Money Buzz! Europa

Tag: paris

  • Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to three years for corruption

    Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to three years for corruption

    Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on Monday to three years in prison for corruption, of which two years are suspended.

    According to France Presse, the former head of state will serve only one year of his three-year sentence.

    But, taking into account the two years suspended, the sentence of one year jail means it is unlikely Sarkozy will physically go to prison, RTI reports.

    France 24 says that Sarkozy is accused of offering a plum job in Monaco to a judge in exchange for inside information on an inquiry into his campaign finances.

    The former president told the court he had ”never committed the slightest act of corruption”.

  • Covid-19 pandemic caused losses of 1.98 billion euros to the Accor hotel group

    Covid-19 pandemic caused losses of 1.98 billion euros to the Accor hotel group

    The French hotel group Accor announced on Wednesday that last year it registered a net loss of almost two billion euros and its activity decreased by 60%, AFP reports.

    Accor, the owner of brands such as Ibis, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman, said that its turnover fell to 1.61 billion euros and lost 1.98 billion euros.

    Also, disposable room revenue (RevPAR), a benchmark in the hotel industry, fell by 62% last year, and even by 88.2% in the second quarter, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Despite the crisis, Accor opened 205 hotels in 2020 and has a portfolio of 5,139 hotels in 110 countries. 82% of these new hotels were open at the end of December.

  • French bakers want the baguette to be included in UNESCO’s intangible heritage

    French bakers want the baguette to be included in UNESCO’s intangible heritage

    The French baguette, a mixture of wheat flour, water, yeast, salt and a pinch of savoir-faire, could soon be included in UNESCO’s intangible heritage, Reuters reports.

    But the baguette competes with two rivals to be France’s candidate: the zinc roofs, which cover most buildings in Paris, and the Biou d’Arbois wine festival in the Jura region.

    The French Minister of Culture will make a recommendation to the president in March.

    Bakers claim that traditional baguettes are gradually being removed from store shelves, even in France, by pre-packaged bread made on huge production lines.

    Therefore, inclusion on the UNESCO list would protect a set of knowledge that has been passed down from one generation to the next and protected the baton from impostors around the world.

  • Only 2.7 million people visited Louvre Museum in Paris last year

    Only 2.7 million people visited Louvre Museum in Paris last year

    Louvre Museum in Paris was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and the number of visitors in 2020 being 72% lower than in 2019, and revenues decreased by over 90 million euros, AFP reports.

    The most visited museum in the world was closed last year for six months, receiving only 2.7 million visitors in 2020, compared to 9.6 million visitors in 2019.

    The absolute record was set in 2018, when 10.2 million visitors were registered.

    In addition, if in a normal year foreign tourists represent 75% of the people who enter the Louvre museum, in 2020 the French accounted for 84% of visitors.

    Lost revenues in 2020 are estimated at over 90 million euros, while aid from the French state amounts to 46 million euros.

  • Rockefeller Center owner buys Tour Cristal in Paris

    Rockefeller Center owner buys Tour Cristal in Paris

    Tishman Speyer has acquired the Tour Cristal in central Paris, along with its partner the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments).

    The 26,000 sqm office tower is located in the 15th Arrondissement – the heart of the French capital.

    Built in 1990, the Tour Cristal was the last tower to be developed in the ”Front de Seine” area and is to date among the last high-rise towers built in central Paris. 

    Recently, Tishman Speyer acquired the Carré Saint-Germain in central Paris, an iconic 13,800 sqm mixed-used property on the prestigious Boulevard Saint-Germain.

    Tishman Speyer has acquired, developed, and operated 424 properties, totaling 184 million square feet, with a combined value of approximately $97 billion (U.S.).

    Their portfolio includes iconic assets as Rockefeller Center in New York City, The Springs in Shanghai and TaunusTurm in Frankfurt.

  • Carrefour to hire 15,000 young people in France next year

    Carrefour to hire 15,000 young people in France next year

    Carrefour plans to hire 15,000 young people in France next year, and half of them would come from disadvantaged neighborhoods, CEO Alexandre Bompard said on Tuesday.

    ”Approximately 750,000 young people enter the labor market each year,” Alexandre Bompard, Carrefour general manager told RTL radio, talking to workers up to the age of 25.

    ”They always have a hard time finding a place in the labor market. This year, for those we call the ‘COVID Generation’, it is extremely complicated. The doors are closed because many companies are facing difficulties,” Bompard said.

    ”We have decided to hire 15,000 young people next year, 50% more than usual, and I want 50% of these young people to come from disadvantaged neighborhoods,” he added.

    Carrefour has 321,000 employees worldwide, of which 105,000 in France.

