Weakness in Euro Drives Indexes Lower in Europe

Mayank Mehta
15 Mar, 2010
New York City

The euro continued to trade weak ahead of finance ministers meeting today. Phillip-Van Heusen Corp agreed to acquire Tommy Hilfiger for

[R]7:00 PM Frankfurt, Paris; 1:00 PM New York – The euro continued to trade weak ahead of finance ministers meeting today. Phillip-Van Heusen Corp agreed to acquire Tommy Hilfiger for €2.2 billion from Apax Partners LP. Altran Technologies SA dropped 2% after it swung to a loss in 2009. Krones AG offered cautious outlook for 2010.[/R]

European Market indexes closed lower as the European political leaders and EU regulators debate the size and the details of Greece bailout. The media reports have suggested the bailout may be as large as €55 billion.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the decision regarding Greece may not be forthcoming after today’s meeting.

Finance ministers of the euro zone ministers are meeting today followed by a wider area of 27 nations’ finance ministers tomorrow.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 20.87 or 0.37% to 5,604.78, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 18.53 or 0.47% to close at 3,908.87, in Frankfurt DAX index lower 14.43 or 0.24% to close at 5,930.68. In Zurich trading SMI increased 9.39 or 0.14% to close at 6,845.99.

Gainers & Losers

Air France-KLM rose 0.1% to €10.86 and the airline may face new competition after Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Officer Temel Kotil said Central Europe is a region of interest.

Altran Technologies SA fell 1.8% to €3.77 and the engineering and technology consulting company said 2009 revenues fell 15% to €1.40 billion from €1.65 billion a year ago. Net loss for the year was €74.7 million compared to net profit of €11.4 million a year ago.

Assicurazioni Generali SpA the largest Italian insurer fell 0.1% to €17.91.

Banco Santander SA rose 0.3% to €10.36 and Deutsche Bank AG the bank dropped 0.8% to €52.44.

Deutsche Telekom AG fell 0.9% to €9.79.

EEMS Italia SpA The Italian Company that assembles and tests memory chips increased 4.7% to €1.40.

Enel SpA rose 0.1% to €4.1% after the energy company wrote yesterday to 30 banks to extend a never-used credit line of €7 billion ($9.8 billion) that expires this year to €8 billion, according to a report quoted by Bloomberg and published by Il Sole 24 Ore.

Krones AG fell 1.7% to €38.90 after the maker of bottling and packaging equipment announced that in view of developments over recent months, it is cautiously optimistic for 2010. For 2009, the company reported revenue of €1,865 million.

Loewe AG the television maker rose 3.6% to €9.54.

Metro AG rose 1.2% to €42.16 after the retailer was upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Phillip Van Heusen Corp agreed to acquire Amsterdam based Tommy Hilfiger BV from leveraged buyout group Apax Partners LP for €2.2 billion. Apax will receive €1.92 billion in cash and €276 million of common stock of Phillip Van-Heusen.

Phillip-Van Heusen will issue 8.7 million new shares to raise $200 million and raise $2.45 billion of senior secured debt and refinance $300 million of bonds.

The company said in a statement that the acquisition will add 25 cents a share in 2010 adjusted earnings and as much as $1 a share in the next year earnings.

Apax acquired Tommy Hilfiger in 2006 for $1.6 billion.

PagesJaunes Groupe SA the publisher of printed and online directories fell 0.07% to €8.31.

Portugal Telecom SGPS SA closed unchanged at €1.72.

Q-Cells SE the field of photovoltaic rose 2.8% to €7.45.

Scor SE decreased 2.2% to €18.83 after the reinsurer said that despite several natural catastrophes during the first quarter, none is expected to have a “material impact” on its financial strength or solvency position.

Siemens AG fell 0.2% to €68.19 after the engineering company cut the number of its workers on reduced hours to about 4,000, with none left at its Osram lighting division, German newspaper Tagesspiegel said.

ThyssenKrupp AG declined 1.1% to €25.05 after the steelmaker wants to finalize the sale of the civil operations of its Howaldtswerke Deutsche-Werft unit to Abu Dhabi Mar on March 24, Kieler Nachrichten reported.

UBS AG the bank rose 2% to €15.34.

UniCredit SpA the bank closed unchanged at €2.03.