ALICO AIG to sell its subsidiary Metlife by 15,500 million dollars

U.S. insurer AIG, rescued by the U.S. government sold its international subsidiary, Alico by 15,500 million dollars (11,350 million euros) to its domestic competitor Metlife, as reported by the company.

"The sale is an important step to settle the debt with the government," said AIG's chief executive, Harvey Golub, New York.

Metlife paid in cash and $ 6800 million will pay the rest in shares and other securities. By selling its subsidiary, AIG further reduced in size. Recently the group sold off its Asian subsidiary AIA, which sold for an amount of 35,500 million dollars to the British insurer Prudential.

The American taxpayer had to stump up more than 182,000 million in AIG to avoid collapse during the height of the financial crisis was the world's largest insurer.

Almost 80% of the company is in state hands. With the sale of certain of its subsidiaries, the new management team of AIG is to repay its debt and be independent again.

The subsidiary American Life Insurance Co. (ALICO) is one of the largest insurers in the U.S. and has the largest foreign operation. Alico, with its 12,500 employees, has about 20 million customers in 50 countries.

The buyer

With the transaction announced Metlife not only strengthens its position in the domestic market but also becomes one of the largest insurers in Japan, said MetLife chairman Robert Henrikson.

The long process was blocked due to taxes. Now, after reaching an agreement, the transaction is expected to occur later this year. Although they must first give its approval by the supervisory authorities of several countries antitrust because Alico has a presence in Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa, and in the U.S. and Asia.

AIG entered into a speculative spiral with complicated financial products that led her to lose 10,900 million last year. In 2008 came to throw the biggest losses of U.S. financial history, amounting to 99,300 million.

Yen and dollar fall, euro rises on worries about Greece

The yen and the dollar fell on Monday against the euro and high yielding currencies, as a jobs data better than expected U.S. on Friday and an easing in concerns drove the Greek debt investor demand for the risk.

The euro gained after encouraging remarks from key monetary authorities on the problems of debt in the euro zone. French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Sunday that euro zone countries would help to Greece if they worsen their financial problems.

However, Managing Director International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, told Reuters it was unlikely that Greece's financial problems will spread to other euro area countries with high levels of debt.

Trust is kept up after a data on Friday showed job losses were less than expected, raising the view that the U.S. may be about creating jobs and affecting considered a refuge currency like the dollar and the yen.

"Greece is taking a breather from a market perspective, while the appetite for risk is driving the market. This gave the euro a bit of renewed support," said Niels From, analyst at Nordea in Copenhagen.
At 1049 GMT the euro was up 0.2 percent at $ 1.3642. Traders said that the level of short-term resistance was close to 1.3712, its highest March 4.

The dollar index was down 0.1 percent at 80.355.
Against the yen, the euro gained 0.2 percent to 123.25 yen, after hitting a two-month 123.80 yen on electronic trading platform EBS earlier.

The European Union is considering the establishment of a European Monetary Fund similar to the IMF

The European Union continues to underpin its strategy to address speculation against the currency and to articulate the rescue of countries such as Greece, may be threatened by a debt crisis. Now the European Commission is working with France and Germany to launch a European Monetary Fund, similar to the IMF, the head of the aid to these States.

In return, would set stricter penalties for countries that exceed the limits of deficit and debt, as the freezing of structural funds, the temporary withdrawal of voting rights at meetings of Council of Ministers of the EU and even the temporary suspension of its participation in the eurozone.

"The Commission is ready to propose this type of instrument for the EU", said Economic Affairs Commissioner, Olli Rehn, the German version of the newspaper Financial Times. "We are working closely with Germany, France and other countries," but warned that any aid that comes from this fund "should be tied to strict conditions.

The announcement of the new European Monetary Fund this weekend broke the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. "We are not planning a rival to the IMF, but we need an institution to ensure the internal balance of the eurozone it has at its disposal both the Fund's experience as comparable intervention mechanisms," Schäuble told the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag.

