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The leading global service to local shows in 2009 a slight decrease in its turnover to 34.5 billion euros, an increase of 44% to 584 million euros in net income.

LE FIGARO. – Veolia publishes results better than expected. What were the highlights of 2009?

Antoine FRÉROT. – The two major goals set at beginning of year, in the heart of the economic crisis, have been met. We develop a positive free cash flow after dividends – and to do that, we did not need our program of asset sales which amounted to 1.3 billion euros. On the other hand, we have achieved 381 million in savings, an amount greater than what we had announced.In total, our debt has declined from 1.4 billion to $ 15.1 billion.

Your new strategic plan installment does with that of your predecessor?

There is no question of strategic failure. We aim to quickly find a balance between growth and profitability. Veolia Environnement has formidable strengths: market inherently very porters, strong reactivity with a decentralized but coordinated and a significant asset base of 25 billion euros, which provides flexibility.

We aim to sell 3 billion euros in assets between 2009 and 2011 allows us to breathe our business portfolio. For a group size of Veolia, yield an average of 1 billion per year is not a revolution but a healthy, which allows you to concentrate on the heart of business activities.However, there are very few external growth.

What are your projected outcomes?

At a horizon of 3 to 5 years if the economy remains flat, we expect a profit after tax of at least 9% and operating profit up 4% on average. If the economy is recovering, after-tax profitability could exceed 10% and operating profit increased to 8% per year.

As for 2010, the year seems still uncertain and we do not see today's rebound. In this context, I maintain priority to cash. We seek a new economy of 250 million and 1 billion sale of non-strategic assets.Our operating profit should improve further.

Consider yourself an arbitration more radical in your core businesses?

Veolia Environnement is the only group in the world with four specialties: the water, waste, energy and transport. There is no question of separating from one of them, especially as new needs, new offers, imagine the articulation of these four professions. For example, in water treatment, it has already greatly reduced energy consumption. Tomorrow, sewage treatment plants become producing bio energy and bio-plastics …

Where will the growth?

From the internationally but not only in emerging countries. In Europe and the United States, the model of delegated management – a public water treatment or waste managed by a private group – is much less developed than in France.It will certainly be emulated.

Closer to home, markets are developing. Take the case of countries of Southeastern Europe. Dry and tourism, they will probably need new ways of managing water and improving the quality of bathing water.

You have a license for international passenger transport. When will the first TGV Veolia?

Our partner Trenitalia awaits approval of its trains. It is a rail regulatory authority be established to ensure that competitors of the station can actually make their trains run in the furrows to be allocated. All this should be effective in late 2011.

In urban transport, which is the reconciliation between Transdev and Veolia?

The process of consultation of the staff concerned is underway and we need the approval of competition authorities.We are in final talks with the RATP on swaps. This merger will be followed by an IPO, I hope the first half of 2011. Transdev Veolia will be the leading mondiJal urban transport and reach the critical size in a trade promised sweeping changes. I think including the payment of tickets which will be soon available on mobile phones.

Where is the proposed combination with EDF through your joint subsidiary Dalkia?

Here too, there are new services to be created. For this, we must expand the industrial partnership. With its activity, Veolia is already the largest European producer of biomass, useful for decentralized production of energy.There are also offers to develop the electric motor, which will soon revolutionize the passenger.

Suez there reason to suspect Veolia to take advantage of the strike force at EDF calls?

I have no fear of being disadvantaged in France or Belgium by GDF Suez even if its president is also head of Suez Environment. By analogy, this reasoning applies to EDF and Veolia.

Henri Proglio, became CEO of EDF, "he informed the Board of Directors of the exact duration of his" transitional mandate "to the non-executive Chairman of Veolia?

This was not on the agenda of the Council held on Thursday.

This is without state support that Ford has managed to overcome its difficulties. The U.S. manufacturer announced Thursday it had made a net profit of 2.699 billion dollars over the full year 2009. A performance to be compared with the heavy loss of 14.766 billion harvested in 2008. Over the year, turnover was down to 138.1 against 118.3 billion in 2008.

The group included supporting a very successful fourth quarter. Over this period, the second largest U.S. behind General Motors reports net earnings of $ 868 million against a loss of about 5.978 billion dollars a year earlier. The per share earnings is 25 cents, hardly less than the 26 cents analysts who had forecast. Over this period, revenues totaled $ 35.4 billion against 29 billion a year earlier, an increase of 22%.

Before the opening of Wall Street, the title jumped 2.68% to 11.86 dollars.

$ 500 million quarterly savings

To obtain this result, Ford has relied on reducing structural costs of automotive business payday loan . A total of 500 million dollars were saved in the fourth quarter. The group did not hesitate to pursue a higher price for its vehicles. His arm Ford Motor Credit has contributed to higher profits in this period with a profit before tax of $ 696 million against a loss of 372 million in 2008.

