The Greek government has approved the cut of 30.000 public workers, implementing a preliminary agreement in this sense reached with the heads of the EU-IMF-ECB delegation. The new cut requested by Europe should serve to unblock the sixth tranche of aid decisive for avoiding default. Even if, despite these sacrifices, Athens' deficit will be 6,8% of GDP against the 6,5% agreed with the representatives of the troika. But much reduced compared to the current 8,5%. George Papandreou's determination gathers support on the eve of the Ecofin summit in Luxembourg. "Greece will most likely receive the next tranche of international aid it needs to avoid bankruptcy," Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. "The probability that the 8 billion euro tranche will be paid to Greece, in my opinion, is decidedly stronger than the probability that it will not be", said Fekter. In the meantime, however, Alexander Dobridnt, an official in Angela Merkel's coalition, said that "in order for Greece to become economically stable again, it needs to leave the eurozone, at least temporarily".
The Greece dossier will not be the only topic under discussion at the Luxembourg summit. The Wall Street Journal anticipates that there will also be talk of a mini-reform which should allow countries in compliance with the 3% ceiling on GDP to operate with greater flexibility on the deficit front to face a negative cycle. A greater freedom of action allowed only to Germany, Finland, Holland and Sweden which however encounters the hostility of other countries starting from Italy: the risk is to widen the gap between the two Europes.
The recovery of Libyan crude oil production does not imply an increase in OPEC production quotas. This is the view of the cartel's two biggest suppliers, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The markets, argued Saudi Minister Ali Al-Naimi, "are stable and in balance". "The Kingdom - he added in an interview with a Riyadh newspaper - is ready to ensure that the stability of the market is defended". The same position was taken by Mohammad Ali Khatibi, the minister of Tehran, who underlined "the lack of a precise trend" on the demand side.
Today is the deadline for the presentation of the lists for the council of Piazzetta Cuccia. The most prestigious "new entry" could be that of Francesco Giavazzi on behalf of Assogestioni, which leverages the 25% of the free float held by the market, while the Foundations, with a 9% stake, will propose the name of Fabio Roversi Monaco . Funds and Foundations have not been able to agree on a common representative on the board of directors and at the head of the board of statutory auditors. And so Assogestioni is also ready to field a candidate for internal controls in the person of the Milanese accountant Natale Freddi to replace Marco Reboa, already indicated by the Foundations.
However, the composition of the majority list is already known, which will not include Diego Della Valle. In this case the freshmen are Elisabetta Magistretti, independent member of the Pirelli audit, and Anne Marie Idrac, former president of the transalpine SNCF. In the meantime, last Friday the deadline for canceling the syndicate agreement expired: Commerzbank, Sal Oppenheimer, Santusa (Banco de Santander), plus a fourth minor shareholder, are out. Vincent Bolloré's share rose to just under 5,5%.
Let's start once again. Today the Stock Exchanges enter the last quarter of the year, traditionally dedicated to window dressing (that is, the embellishment of the accounts in view of the year-end closing). This time the watchword is to erase, at least in part, the memory of a terrible quarter. However, Piazza Affari closed the last session of a week with a marked decline, which saw a plus sign recorded, a rarity in a quarter, the third of 2011, which was among the worst for world stock exchanges in recent history.
The FtseMib index fell by 1,3% today, returning below 15.000 points. During the week the index gained 8,5%, while in September it lost 4,6%. Between July and September, the FtseMib lost 26%, which is exactly the same loss since the beginning of the year.
Fire Eve in Bpm. Tomorrow the board of directors in piazza Meda will examine the most burning aspect of a torrid game: the union's de facto control over the appointments and management of the bank, the subject of the targeted inspection in via Banca d'Italia. In fact, the agenda includes an assessment of "parallel agreements for careers and consequent resolutions". Furthermore, the board of directors will convene to admit the candidates from the majority list to the shareholders' register, who must be indicated at the meeting in order to be part of the future Supervisory Board. But at this point everything could be called into question. After the resignation of the internal leader of the Fiba Cisl, Franco Filettini, it was in fact the turn of Daniele Ginese, coordinator of the Fabi, replaced by the extraordinary commissioner Guliano De Filippis. A novelty that risks displacing Carlo Bonomi's consortium, supported by Ginese himself.
Not everyone can afford to receive a loan with a margin of 70 basis points on the Euribor. But Enel is not just any customer. And so Enel Distribuzione, wholly owned by the parent company, signed a loan agreement for 350 million euros with the EIB late Friday evening, which has also expressed its willingness to finance investments in the grid up to a total amount of 1 billion euros. The “Enel Efficienza Rete III” loan agreement will have a duration of 20 years (expiring on December 15, 2031), a 5-year grace period (until December 15, 2016) and will be disbursed by the end of 2011. “I am very interested to evaluate new tariff criteria in order to accelerate the transformation of copper networks into optical fiber investments". The EU telecom commission agent, Mrs. Neelie Kroes, thus anticipates her next ultimatum to the former monopolists: a sharp cut in the tariffs charged by other operators on the traditional network unless the former incumbents invest the surplus in fiber optic networks.