Both Brussels and Paris and Berlin have turned to Greece to attend the IMF for help and have insisted that the eurozone is itself to look for solutions.
Joint initiative to save Greece

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced yesterday after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou, his country prepares jointly with Germany and Greece, an initiative to combat speculative attacks inflicted on the country Hellene.
Everything suggests that the creation of this new agency would be part of the plan advanced by Sarkozy, but the president did not disclose any concrete steps and just make it clear that they would apply to have room to maneuver if necessary.

"I support stronger coordination of economic policies in the EU and the eurozone," said Schäuble. These statements involve a rapprochement of Germany, which has always resisted this increased cooperation, theses traditionally defended by France, that a genuine commitment to EU economic government. The agreement of the Franco-German paves the way for the proposal for a European Monetary Fund is approved by other EU partners.

The creation of the European Monetary Fund would be the most radical reform of the rules governing the operation of the eurozone since the single currency was launched in 1999. Some of these measures would require even a modification of the treaties, which may hinder its implementation through institutional reform fatigue following the difficulties in ratifying the Lisbon Treaty.

Iceland rejects massive debt payments to foreign savers

Icelanders have been rejected by a clear majority, the law allows compensation to nearly 300,000 British savers and Icesave bank Netherlands, which went bankrupt during the financial crisis.

According to the polls on foot urn after the referendum, the "no" reached 90% of the vote.

The agreement achieved by the Government in London and The Hague to compensate savers had generated a degree of popular resistance that led President, Olaffur Grimsson, to refuse to ratify the law regulating returns.
Grimmson made the decision after 56,089 people, a quarter of the electorate Island signed a petition against the law and asked to submit it to referendum.

The original agreement provided for returning the 3,700 million (5,000 million) of outstanding debt in 15 years and an interest rate of 5.5%.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands and the UK have made an offer considerably improved at a fixed rate and variable rate in the fourth quarter.
But despite that there was a better offer on the table, the referendum was conducted on the original proposal as it was passed by Parliament.The Icelandic prime minister, the Social Democrat Sigurdaóttir Jóhanna, favored to suspend the referendum and go for a new agreement, but the cancellation of the consultation was not possible without the approval of the opposition.

Sigurdaóttir announced that it would not participate in the vote to consider the referendum and no sense that, whatever its result would not change things at all because it is trying to negotiate a new agreement.
Key agreement for closer to Europe

Achieving implement an agreement with the Netherlands and the UK is key to Iceland because it would open the door to the possibility of receiving international aid and propel them closer to the European Union (EU).

But without a new enhanced agreement with the Netherlands and British creditors credits promised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the countries of northern Europe would be blocked, which would put Iceland on a serious budget situation and the country would even the brink of bankruptcy.
Moreover, negotiations for joining the EU would be in danger of being swamped.
The rejected standard affects about 300,000 saved Netherlands and British who were attracted by high interest rates offered by Icelandic banks and that in the end were hard hit by the financial crisis.
The compensation of 34,000 German investors by the Kaupthing Bank already ruled in the summer.The cost of compensation to Icesave savers accounts for two thirds of Iceland's annual budget.
Proponents of the referendum have argued during the campaign that they want to achieve better conditions for the payment of debt.

Euro rises vs dollar on U.S. employment report expected

The euro rose against the dollar Friday in a small volume, pending the report on the state of the U.S. labor market, while the yen fell after sources said the Bank of Japan may consider more monetary easing measures.

The data on U.S. payrolls, which will be published at 1330 GMT, give clues about the pace of economic recovery, although bad weather in February could affect the numbers.
The consensus of analysts polled by Reuters was for a loss of 50,000 jobs in February.

Analysts believe that a figure better than expected boost to the dollar, while a worse than expected could be dismissed as the effect of the snowstorms, which would limit any adverse impact on the currency.
"The market is looking for signs of impending cyclical upturn in the U.S. and a number on the payroll could point to that," said Peter Wuyts, analyst at KBC in Brussels.

"But the climate is difficult to predict the numbers do not surprise me to market uncertainty following the release, implying that the current pattern of consolidation in the euro / dollar would continue into next week," he added.
In London, the euro was up 0.1 percent against the dollar at $ 1.3588, in a small volume before the employment report, while the dollar index was steady at 80.547.

Wuyts KBC said the strengthening of the euro over a minimum of nine months and through $ 1.3432, reached this week, suggests that the market has now absorbed most of the bad news coming from Greece.

