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The first five Spanish banks will have provisioned an additional EUR 15 billion to cover the risk associated with their loans, putting further pressure on their finances while Spain tries to restore confidence in its banking sector.

Friday, the Spanish government has imposed on its banks to provision 30 billion euros, in addition to the required 54 billion in February, to cover both their claims to outperform their loans risk.

The move comes as part of a reform which is the fourth bank bailout in four years of Spanish banks. These have heavy losses with the collapse of the housing market in 2008, raising fears about a possible aid to Spain.

The 30 billion euros of additional provisions weigh heavily on banks as investors worried about where the institutions will be able to find the money and if this will be sufficient.

The Spanish government said that the state provide public assistance limited to 15 billion euros, and only in the form of loans convertible into shares, the banks which lack capital.

At the Madrid Stock Exchange, banking reform has not convinced investors. The Ibex 35 fell by 2.26% at 12:30 GMT, weighed down by banking stocks. Bankia, which the state took control last week, fell by 9.42%, 5.21% of Banco Popular, BBVA 3.63%, 2.98% of Banco Santander and of Bankinter 2.31%.

The yield spread (spread) between the Spanish 10-year bonds and German bunds, which serves as a refuge, for its part, reached 485 basis points, the highest since the introduction of the euro.

PROVISIONS FOR EACH BANK

BBVA, Spain's second largest bank, said Monday it would increase supplies of some 1.8 billion euros to comply with new rules on capital announced Friday by the Government .

The new provisions will be reflected in the annual accounts and will have a net impact of around EUR 1.3 billion, the company said. 

For its part, Santander, the first credit institution in the country, will have to register in its books 2.7 billion euros in provisions, in addition to 2.3 billion euros announced in February.

Banco Popular said it would set aside 1.7 billion euros in provisions, but added that he would not need public funds to achieve this. The bank nevertheless said it would take two quarters to comply with new requirements.

Banco Popular will merge with its smaller rival Banco Pastor, which amounts to 2.3 billion euros in total amount of reserves required.

For its part, La Caixa, which is currently buying Banca Civica, will have to set aside 3.4 billion euros.

For most Spanish banks in difficulty as Bankia, the fourth largest bank in Spain following the merger of several small savings, the new provisions will constitute an additional burden. The parent of Bankia, BFA, said she needed $ 4.8 billion to meet government requirements.

Although these banks said they did not need assistance from the State to comply with new capital requirements, the need for additional reserves could change this.

Already, the increasing problems of Spanish banks and government interventions, including the safety of Bankia, have revived the wrath of public opinion in Spain, a year after the outbreak the movement of "Indignant".

Tens of thousands of Spaniards took to the streets and plan to stay until at least Tuesday. The demonstrators had planned on Monday to close their accounts at Bankia to protest against the rescue of the bank.

Higher oil prices supported the results of Repsol, which announced Thursday up 4% of its first quarter earnings, excluding the majority stake in energy group seizure YPF by the Argentine government.

On a pro forma basis, net income adjusted for exceptional items and storage costs stood at 474 million euros in the first quarter, supported by the rise in pe Petroleum and good performance in the liquefied natural gas.

Including YPF, its net profit fell 3% to 635 million euros, said the oil group.

At the Madrid Stock Exchange, the action Repsol gained 5.03% to 13.790 euros at 9:10 GMT, while the European index of oil and gas sector in Europe progressed by 0.3%. 

The title still shows a loss of 42% since the beginning of the year, heavily affected by the announcement last month of the seizure of his 51% stake in YPF in Buenos Aires.

This expropriation should result in a legal battle around the issue of compensation for Repsol.

The group, which opens new markets, to unveil his new strategy on May 29

Lafarge announced Friday an increase in its turnover and its operating income in the first quarter thanks to emerging markets and improved pricing, allowing the world's leading cement to reduce its debt.

The group, which now generates 60% of its sales in emerging economies, achieved the first three months of the year sales up 5% to € 3.35 billion, slightly above the consensus reached by the editor of Reuters estimates from eight analysts who gave $ 3.3 billion.

Ebitda rose to its share of 8% to 516 million euros while operating profit rose 28% to 267 million. 

However, net income, group share, shows a loss of 44 million euros, against -29,000,000 a year earlier, reflecting restructuring charges corresponding in particular to the 500 job cuts engaged around the world as part of the reorganization of the group. Excluding these charges, Lafarge has emerged over the period with net income of 18 million euros.

"The group continues to anticipate an increased demand for cement, and maintains its estimate of market growth between 1% and 4% in 2012 compared to 2011," the group said in a statement .

