Europe

Bollorè’s vision: Vivendi will turn into global media company

The chairman of the supervisory board of Vivendi Vincent Bolloré announced that the media giant is interested in entering the publishing business to expand its content offerings. "It ‘an essential element for the contents", Bolloré said the Culture Committee of the French Senate.

Bolloré, at the head of Bolloré Group, which controls 15.33% of Vivendi, he has pushed the company toward a series of acquisitions since taking the role of president. Having scored the operation of Telecom Italy, Mediaset Premium and Gameloft, to name the biggest dossier, 64-year-old billionaire, therefore, continues its advance on the European market. Without going into details he left to guess that this new campaign will once again supported by the managing director Arnaud de Puyfontaine.

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Putin in Beijing: axis Russia-China is strengthened

Now it’s official, the president of Russia Vladimir Putin will be in China next Saturday, June 25. Although the details of the state visit are not yet known, the Russian ambassador to China, Andrei Denisov said that "With regard to the upcoming visit, we have quite a substantial list of over thirty projects that are now in various stages of preparation".

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Soros: Brexit will pound-euro parity

George Soros takes the field in the referendum of June 23 in Britain and expresses clear opionion about the scenario of a possible Brexit, convinced that the pound would lose "at least 15%, but perhaps even more ‘than 20%", descending to parity with the euro. It would be a paradoxical joining the single European currency, with a devaluation with no benefit to the UK economy.

The forecast comes from the financier who in 1992 thanks to his bet on the devaluation of the British currency managed to make "substantial profits" for his hedge fund "at the expense of the Bank of England and the British Government", as noted by Soros in an editorial the ‘Guardian’. "It ‘s almost certain that the pound would drop quickly and abruptly" in case of victory of the’ Leave ‘in the referendum of June 23, and it would be a 15% devaluation of the "most disruptive and more" which took place in September 1992, Soros writes which is considering the pound falling from the current $ 1.46 to "below $ 1.15," then by 25-30% below the pre-referendum range between 1.50 and $ 1.60.

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Swisscom: bad news for those who will retire before?

Bad news for Swisscom employees wishing to take early retirement. According to the opinion of Syndicom, professional trade union, the biggest Swiss telecom operator plans to review its policy on pension fund by cutting the services offered.

The Complan Foundation Board, which manages the cash assets of the second pillar of Swisscom employees, think of suppressing the bridging pension for those who opt for early retirement, as Syndicom makes public today in a note; simultaneously, the conversion rate and the technical reference rate should be revised downwards.

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Bundesbank: QE could turn Eurozone engines

The Quantitative easing program of the European Central Bank could help bolster the eurozone economy. As stated in the monthly report, the Central Bank of Germany points out that, if inflation will return to 2%, the ECB will have to start a normalization of its monetary policy process "regardless of the status of public finances and the level of financial stability."

Previously, the Bundesbank had been strongly opposed to the quantitative easing program launched by ECB 15 months ago, as it was feared that such an intervention would eventually reduce pressures on euro zone governments, urging them to slow down on reforms.

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Brexit? Don’t leave us this way

On 23 June, the UK will hold its long-awaited referendum for voters to determine whether to remain in, or leave the European Union. Although the run-up to the event has been long and dragging, very crucial questions regarding possible outcomes, consequential scenarios and market reactions have only come to the fore in recent weeks. In this note, we summarise what we think are the most important facts and figures surrounding the event.

Unfortunately, we cannot forecast the vote outcome with any degree of certainty. Until recently, opinion polls and bookmaker odds saw the “Remain” camp in a more or less clear lead over the “Leave” one. However, in recent days, the odds have swung significantly in favour of „Leave”. In addition, both bookmaker odds and opinion polls have proven to be unreliable forecasters in UK elections and the Scottish referendum, so it would seem unwise to rely on them. Given the recent swings in public opinion and the narrow margin between the support of the two campaigns, we believe that the outcome of the referendum is too close to call.

To that extent, a Brexit is a very real threat, and thus, we look at some crucial what-if questions in a macroeconomic context. Since there is no precedent for an EU exit, forecasts are hard to make, but building scenarios based on plausible assumptions should help find some guidance for the time after the referendum.

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Swiss managers salaries 2015: the gap widens

Salaries of managers of the largest Swiss companies have not decreased in 2015 and in fact the difference between the lowest wages and the highest rate was a record of the last five years.

The union Travail Suisse in a note today announced the rankings, asking at the same time a solidarity levy on frameworks fees through an amendment to the law that governs the public company.

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Brexit threatens the merger London – Frankfurt Stock Exchange

While polls see the lead again Remain faction in referundum on Brexit next June 23, the fears about the exit of Britain European Union weigh on merger between Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange. The alarm is launched by the Wall Street Journal, according to which, even if the British were to choose "remain", the merger, which would create a colossus with $ 30 billion of market capitalization, is winning widespread skepticism in the German political world.
According to insiders, the Brexit would lead to severe obstacles to closing the agreement, due to expected pressures on the political front, an even stricter regulatory scrutiny and decided a change in the valuation of both companies.

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