Athens sold on Thursday with a high demand a 10-year bond, a day after he announced new austerity measures.

However, concern still awaiting a meeting between Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Meanwhile, the yen fell after sources said the Japanese central bank would discuss this month a new flexibility in its monetary policy amid government pressure to exit deflation.

"Statements on the Bank of Japan should have an impact on the yen and believe that the dollar / yen will be around 90.30 yen in the next couple of days," said Carl Hammer, a strategist at SEB in Stockholm.
The euro rose 0.3 percent to 121.36 yen while the dollar appreciated to 89.31 percent as yen, recovering from a three-month low of 88.14 yen reached the previous day.

Lego paste the 'spurt' in the worst year of the crisis

The owners of the Danish toymaker Lego are "very satisfied" results of the company in 2009. No wonder. In the worst year of the crisis, its net profit rose 63% over the previous year.

'Leg godt', "play well" in Danish, scored 295 million euros (2.2 billion crowns) of profits last year. The key, according to the company, the success of his toys on cities and 'Star Wars'.
Rival giants like Mattel and Hasbro, "Lego Group in 2009 increased its global market share to 4.8%," the company said in its annual report, but did not disclose its share of the cake last year.

The colorful plastic dolls swept Europe, Asia and in anglophone, although, interestingly, were not as successful in Japan or in the UK, according to Danish firm.

In this helped the firm's bid for the games. He tried this market segment last year with several releases in Germany and the UK exceeded their expectations, and hopes to export to North America and the rest of Europe this year.

"Overall, the global toy market stagnated in 2009. (But) the LEGO Group achieved strong growth in most markets," says the company. "We expect sales to increase in 2010," he adds.

Germany will not offer 'a penny' to Greece

The German Government does not intend to offer to Greece "a penny" of financial aid, according to Economy Minister remarked, Rainer Brueder.
"The Government does not intend to give a penny," said Brueder during an event in Berlin.

The official added that each country is responsible for their own affairs and that the Greek government should implement its austerity plan effectively.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will meet today, Friday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Meanwhile, Greek workers responded today with a new day strike called by major trade unions against the socialist executive last measures to reduce the deficit.

The General Confederation of Workers (GSEE) Civil Employees Union (ADEDY) and the Communist union Pame have called a march at noon through the center of the capital to protest before Parliament when it votes the approval of new savings measures amounting to 4,800 million euros.

For the second day, access to central Athens is hindered by the protest of about 400 former employees of the airline Air Olympis that have blocked one of the main avenues of the capital.
Public workers reject the cuts in their pensions, their wages by 12% and of the extra payments in another 30%, and also rejected the tax increases on alcohol, snuff, fuel and VAT.

All these measures have been taken by the Greek Government to address the severe debt and deficit crisis afflicting the country and has led him to seek help from the European Union, which, in turn, has called the country a plan severe to cut spending.

Nissan will recall 539,864 vehicles in the U.S.

The Japanese firm Nissan said Monday it recalled 539,864 minivans and pickup, "the majority in America," to repair defects in the brake pedal and the fuel tank indicator.

The recall comes at the same day that General Motors (GM) announced the recall of 1.3 million cars in North America to fix problems in the steering system and in the midst of the massive recall of Toyota vehicles.

Kevin Martin, vice president of Customer Service for Nissan North America, said through a statement: "We are committed to safety and customer satisfaction. We regret any inconvenience our customers may experience while we take these precautions."
Nissan said it has received no reports of any accidents related to these defects.

The Japanese firm said it is aware of three instances in which bolts on the brake pedal "is partially released, causing a loss of normal braking.

Vehicles affected by the defect in the brake pedal are the 2008-2010 models of the Nissan Titan, Armada, Quest and Infiniti QX56.
The second flaw, which is not related to the brake pedal, is produced in high mileage vehicles where the fuel tank indicator mark an incorrect amount.

The models affected are 2005-2008 Nissan Titan, Armada, Frontier, Pathfinder and Xterra, and Infiniti QX56.

OIL-barrel up to 80 DLRS before U.S. inventories data

Oil rose on Wednesday to the 80 a barrel on a weakening dollar, as investors await data on crude inventories in the United States.