"Emerging markets remain the main driver of demand growth (…) The prices should be up on the year 2012, and cost inflation more moderate e in 2011. "

CONTINUATION OF ASSET TRANSFERS

In the first quarter, net debt of Lafarge fell 13% year on year to 12.4 billion euros. One quarter to another, it is clear, however, up 3%, a trend linked "to normal seasonal variations in working capital (working capital needs)," said Lafarge.

The group's debt, inherited largely from the acquisition of Orascom in 2008, is still expected to decline "significantly" this year, without elaborating.

As part of its debt, Lafarge intends to limit to 800 million euros investment and reduce by at least 400 million euros in 2012 its costs. The group also maintained its target of over one billion euros of asset sales over the year, of which 71 million were made during the quarter.

Both activities are the subject of rumors of transfers, the plaster in North America, last active group in a trade which it is almost released last year, and cement in South Africa . The group must also achieve significant asset sales in Britain required by the Competition Authority to give its green light to the proposed joint venture between Lafarge and Anglo American.

"It is not impossible that these divestitures can be made in 2012," said the CEO of Lafarge, Bruno Lafont, during a teleconference.

The stock closed Thursday at 29.97 euros. Since the beginning of the year, the title took about 10%, after -42% in 2011.

NYSE Euronext reported Monday a sharp drop in its first quarter results, citing "difficult operating environment" and the resulting costs of its failed merger with Deutsche Börse.

The exchange operator announced for the period net profit down 44% to $ 87 million (65.71 million euros).

The total turnover declined 17% to 952 million.

"Our first quarter results reflect the difficult operating environment that continued in 2012 and will continue to be felt in the short term," said Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext.

The group said to include $ 31 million cost, including $ 16 million of costs associated with the aborted merger with Deutsche Börse. 

NYSE canceled the merger to $ 7.4 billion in early February after the agreement was rejected by the European antitrust authorities, making this operation the fourth merger canceled since early last year.

Since the failure of this transaction, NYSE Euronext has refocused on the opportunities presented by new markets such as the creation last month of its own clearing house for transactions and eventually moved away CHL. Clearnet, its supplier to date.

This creation comes as its main rival the London Stock Exchange plans to finalize the acquisition of LCH in the fourth quarter of this year.

American Diversified industrial manufacturer United Technologies on Tuesday released a quarterly profit above consensus citing better than expected demand of heating and cooling market ; North America.

Carrier and its subsidiary shows a 19% increase in orders for residential air conditioning systems with a sharp improvement in demand in late March. And this demand has remained strong since the beginning of April, said chief financial officer, Greg Hayes.

"The warm weather in March helped but it is also due to low inventory on the market", which has forced distributors to increase their orders, he said during a teleconference ; reference.

Excluding the accounts of three subsidiaries that were sold by the group, quarterly earnings totaled $ 1.26 billion, or $ 1.31 per share, up 19% year on year. It thus clearly exceeds the Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S, which gave a profit of $ 1.19 per share.

After consideration of past depreciations on affiliates to sell and other special items, net income was down 67.4% to 330 million dollars.

The quarterly revenue fell 2% to 12.42 billion against $ 12.71 billion expected.

Outside the U.S., the economic situation is more mixed, said Greg Hayes.

"Europe is horrible, I think it's the simplest way of saying things. Construction contracts have been really anemic and there they remain, so we do not see many signs of recovery in Europe. "

.. In emerging ……, sales remained strong in the first quarter, except in China, where the decline of commercial real estate construction has weighed on demand for elevators, has continued CFO

. United Technologies, the world of elevators and air conditioners, has confirmed its forecast for the entire 2012 , ie an EPS of 5.30 to 5.50 dollars for a turnover from 61 to 62 billion, up about 10%

A

. the New York Stock Exchange, under the United Technologies gained 1.12% to 80.64 dollars around 1300 GMT while the Dow Jones took 0.83%. 

The group will finalize in the coming months its largest acquisition with the purchase of Goodrich aerospace equipment for $ 16.5 billion.

It seeks to give three parallel activities in the smaller sector of capital goods-Rocketdyne, Hamilton Sundstrand and Clipper Windpower.

Carrefour, whose performance deteriorated further in France and Southern Europe in the first quarter, is preparing to face another difficult year as the worsening economic climate in Europe continues to weigh on spending for non-food products.

The second global retailer behind Wal-Mart has managed to stabilize its revenue through Latin America and a positive calendar effect, which masked a continuing decline in sales France, Southern Europe but also in China.