Ford is the only manufacturer of the "Big Three" of Detroit (with General Motors and Chrysler) have not gone bankrupt. It is reassuring for the future and plans to write "a profit before tax and excluding exceptional items for 2010, without specifying numbers.In addition to profitability, the group is including a U.S. car market between 11.5 and 12.5 of vehicles this year. In the year 2009 in the United States, sales at Ford fell 15.4% to 1.68 million units. Note that, after hesitating a large part of the morning, the Paris Bourse is moving more strongly in the green then qu'affluent results of U.S. companies show no surprises.

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"In Detroit, the" big three "want to believe in their future

After the visit of Hillary Clinton in Moscow, the U.S. business community hopes that the doors of the Russian market will open wider to investors. Witness the normalization of US-Russian relations, a first joint working group dedicated to economic issues met last Friday in Washington.

This initiative, coupled with the presence of large U.S. employers in recent business forums in Russia, raises many questions and some concerns, the European side. Europe remains by far the biggest investor in Russia.

While an EU-Russia council was held today in Luxembourg and the Twenty-Sept slowly resume their bilateral dialogue, blurred by the war in Georgia, Washington advance his pawns.

Political Stability

Trade between the two countries reached 36 billion dollars in 2008."For years we have criticized Americans for not pushing hard enough in Russia. Things are changing, and this largely through the election of Barack Obama, "said Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

In an interview with Le Figaro, the representative of American business lobby is convinced of the "potential" that holds the country and put on a revival of the national economy in 2010. This year however, the GDP should fall by 7.5%, according to the IMF. "Having been hit the last and hardest of all developing countries, it is normal that Russia is also the last to emerge from the crisis.And it has natural and intellectual resources that are extraordinary simply impossible to ignore, "Judge Andrew Somers.

The latter, which also boasts the "political stability" are soft against economic choice of Vladimir Putin. While most analysts accuse Russia of having fallen asleep on oil reserves when the price of crude burning without any modernized its infrastructure, it considers that this mattress inflated black gold has allowed it, at the crisis, to buy social peace and stabilize the ruble. After a descent into hell, the domestic currency against the dollar reassessed.

Oil Siberia

For the president of the American Chamber of Commerce, the market for consumer goods, public works with the prospect of the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014, and of course the energy are most promising.Recently, the Russian Prime Minister invited, along with Total, Shell and other BP, U.S. oil majors to Yamal, a land saturated with hydrocarbons located in the North. In return for transferring their technology and their know-how, Moscow promised to give them access to the exploitation of Siberian fields. But scalded by the misadventures experienced by Russia in Shell and BP, these promises of openness convince half the investors who are wary of government intervention untimely. Most recently, the boss of the group Rosfnet Sergei Bogdnatchikov, urged the Kremlin to restrict the granting of licenses to Western companies.

The Russian press also speculates on a possible withdrawal of American Conoco Phillips stake in Lukoil. "Companies are waiting to see what the conditions for investment.There are risks and companies must manage, "says Andrew Somers. "With the Russians, the Americans are prepared for surprises …"

BMW returns to form. For the first time in 2009, the Bavarian group arrived in September to halt the fall in sales in the world. They have even increased by 0.7% last month compared to same period in 2008. A shy embellished the group owes less to its sedans and 4 × 4, whose volume fell by 1.2%, as his little Mini, which jumped 9.5%. This performance, after a decline in registrations of nearly 20% in the first half, restores hope to the manufacturer.

"Nobody knows if the trend toward recovery is sustainable," said Harald Kruger, director of human resources and industrial relations from BMW. But we are considering the fourth quarter of 2009 and next year with cautious optimism.We will be growing over the last three months of the year unless the economy does not turn again. "The group put on a sales decline of between 10 and 15% this year. This result would allow him, as he rose slightly in the red in the first half, a profit on the year.

Audi nibbles ground

Optimism is required for the historic rival, Mercedes. If sales are still down (from 6.5% in September), it is, in the Stuttgart firm, "the figure of the highest selling of the year." As for Audi, it was worse than its competitors in September (-6.8%), but nibble market share in nine months with a commercial decline of 7.5%, two times smaller than those of BMW and Mercedes.

If all three German manufacturers seem to have hit bottom, they rebound remains uncertain.Audi believes it does not find its volumes from 2008 until 2011. The market premium has been weakened by tighter environmental standards limiting their powerful vehicles emitting more CO2 than small builders general models. Meanwhile, the crisis slows impulse buying cars for statutory. In the medium term if the market seems doomed to shrink, "the premium segment as a whole should end the crisis reconnect with growth of around 5% per year, thanks to a shift from supply to smaller models" , said Sebastian Amichi, director of studies at the firm Roland Berger.

The example to follow is that of the BMW Mini, sold 232 000 copies in 2008, while generating margins. With this success, the group launched its X1 Munich, small 4 x 4 leisure."We are targeting new customers, who do not need a big car, but want to continue to be pleased," said Harald Krüger. Audi is preparing its response with its future small 4 × 4 Q3 in 2011. Some manufacturers GPs could also try to take advantage of this trend. It is betting that his small Citroen with DS3, a small model to ride on the beds of the Mini. Another avenue of growth is the launch of hybrid models which work on all manufacturers of high quality.