The euro rose after a government source provided details of the Greek government plans to reduce public debt. A weaker dollar lowers the raw materials for holders of other currencies and usually drives oil prices.
U.S. crude rose 13 cents to $ 79.81 a barrel, after having advanced to $ 80.06.
Brent crude surged 8 cents to $ 78.26 a barrel.
"In the medium term, we expect lower prices by weak fundamentals, but by the time a positive tone prevails in the market, so it may be a higher pick," said Carsten Gritsch, analyst at Commerzbank.

The Energy Information Administration of U.S. (EIA in English) will release its weekly report on inventories of crude oil and at 1530 GMT.

Crude stocks have risen by 1.4 million barrels, while distillates were expected to fall 900,000 barrels.

The investor optimism in the best interests selective in the plazas of Asia

The good economic signs in Australia, with growth of 2.7 percent in 2009 and renewed optimism about the bailout of the economy of Greece contributed to the closing rally today in most parks in Southeast Asia, where only the Malaysian and Indonesian places closed lower.

In Vietnam, the investor market in Ho Chi Minh closed with gains of 1.26 percent in the selective VNIndex, adding 6.32 to 507.32 integers.

In Singapore, the stock of the city-state made a profit of 0.38 percent Straits Times index added 10.59 points to close at 2782.79.
In Thailand, rising in the areas of property and mineral resources encouraged the rise of 0.25 percent or 1.85 points in the SET index of the stock market in Bangkok, which ended its session at 735.04 integers.

In the Philippines, a session with increases in all sectors except the financial led the PSE index of the Manila Stock Exchange to move 7.40 units or 0.24 percent to close at 3069.29 integers.

In Malaysia, the collection and the expected benefits to the central bank's meeting on local interest rates dragged the index down to the square KLCI Kuala Lumpur, which yielded 1.97 units or 0.15 percent to close at 1286.10 integers.
In Indonesia, sales of securities of telecommunications and profit taking in mining led the index into negative territory JCI Jakarta stock market, which fell 9.50 points, equivalent to 0.37 percent, to close at 2567.09 integers.

As for the currencies of the region, their contributions dollar per unit were as follows: 18,544.00 Vietnamese Dong Philippine Peso 9277.00 Indonesian Rupiah 46.02 Malaysian Ringit 32.97 Thai Baht 3.37 Singapore Dollar 1.40

Spain: Franchise 'low cost'

The economic crisis is changing the business model of franchising, which has also pointed to the low cost. Difficulties in accessing finance from banks have reduced investments in opening of this activity, which has led to the emergence of new models of affordable franchisee. Thus, according mundoFranquicia Consulting, begin to proliferate the 'corners', 'shelves' or sharing of facilities, with dwindling investments.

You can talk about franchises 'low cost', in need of franchising power to cut costs and offer affordable products to stakeholders, recognizing the general director of the consultancy, Mariano Alonso.
"Many flags are optimizing their resources and significantly reducing or even eliminating their rights of entry to encourage new entrants and boost its expansion," said Alonso in the report 'The franchise in figures 2009'.

Alonso stressed that even some plants start to franchise-owned stores as a way of disinvestment, while others choose to outsource services to save costs.

Another phenomenon detected because of the crisis is the growing interest of the unemployed population by this type of business, a trend that began to worsen from the second quarter last year. "Even some people unemployment concentrated in one payment to deal with an initial investment," Alonso stressed.
Industry figures

Franchising in Spain, composed of 823 banners, reached a turnover of 19.635 million euros in 2009 and employed 22,660 people last year, according to the report mundoFranquicia Consulting.

These figures account for 9% of national retail turnover and 12% of recruitment of retailers, while the total investment stood at 4696.2 million, with an average investment of 76,112 euros per opening.

"There are no comparable data in the previous year, but the turnover has been maintained or have suffered a slight decrease in relation to the environment, while the number of channels grew by 2.4% and stabilized the opening of new establishments (+1 , 2%) ", has detailed Alonso, who in 2010 forecast to increase turnover, employment and the number of openings this form of business collaboration.
Specifically, the sector of hotel and restaurant turnover was more than in 2009, 6246.7 million, followed by food (20 channels), with sales in excess of 2,170 million euros, and travel agencies (31 banners) with a turnover of 1,356 million euros.

