Up 22% of the profit of Intesa Q1

Net income of Intesa Sanpaolo, the first retail bank in Italy, grew 22% to 805 million euros in the first quarter, supported by gains on its trading own obligations.

The bank had to spend in provisions for doubtful debts of 970 million euros in the quarter, up 43% over the same period last year, to account degradation of credit quality in the country, hit by a deep economic recession.

Fears of a deteriorating economic situation in Italy, where Intesa makes 80% of its activity, is one of the elements cited by Moody's to justify lowering the massive credit rating of Italian banks Monday. 

Moody's lowered the rating of Intesa Monday to A3, the same level as the Italian sovereign debt.

Intesa announced that its ratio of "core Tier 1", financial strength, was 10.5% at end-March, against 10.1% at the end of last year – one of the highest in Italy.

The bank expects a stable overall operating profit in 2012, excluding special items.

Like other Italian financial institutions, Intesa ended the year 2011 in the red, with a loss of 10.1 billion euros over the years, having moved from significant impairment of goodwill to its balance sheet clean, hard hit by the crisis of the euro.

The title was down nearly 2% in the Milan Stock Exchange.

Santander publishes a quarterly net profit down 24%

Santander said Thursday net profit down 24% in the first quarter as a result of provisions made in part to cover an increase in defaults in Spain.

Spanish banks increase their capital to cover a funding gap of tens of billions of euros, this resulting in a situation where they had taken to going to an all- booming real estate sector until 2008 but has since become damaged.

Some investors fear that the deficit increased to the extent that more and more households and businesses are in default in a country in recession. In which case, a bailout would prove international may need, they think.

The largest bank in the euro area has reported a profit of 1.6 billion euros, above the consensus, after setting aside 3.1 billion euros provisions. The percentage of bad and doubtful debts to total loans increased to 3.98% in late March.

Around 7:50 GMT, action Santander fell by 1.22% at the Madrid Stock Exchange, while the European banking sector index was virtually unchanged at the same time.

The bank, which has strong income in Latin America, should constitute the bulk of its provisions on real estate assets in the second half doubtful, as its rival BBVA.

The decrease in profits in Spain and Portugal, where defects are up, but they also contracted in Latin America.

European markets open with little direction

European shares opened Thursday with little direction, investors conducting buybacks on the cheap while nervously awaiting an Italian sovereign debt issue and the numbers of industrial production in the euro area.

In Paris, around 9:35, the CAC 40 gained 0.21% (6.93 points) to 3,244.62 points. In Frankfurt, the Dax is 0.5% but in London, the FTSE was down 0.13%. The pan-European index Stoxx 50 is almost unchanged (0.09%).

Investors are worried that financial troubles are spreading from Spain to Italy, and little progress displayed by Rome in the implementation of structural reforms has revived the rising cost of financing its debt. Italian bond yields and ten years and is back above 5.5%.

While ramping up the "earnings season" in Japan, Europe and the United States, the day is also marked by the publication of the monthly bulletin of the European Central Bank (8:00 GMT ).

Operators continue to proceed cautiously buying cheap car values, banking and mining, recently battered. The index of bank stocks in the euro area, which collapsed 21% in three weeks on renewed concerns about debt in Europe, thus increasing by 0.6%.

Casino has sued the Galeries Lafayette on Monoprix

Casino confirmed Tuesday it had sued the Galeries Lafayette and their representatives on the board of Monoprix, a joint venture at the center of a conflict between the two groups.

This new episode of the standoff between the legal and financial concerns the two distributors one-year extension, from 1 April, the mandate of the President of Monoprix Philippe Houze, then he should initially return to Jean-Charles Naouri, CEO of Casino.

"Casino confirms having issued a subpoena last week to the Commercial Court of Paris Galeries Lafayette, Philippe Houze, Ginette Moulin (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Galeries Lafayette and whose family controls the group-ed) and Philippe Lemoine (Monoprix administrator) ", says one in Casino. 

"The objective is to obtain compliance with the agreements between Galeries Lafayette and Casino Casino which provide that holds the Presidency of Monoprix from 31 March 2012."

Casino and Galeries Lafayette, each holding half the capital of Monoprix, put in the public last month their disagreement on the valuation of the sign.

Under a memorandum of agreement between them, the Galeries Lafayette can exercise since January 1 of an option to purchase their shares. But the two sides differ on the value thereof and the Galeries Lafayette assigned Casino courts on this part of the file.

In late February, Jean-Charles Naouri ruled that the climate was "not conducive" to discussions between the parties and said he was ready to assert the rights of his group.

Casino estimates the value of the participation of Galeries Lafayette to 700 million euros while the department stores the value to 1.95 billion.

The credit was sent back to U.S.

The consumer loans have almost regained their pre-crisis dynamism Some U.S. consumers during the "Black Friday", Friday, October 26, 2010 REUTERS / Adam Hunger

The consumer credit surged for the third consecutive month in the U.S. in January, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. central bank (Fed).

Outstanding consumer credit in the country (2,512.3 billion) grew by 8.6% annually and seasonally adjusted data for the previous month, the Fed said on its website .

