public money if they find themselves in difficulty.

Finance ministers of the G20 last November asked the International Monetary Fund in April to submit proposals for funding bank bailouts.

The IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said last week that a Tobin tax on financial transactions, that Great Britain and Germany wanted initially, was inapplicable.

Another obstacle to the implementation of such a tax is the opposition of the United States and Canada but it is generally thought that Dominique Strauss-Kahn will propose some sort of tax on bank balance sheets.

Banks do not like.They argue that the tax burden will be a new addition to the fact that they will meet the future capital requirements and tighter liquidity.

The Tobin tax, named after the Nobel Prize in economics James Tobin, was to apply the principle of transaction exchange spot market.