The hotel and restaurant also stands as the sector that generated more jobs, with an occupancy of 69,533 people, followed by travel agents (17,239 employees), food (13,172) and clothing and fashion (12,133).

Regarding the structure of supply, there are around 62,000 business units in the Spanish market, of which 82%, about 50,500, corresponding to duty-free farms and over 11,000 units of its own. Of the total, over 56% of business units belonging to the service sector.

In addition, over 84% are national brands, while foreign supply operating in Spain, 69% are European education and 21% American.
Regarding the external balance, they find mundoFranquicia managers maintained the entry of Spanish firms in foreign markets, primarily Latin America and Eastern Europe because of its higher growth potential than the domestic market, while the other side of the currency has stopped the entry of European channels in Spain by the difficulty of access to finance, but remains the initiative of South America, using the Spanish market as a gateway to European markets.

Brussels proposes new goals to try to revive its economy

While almost 25 million people are unemployed in the EU more than 4,100,000 in Spain, the governments try to think of how to depart from the ashes of the crisis and that within ten years there are fewer poor, unemployed and less especially less inactive in Europe.

The European Commission today presents its proposal expected common economic objectives by 2020. After the failure of the goals of the past ten years, new are more modest and realistic although it is still unclear how they will convince or compel states to comply, especially now that they poised to cut public spending and out of recession.

The "green economy and intelligent," a label that you like the Commission, aims to raise the level of employment in the EU from 69% today to 75%, bringing to 20 million poverty, invest at least 3% of GDP in innovation and technology, or reducing below 10% ESL, according to draft proposals to be formalized today and the Twenty discussed at their summit on 25 and 26 March.
The deal, for Van Rompuy

José Manuel Barroso, Commission president, has preferred, however, avoid more complicated discussion of how these goals will be met Herman Van Rompuy, European Council President, who shall be responsible at the summit to address the details of the application.

The Belgian did not favor the "sanctions" or "corrective measures" that defended the Spanish Government, but of incentives, such as providing more funds Europeans who do a better job.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has already written to Barroso to warn that the imposition of economic policy will complicate the adoption of the plan. Germany does not want interference in their decisions in this area, even protected by the Constitutional Court since the inception of the euro.
Warnings

In any case, the Commission will be responsible for publishing "warnings" if governments are far from meeting the common guidelines. But if they are only recommendations without political clout, the risk is to repeat the call history of the 2000 Lisbon Agenda, which was, in large part on promises.

The Commission insists that, if governments do not take seriously the new targets, the EU will fall into a real decline. "If we continue with a slow and uncoordinated reforms, we risk engaging in a permanent loss of wealth, sluggish growth, high unemployment and social tension, and a relative decline in the global arena," says the document.

Governments have a reluctance to abstract discourses common in Brussels, but the role of the Commission has improved compared to their initial versions: now places more emphasis on the current crisis and is cleaner in EU circles about the future, something that bothers those prompted by this

GM raises its contribution to 1,900 million Opel

General Motors will contribute 1.900 million to cover restructuring of its European subsidiary Opel / Vauxhall, which provides for the removal of 8,300 jobs, 900 of them on the ground Figueruelas Aragon, today announced President and CEO of Opel, Nick Reilly.

Reilly, who made the announcement at the International Motor Show in Geneva, said the General Motors contribution consists in injections of liquidity in loans. Thus, the multinational, initially expected to contribute 600 million euros for restructuring, bear most of the cost of the plan, amounting to a total of 3,300 million euros.
This increase in the contribution was precisely one of the great demands put to it by the German government to help them as Germanic Opel plants employ nearly half the group's employees in Europe. The other issue to be solved is the allocation and justification of the firings.
Something more than 1,800 million

Of the 3,300 million amounting to the cost of the plan, GM will take 1,900 million. For the remaining 1,400 million Opel will ask European governments together with an additional 415 million to prevent additional negative impact of adverse market development.