Using this type of borrowing has accelerated compared to December, where the increase in consumer credit was 7.9%. The increase in assets was nevertheless lower than in November (9.8%). Volume, growth in January was 17.8 billion compared with December, according to figures from the central bank, which is well above the increase expected by the analysts ($ 12.0 billion according their median estimate).

The Federal Reserve, the January increase was the result of a new surge in non-recurrent (student loans or buying a car mainly), whose growth was 14.7%, the highest since February 2002.

Revolving loans (primarily those made by paying by credit card) have slowed progress of the Fed index backwards for the first time in five months, 4.4% from December.

After collapsing for two years, the consumer credit rose almost continuously in the United States since October 2010 (it fell only once since then, in August 2011). The Fed said that the whole of 2011, the consumer credit rebounded 3.6%.

BP stock market jumped after agreement on the oil spill

The action was sharply higher BP in London Stock Exchange Monday, boosted by the settlement of a dispute related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Around 9:05 GMT, BP gained 2.12% to 507.0 pence. The European oil and gas index lost 0.25%.

BP has entered into an amicable settlement with the plaintiffs' lawyers who had seized American justice. Still pursued by the government and its industrial partners, the British company said it had proposed $ 7.8 billion, of which 2.3 billion to offset losses for fishermen. She stressed that the agreement did not value recognition of its responsibility.

Some analysts argue that the slate is less than expected for the heavy oil.

Jason Kenney, oil analyst at Santander, for its part, BP sees "progress to a margin of 530 to 550 pence in the short term (or more), and perhaps even grow over subsequent quently ".

In all cases, the agreement next week increases the exchange of a negotiated settlement with the U.S. government, in the opinion of analysts.

"This agreement, if implemented, encourages even more the direction of BP to try to reach an amicable agreement (with the U.S. Department of Justice)," said Iain Armstrong ( Brewin Dolphin).

Mitsubishi will build more in Western Europe

Mitsubishi Motors announced Monday it would cease later this year to build cars in its sole plant in Western Europe, the Netherlands, a move that was expected after the fall of sales on the continent.

Cars Nederland site, or NedCar, built the Colt and Outlander 4×4 but less than 5% of the total production of Mitsubishi, or 1.1 million vehicles for the year ended 31 March last.

NedCar production, jobs that 1,500 persons, fell to 50,000 vehicles per year, while it has a maximum capacity of 200,000.

Sales of Mitsubishi Motors in Europe accounted for 340,000 vehicles in fiscal 2007/2008 but had fallen to 218,000 in 2010/2011. 

Mitsubishi Motors is building a new factory in Thailand and plans to increase production in Brazil and China.

NedCar, based in Born, was born in 1991 as a joint venture between Mitsubishi Motors, Volvo and the Dutch state. Mitsubishi became the sole owner in 2001 having bought out his partners.

Zodiac Aerospace announced Tuesday the results slightly exceeded expectations in 2010-2011 thanks to the growth of the aerospace market and said it expected further improvement in profitability and activity for the current year.

The aerospace equipment anticipates organic growth of 20% of its turnover for the first quarter (September-November) and in the longer term, expects to exceed its growth target of 40% of its turnover on three years, excluding the impact of foreign exchange.

Zodiac has emerged on the fiscal year ended in late August an operating margin of 14.0% – it was a rate higher than 13% – against 11.2% in 2009-2010, with an operating profit of 385.7 million, an increase of 60.4%.

Lloyds posted a new quarterly loss Tuesday and warned it may need to extend certain financial targets because of the current economic turbulence.

The bank, 40% owned by the British government for a public bailout granted during the credit crisis of 2008, reported a loss for the period January to September of 3.86 billion pounds (4.5 billion euros), of which 607 million for the third quarter.

The group has suffered from declining margins and funding costs rise and warned that it may not achieve some of its performance targets in the medium term until 2014.

The group, however, maintained its annual target of the margins and a reduction of its losses on bad debts, an announcement appreciated by investors.

The action Lloyds, which has lost more than half its value since the beginning of the year, gained 8.3% to 11:00 GMT.

She recorded the largest increase in the European banking sector index, just ahead of Societe Generale (+7.9%), who resigned Tuesday to pay a dividend to its shareholders for the year 2011 to strengthen its capital without public support.

Lloyds was taken aback investors last week by announcing that its chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio was suffering from stress and taking time off, leaving a possible vacancy at the top of the first British bank details.

Dexia launches finalizing its dismantling

The Board has mandated Dexia CEO Pierre Mariani to complete the dismantling of the group through the sale of the majority of its subsidiaries, said Thursday the Franco-Belgian bank in a statement.

The administrator of the banking group have also confirmed the sale of Dexia Bank Belgium to the Belgian State and the sale of Dexia Municipal Agency for Deposit and La Banque Postale.

Dexia held Wednesday evening for a board to implement the new rescue plan for the Franco-Belgian bank, bank first victim of great importance to the crisis of sovereign debt in the euro area.

Dexia has officially launched the sale of the Turkish subsidiary DenizBank, Dexia Asset Management and RBC Dexia.