  • Renault is turning its Flins plant into a recycling center

    Renault is turning its Flins plant into a recycling center

    Renault confirmed its intention to stop car assembly activities at its plant in Flins, near Paris, and by 2024 this facility will be transformed into a research, recycling and repair center, Reuters reports.

    The new plant, dubbed ”Re-Factory”, would regroup mechanical recycling operations, as well as car dismantling and reconditioning of electric batteries.

    Renault plans to employ more than 3,000 people in Flins by 2030, including staff at the Choisy-le-Roi plant, which is scheduled to close.

    The company intends to cut a total of 15,000 jobs globally, of which 4,600 in France alone.

    The last car assembly plant to close in France was in 2013, with production shut down at the PSA plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois.

  • Supeco launched its own e-commerce website in France

    Supeco launched its own e-commerce website in France

    Supeco, Carrefour’s soft discount brand, launched its e-commerce website, with a non-food-focused offering.

    The Carrefour Group’s Omnicanality and Customer Experience teams have launched Supeco’s first e-commerce site in 10 days.

    This e-shop offers nearly 450 non-food references, as well as a hundred in the Yapu Yapu category, destocking products sold exclusively at attractive prices.

    All of these products are available for sale, in click and collect, in the 5 existing stores. Customers will be able to find products from the home, beauty, high tech, leisure or toy departments.

  • French unions in Renault have agreed a 2,500 jobs cut

    French unions in Renault have agreed a 2,500 jobs cut

    CFE-CGC, the most important union from Renault, announced on Thursday that it has decided to sign an agreement that agrees a cut of 2,500 jobs in engineering and tertiary functions of the company in France, via voluntary departures, AFP reports.

    The signing of this agreement by CFE-CGC comes after a similar decision announced on Monday by Force Ouvriere, Renault’s fourth largest union.

    Given that the two unions together represent more than 50% of Renault’s employees, the agreement can be validated.

    This agreement is part of a larger plan that calls for the cut of 15,000 jobs globally, of which 4,600 in France alone.

    The 2,100 jobs that are expected to be cut in French plants are to be negotiated.

  • Societe Generale to lay off 650 employees in France

    Societe Generale to lay off 650 employees in France

    Societe Generale will lay off 650 employees in France, especially in the banking investment division, the French publication Les Echos announced.

    Les Echos claims that there could be more job cuts in the retail division.

    The French banking group’s net profit rose 1% in July-September 2020 to 862 million euros ($ 1.01 billion), analysts’ estimates.

    Revenues fell 2.9% to 5.81 billion euros, but also above analysts’ forecasts. In the second quarter of 2020, Societe Generale had recorded losses of 1.26 billion euros.

    Societe Generale, one of the largest European financial services groups, has 149,000 employees in 67 countries and over 31 million customers worldwide.

  • France and Spain produced the most pumpkins and gourds in 2019 in EU

    France and Spain produced the most pumpkins and gourds in 2019 in EU

    In 2019, about 25.000 hectares across the European Union were devoted to cultivating pumpkins and other types of gourd, Eurostat reports.

    The EU Member States which produced the most pumpkins and gourds in 2019 were France (129.400 tonnes) and Spain (129.100 tonnes).

    They followed by Germany (86.000 tonnes), Portugal (72.700 tonnes) and Poland (68.500 tonnes).

    In 2019, the EU exported 21.700 tonnes of pumpkins, squash and gourds outside the EU, 64% more than in 2012. These exports were mainly to the United Kingdom in 2019 (63%), followed by Switzerland (16%) and Israel (11%).

    Spain exported the most pumpkins, squash and gourds to non-EU countries (36% of the extra-EU exports in volume) in 2019, closely followed by Portugal (30%), ahead of France (12%) and Greece (10%).

    In 2019, the EU imported 31.100 tonnes of pumpkins, squash and gourds from abroad, 81% more than in 2012. The highest share of the imports in 2019 came from South Africa (17%), followed by Panama (11%), Morocco (10%), the United Kingdom and Argentina (9% each) as well as Brazil (8%).

  • Carrefour sold a 60% stake in its Market Pay payments platform

    Carrefour sold a 60% stake in its Market Pay payments platform

    Carrefour announces the disposal of a 60% stake in its Market Pay payments platform to AnaCap Financial Partners, a specialist investor in European financial services.

    This all-cash transaction gets Market Pay at an enterprise value of c.300 million euros.

    Developed by Carrefour teams since in 2016, Market Pay handles 1.3 billion transactions per year and manages 45.000 payment terminals and 5 million cards.

    The platform experienced strong and continuous growth since its inception. In 2020, Market Pay expects to post net sales of over 30 million euros.

    This transaction will result in the recognition of a capital gain of 245 million euros in the group’s accounts and is expected to close in the first half of 2021.