Thus, Opel reduced from 2,700 to just over 1,800 million euros the amount of funding guarantees will ask the governments of the European countries involved in the restructuring process. So far, estimates were that Spain should contribute about 400 million euros, a figure that now you should see substantially reduced. In any case, Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian said last week that no GM will "figure had asked some"

General Motors said that its contribution to the restructuring of Opel, which represents over 50% of total costs, is "a vote of confidence in the long-term strength" of its European subsidiary. The measure allows to avoid any risk of lack of liquidity during the restructuring process throughout this exercise.
Confidence boost

So the president of the U.S. multinational, Ed Whitacre, said that for the group is "vitally important" to demonstrate the commitment to the European operations. "Beyond the purely financial aspects, we see it as a big step towards injecting new confidence to customers, employees, partners, representatives of workers, dealers and European governments," he added.

Opel president stressed that the request for additional funding has been approved by the board of General Motors, and the measure was made known to the European Commission and governments of countries and regions involved in the process.
"We highly appreciate the growing support of General Motors, especially if we take into account their high need for liquidity and the restructuring of U.S. operations and the sustained weakness of the U.S. market," said Reilly.
GM reviewed 1.3 million cars in North America

The automotive group General Motors recall 1.3 million cars in North America to correct potential problems in management, related to 14 accidents in which one person was injured, the company said.

On 27 January, the security officials of the U.S. administration decided to open an investigation into 905,000 units of model 1100 Chevrolet Cobalt after receiving complaints about problems in management.

This campaign affects the Chevrolet Cobalt produced between 2005 and 2010 and the Pontiac G5 2007 to 2010 in the U.S. market. In addition, the campaign includes the Chevrolet Pursuit sold in Canada in 2005 and 2006, and the Pontiac G5 registered in 2005 and 2006 in Mexico.

General Motors has informed the initiative of the National Agency for Traffic Safety (NHTSA for its acronym in English), stating that the campaign is the result of an investigation opened last year.

The company stated that at low speeds, the steering wheel spins may require more effort than usual.

BBVA expanded capital to cover losses from its U.S. subsidiary

The heavy losses suffered last year by the U.S. subsidiary of BBVA Spanish forced the agency to carry out two capital increases amounting to 711 million euros to guarantee the solvency of its American bank.

Sources of soccer's governing body to Francisco Gonzalez admitted that the decision to reorganize the stock of BBVA Compass eroded capital ratios and had to replenish its own funds, which were entirely produced by the array.
However, a bank 100% owned by the parent, there is no obligation to notify immediately.
The capital increases were carried out late last November. That is, it was at that moment when the BBVA acknowledged the problems of its subsidiary and became determined to mitigate and to replenish themselves consumed by the hole.

However, these losses are not acknowledged publicly until two months later, when the annual results presentation acknowledged a breach of 1,071 million euros.

And it took two capital to cover losses has not been disclosed to the distribution of the annual report that the entity is required to publish before the shareholder meeting, which will take place on March 12.

During 2009 the BBVA in the United States suffered losses from the impairment of financial assets (resulting from late payments) amounting to 1,419 million euros, while 1.056 million were devoted to other provisions.

In the fourth quarter of the year was when there were 533 million special sanitation and another 998 million charge for impairment of goodwill.

These allocations allowed to keep the coverage rate of BBVA Compass at 57%, although delinquencies soared from 3.4% to 5.2% in the year to update the loan portfolio related to real estate, one who has suffered the crisis in the U.S. too.

There was also much more marked deterioration at the end of 2009. Excluding extraordinary write-downs between October and December BBVA Compass lost 122 million euros, when he had won 40, 42 and 20 million in the first three quarters.
The complicated situation in the U.S., home of the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007, is reflected in other sections of the balance of BBVA.

The second Spanish bank has an exposure of 513 million in assets considered garbage (subprime), plus another 13 million in structured products linked to toxic.
The first of the entries got fat at 22 million euros over last year, while the structured bonds fell by 13.

United States is one of the major axes of BBVA's growth in the future, along with its bid to China.

BBVA expanded capital to cover losses from its U.S. subsidiary

The heavy losses suffered last year by the U.S. subsidiary of BBVA Spanish forced the agency to carry out two capital increases amounting to 711 million euros to guarantee the solvency of its American bank.