Its sales totaled 22.5 billion euros over the first three months of the year, slightly below the consensus of 22.6 billion set by Reuters. 

As reported, they sign an increase of 1.5% with a positive calendar effect and an increase in gasoline prices. But like basis and excluding fuel, they are virtually stable (-0.1%) and excluding the effect of schedule, they were down 2.1%.

"Trends are wrong in almost all markets, especially in France and Southern Europe," say the analysts of Espirito Santo Bank, evoking in particular a very sharp deterioration in the Non-food particularly affected by the crisis.

The non-food – which is affected by the crisis in Europe and competition from e-commerce as retail mix – is, according to analysts, the largest construction site in which Georges Plassat, Future Group CEO , will have to tackle.

Barclays analysts speak of a "challenging quarter" reflecting the magnitude of the task at hand. 

Unsurprisingly, Carrefour has given no indication of its expectations for the current year, while George Plassat will be appointed to head the company as of June 18

EXPECTATIONS OF LOWER INCOME

In the opinion of analysts, the upturn in Carrefour, which suffers from poor positioning of price, high exposure to Southern Europe weighed down by the crisis as well as a format – the hypermarket – in trouble in France, will take time and require investors to be patient.

According to those of Oddo Securities, "the year 2012 should be another year of sacrifices in terms of results" and the recovery could take three or four years. 

The first quarter figures only reinforce the belief of UBS: the consensus expects a stable operating profit of Carrefour in 2012 is "extremely optimistic", and analysts expect the bank a further drop of the EBIT (-18% after falling 19% in 2011).

Excluding the calendar effect, sales of Carrefour in France fell 3.1% in the first quarter.

Those of its hypermarkets, large black spot, have accentuated their fall to -5.8% after falling 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2011, accusing the largest decline since 2009 , when the current CEO Lars Olofsson took the reins of the group. 

The distributor, which was launched in autumn 2011 in a strategic repositioning of its hypermarket prices in France to try to reduce the gap with its competitors, mainly Leclerc, informed by the voice of its chief financial officer Jean-Pierre Sivignon that "some improvement was under way."

"The image of Carrefour prices in the first quarter gave signs of improvement," he said. But short term, the abandonment of major promotional events for the benefit of sustained low prices weighing on sales.

In Europe, sales fell 3.8% on a comparable basis and excluding petrol, leaded by the sharp economic deterioration in the South, especially Spain, where sales fell by 6.1% (-8.1% excluding the calendar effect), Italy (-4.6% excluding the calendar effect) and Greece where the fall was 15, 9% on a comparable basis and excluding petrol.

In emerging countries, the only good news came from Latin America, particularly Brazil, where sales rose by 7.8% given in comparable (6.0% excluding the calendar effect), while in China the decline has continued (-6.9%). 

These very encouraging figures but meeting the expectations of analysts have argued the action Carrefour in the morning. Parisian traders reported a purely technical rebound for a title that had suffered a 17% decline over the last three weeks and had entered a zone of "oversold".

Earlier this afternoon, he gained 1.09% to 16.25 euros in a market down 0.3%.

The price per m2 of existing homes totaled at the end of January 8340 euros on average, 30 euros less than in October 2011. Prices in the Ile-de-France, for the same period were down 0.6%. This trend is not sustainable. Paris real estate. St. Pierre Semard, in the ninth.

Prices of existing homes fell slightly in Paris, in 8340 euros/m2 average for the period between November 2011 and January 2012 instead of 8370 euros/m2 previously announced Thursday night the Chamber of Notaries of Paris-Ile de France. The downward trend in prices began in late last year, is confirmed, indicate notaries in a statement.  

Moreover, the promise of sale entered recently, which presage the final price trends, highlight the value of apartments in the capital between 8100 and 8200 averaged euros/m2 end of May, confirming a trend slightly downward (-2 to -3.2%), after a sharp surge in prices which had led to an annual increase of 21.3% in late August 2011.

For the entire Ile-de-France, house prices in Ile-de-France, for the same period were down 0.6%. The largest decrease is observed in Seine-Saint-Denis (1.4%), while a decline of 0.3% in Paris proper.

The decrease in the number of transactions recorded for several months, was temporarily halted because of the reform leading to higher taxation of capital gains on property that, with effect from 1 February 2012, caused an influx of sales. Thus, from November 2011 to January 2012, 43,000 existing homes were sold, an increase of 6% over the same period 12 months earlier, and even 32% in central Paris.

