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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
Almost lost among the rail and civil
servant strikes in November was
a protest by buralistes, angry at
the tightening of no-smoking regulations
to come into force in January 1, 2008.
For many years, the licence to sell
tobacco for the French state monopoly
was only granted to those who had
served France. The buralistes were
courted by all political parties who saw
them as being very influential in small
towns. These days the licence has been
opened up and can be sold on as part of
the business. Much of the political clout
of buralistes has also been diluted by the
decline in the number of smokers since
the government imposed hefty tax
increases in the name of public health.
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
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EADS, which now owns all of
Airbus, said it wants to expand the
defence part of the business in a
big way between now and 2020. At the
moment, Airbus, which has just two
military projects (one making refuelling
tankers and the other making
transporters), counts for 65% of EADS
sales. EADS’s military business makes
part of the Eurofighter, helicopters,
missiles and other guided weapons
and satellites.
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
French hotel giant Accor, which has around 30 brands
including the Ibis and Formula 1 chain hotels, said it plans to
upgrade all its Sofitel hotels to five stars. At the moment, the
196 Sofitel hotels have between three and five stars. The
company said the move would increase the average room
rates at Sofitel hotels from €111 a night to €172.
As part of its new strategy, Accor plans to open more
Suitehotel (with extra-large rooms) and Adagio hotels in the
midrange sector where it already has the Novotel and
Mercure brands. It will build more Étap budget hotels and
develop its network of ‘traditional’All Seasons hotels. Under
the Ibis and Novotel brands it will open more hotels in
developing countries. Overall, Accor aims to have 5,000
hotels by 2010, compared to 4,000 now, even though it
intends to sell 129 poorly performing hotels quickly.
Initial market reaction to the announcement was not
favourable. The share price continued a decline which started
in October, and which threatened to plunge the share price
below its level at the start of the year.
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
A new €30 million production line for solar panels was
opened at Total and Suez’s Belgian joint venture
Photovoltech. The two French energy giants said they would
strengthen their links with the technology by taking over the
preparation of the silicon raw material used in the panels,
instead of buying it already prepared. Launched in 2001,
Photovoltech has received so many orders that it intends to
increase production sixfold in order to meet them.
Photoelectric energy received a boost in France last year
when the government raised the minimum tariff electricity
companies have to pay for it.
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
Hamilton Mills looks at the impact of November’s strikes on a scene of shifting political allegiances
It was inevitable that there would be
ructions when Nicolas Sarkozy carried out
his election pledge to end the privileged
retirement scheme for certain public
employees. Alain Juppé wanted to do the same
thing back in 1995, but the fury of the rail
unions was such that he backed off and Alain
Madelin, his Minister of Finance, had to
resign. But Sarkozy has succeeded in
introducing this long-overdue reform.
Some concessions have
been made to sweeten the
pill but the basic principle
has been established that
everyone should contribute
for 40 years to the pension
fund before being eligible
for a full pension. This
principle was supported by a
comfortable majority of
public opinion and the strikes have now been
called off, just in time to get back to the
serious business of Christmas shopping.
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