Sources of soccer's governing body to Francisco Gonzalez admitted that the decision to reorganize the stock of BBVA Compass eroded capital ratios and had to replenish its own funds, which were entirely produced by the array.
However, a bank 100% owned by the parent, there is no obligation to notify immediately.
The capital increases were carried out late last November. That is, it was at that moment when the BBVA acknowledged the problems of its subsidiary and became determined to mitigate and to replenish themselves consumed by the hole.

However, these losses are not acknowledged publicly until two months later, when the annual results presentation acknowledged a breach of 1,071 million euros.

And it took two capital to cover losses has not been disclosed to the distribution of the annual report that the entity is required to publish before the shareholder meeting, which will take place on March 12.

During 2009 the BBVA in the United States suffered losses from the impairment of financial assets (resulting from late payments) amounting to 1,419 million euros, while 1.056 million were devoted to other provisions.

In the fourth quarter of the year was when there were 533 million special sanitation and another 998 million charge for impairment of goodwill.

These allocations allowed to keep the coverage rate of BBVA Compass at 57%, although delinquencies soared from 3.4% to 5.2% in the year to update the loan portfolio related to real estate, one who has suffered the crisis in the U.S. too.

There was also much more marked deterioration at the end of 2009. Excluding extraordinary write-downs between October and December BBVA Compass lost 122 million euros, when he had won 40, 42 and 20 million in the first three quarters.
The complicated situation in the U.S., home of the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007, is reflected in other sections of the balance of BBVA.

The second Spanish bank has an exposure of 513 million in assets considered garbage (subprime), plus another 13 million in structured products linked to toxic.
The first of the entries got fat at 22 million euros over last year, while the structured bonds fell by 13.

United States is one of the major axes of BBVA's growth in the future, along with its bid to China.

Lufthansa lost 112 million euros in 2009 compared with a profit of 2008

German airline Lufthansa in 2009 suffered a loss of 112 million euros (151 million), compared with a profit of 542 million euros (731 million) in 2008.

Lufthansa, which advanced the publication of results scheduled for March 11, adding that last year sales fell 10 per cent to 22,300 million euros (30.105 million dollars), compared to previous year's figures.
The first airline in Germany by 2009 called "difficult year".
Lufthansa's operating profit fell in 2009 to 130 million euros (175 million), ten times less than in 2008 (1,300 million or 1,755 million dollars).Due to this poor performance, the management of Lufthansa recommending no dividends this year.
In the Frankfurt stock exchange, shares of Lufthansa rose 3.3 percent to 11.47 euros, after unveiling the results.

OIL-barrel down to 78.50 U.S. currency by advance DLRS

Oil fell 0.2 percent to about $ 78.50 on Tuesday, with firmness in the dollar on concerns about sovereign risk in Europe, and also forecasts for a rise in stocks of crude and gasoline.
The euro fell to its lowest in nine months and a half against the dollar on Tuesday, pressured by worries over debt problems in Greece.

The market was also on the lookout for the weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute (API, by its initials in English) which will later on Tuesday, followed by the U.S. Government's own numbers on Wednesday.
U.S. crude for April delivery fell 15 cents to $ 78.55 a barrel by 1022 GMT, while London Brent crude fell 7 cents to $ 76.82.

The U.S. oil contract for April touched $ 80.62 a barrel on Monday, a record since 13 January, following the progress of raw materials driven by copper. But prices retreated as the dollar gained 0.65 percent against a basket of currencies.

On Tuesday, the dollar rose 0.41 percent extra.

"The dollar is the main factor, and if it continues to rebound, I expect crude fall further," said Clarence Chu, a trader at Hudson Capital Energy Energy in Singapore.
Oil inventories probably rose U.S. 1.3 million barrels last week amid increased imports, a Reuters poll showed while gasoline stocks would have grown 400,000 barrels.

For its part, the oil minister of United Arab Emirates, Mohammed al-Hamli said Tuesday that oil markets remain well supplied.
He added that prices of between 70 and 80 dollars per barrel was acceptable for producers.

OPEC meets on March 17 and ministers are now suggesting no change in current production quotas.