After the records set last year, the Paris notaries had anticipated the end of February the prospect of a market downturn of the former in 2012 on the entire region, suggesting a decrease of 5 to 10% less a "new rebound of the financial crisis". But this break "will be sustainable only if new construction is accelerating sustainable in Ile-de-France for several years," had they warned. In the provinces, prices are expected to experience the same slope, according to forecasts by the INSEE.

Low-fat diet for households and businesses, slashing the state budget and credit crunch could lead bank for Spain by years of economic stagnation, and force her to ask, such as Greece, an international aid.

Forced by the European Union to reduce the deficit and meet the new budget rules, the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised that the draft budget presented Friday would be "very, very austere." 

While the Spanish economy is already on the verge of its second recession in three years, that unemployment exceeds 22% and that the costs of bonds go up, Some economists predict the country a "lost decade" like the one Japan experienced in the 1990s and which he never fully recovered.

Others, including the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, consider that Spain could result in the entire euro area a new crisis.

"We signed a suicide pact, Europe, accepting that everyone could save," said Luis Garicano, an economist at the London School of Economics and a researcher in the circle reflection Spanish FEDEA. "Europe must admit that this creates a downward spiral that does a disservice to anyone."

The Spanish economy, characterized by a debt of nearly 70% of gross domestic product (GDP) and private debt among the highest in the euro area , represents more than twice those of Ireland, Portugal and Greece combined, which excludes its partners leaves the sink.

DRYING OF CREDIT

In financial markets, the financing costs of the Spanish debt have certainly receded after last year reached their highest levels for 14 years, but the recent renewed concern weeks resulted in a rise in yield spreads between Spanish and German bonds. 

"There is a risk that Spain forced eventually to seek financial assistance in order to borrow at reasonable interest rates," said Ben May at Capital Economics.

The draft government budget Rajoy will include at least 35 billion euros in savings and new revenues, including an increase in certain taxes and wage cuts and staffing in the Public .

And Budget 2013 promises to be just as rigorous.

Problem: Spanish domestic demand, a key driver of growth in the boom years before the crisis, is now more to go.

The country's GDP expected to contract 1.7% this year. In turn, property prices fell 11.2% in the fourth quarter of last year and some are predicting 30% price decline further. The construction sector, flourishing during the housing boom, collapsed after 2008, which resulted in several million additional unemployed.

The unemployment rate in Spain is thus twice the average for all EU and approach 50% among youth. The kingdom also displays the rate of development of the highest poverty in Europe.

POLICY DANGEROUS TURN

The situation of enterprises is not much better and even the most promising sectors are cutting their workforces, like tourism (11% of GDP), where the group Sol Melia had sell assets in late 2011 to reduce its debt, despite the increased number of visitors favored by the Arab spring.

"At this stage, in the absence of significant changes in reservations in view of the first book, we prefer to adopt a wait, and especially if we take into account the weak position of the Spanish market, "said the group managing director, Gabriel Escarrer.

Bank credit, it is virtually at a standstill. The financial sector, captured by a vast movement of consolidation and mergers, has instructed the government to strengthen its financial strength by injecting 50 billion euros in its balance sheets.

"I do not expect any credit growth this year: it will not accelerate as the economy slows," said a senior industry.

This drying up of lending in Spain affects both large, established companies that families bold enough to ask for a mortgage.

"We are one of the strongest Spanish companies but banks simply will not lend," says an executive from a leading company, who requested anonymity. 

His group nevertheless manages to borrow in the bond markets, which are obviously inaccessible to smaller businesses.

Some economists believe the situation in Spain is unfortunately similar to that of Japan in the 1990s. At the time, the shift to austerity operated by Tokyo in 1997 while the private sector was working to pay off debt had resulted in five quarters of contraction Japanese GDP and a soaring budget deficit.

"The recession will last much longer if the government continues to insist on fiscal consolidation at a time when the Spanish private sector debt reduction," said Richard Koo, Nomura Research Economist Institute in Tokyo.

"It took ten years in Japan to recover from this error policy. I would hate to see Spain follow the same path."

Consumer confidence signs outright acceleration in March after remaining flat in February, announced Tuesday INSEE.

The synthetic indicator of confidence was up by five points to 87 against 82 in February. It still remains well below its long-term average, keyed to 100.

All 20 economists polled by Reuters had expected an index to 82 on average.

In March, consumer confidence about their personal financial situation rose rose three points to -28, INSEE said in a statement.

That their future personal finances back seven points to -18.

Their opinion on the advisability of making major purchases is unchanged from February (24).

Households also feel that the time is somewhat less favorable than in February to save (2 points to 22).