The ten economic events that should not be missed in 2021

By Nicolas Guarinos, Alexia Sardi-Antasan, Océane Herrero published, updated

Mergers, environment, finance ... Overview of the ten major facts of the year.

January 7: Tiffany's acquisition by LVMH

On January 7, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) sealed his record acquisition with the takeover of the American jeweler Tiffany, a group made legendary in 1961 by the film Breakfeast at Tiffany's (diamonds on sofa) with Audrey Hepburn.The world's world number one had to pay nearly $ 15.8 billion.But the operation, announced in 2019, almost was abandoned ... for political reasons.In the summer of 2020, the Quai d'Orsay had asked by mail to Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, not to go to the end of the union, in response to the will of Donald Trump to tax luxury bags and cosmetics atStarting from January 6, itself the fruit of the "GAFA tax" initiated by France.But the acquisition took place and the Trump administration finally abandoned the retaliatory measure.

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January 15: End of the Carrefour-Couche-Tard soap opera

"My answer is a non-courteous, but clear and definitive," said Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire on BFMTV on January 15 against the Carrefour buyer project by Canadian Distributor Cleader-Tard, arguing "The food security of our country [since] Carrefour [Y] represents almost 20% of food distribution ”.At the time, the advanced price to buy Carrefour oscillated between 20.5 and 21 euros per share when it struggled to exceed 17.5 euros on the stock market in 2021.

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January 16: Fusion between PSA and FCA

On January 16, the merger between the French PSA Peugeot-Citroën and the Italian Fiat Chrysler Automobiles materialized, giving birth to Stellantis.A few days earlier, the shareholders of the two groups had almost unanimously validated the operation at $ 43 billion in a market disaster by the pandemic.In 2020, world car sales actually dropped by 17%.Stellantis, led by Carlos Tavares, found himself sixth at the list of car groups, behind Toyota, Volkswagen, Renault-Nissan, General Motors and Hyundai-Kia.Directly competed by the American Tesla (first global capitalization in the automobile), the behemoth to 400,000 employees puts the package on paid services to boost its margin.

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March 14: Emmanuel Faber's eviction at the head of Danone

To say that the year 2021 was hectic at Danone is an understatement. The multinational experienced a serious governance crisis originating in the cabale of two investment funds (Bluebell Capital Partners and craftsman Partners) against the former CEO Emmanuel Faber. They criticized him insufficient performance; Group administrators, its solo and authoritarian management. In early March, Emmanuel Faber (successor to Franck Riboud in 2014) agreed to split the functions of president and managing director before being thanked after a board of directors on Sunday, March 14. After the interim which was notably provided by Gilles Schnepp (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Antoine de Saint-Affrique took the reins of the general management of Danone on September 15. The former CEO of the Swiss Chocolatier Barry Callebaut will have the heavy task of straightening the giant, whose results 2021 will be unveiled in February 2022. In 2020, sales had dropped by 1.5% (comparable data) over one year due to The health crisis.

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March 23, 2021: The Ever Given paralyzes the Suez Canal

A boat that has managed to derail world freight.While crossing the Suez Canal, which sees nearly 17,000 ships circulating each year, the Ever Given, 400 meters long, is blocked, in the middle of the canal.Enough to paralyze world maritime traffic, and push ships to take the way to the CAP of good hope, largely abandoned so far since it represents a detour of 9000 kilometers and approximately ten additional days.Others waited at the entrance to the Suez Canal the release of the Ever Given, which will only intervene six days later.An episode that recalled how much the supply chain for many European companies operates with tense flows, depends on the import of Asian products.

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May 17: TF1 and M6 announce their decision to merge

It is a thunderclap that sounds that day in the French audiovisual landscape.A merger of TF1, owned by the Bouygues group, and M6, owned by the RTL Group group, would give birth to a giant, exceeding France TV with more than 30% audience share.And above all, an annual turnover of 3.4 billion euros and 70% of TV advertising revenues in France.Obtaining the approval of the competition authority will not be simple.The key point: TF1 and M6 will have to convince that it is necessary to consider not the advertising market for television alone but the wider that also including digital advertising controlled by Google and Facebook.Arch (formerly the CSA) must control that the future group will only have seven TNT channels, against ten currently.He will give his opinion on the entire operation by November 2022.

July 11: 15% taxation agreement of multinationals

On the international scene, 140 countries have approved taxation of at least 15% of the profits of multinationals which achieve more than 750 million euros in turnover per year.Fruit of long negotiations (in July in particular in Venice), the agreement will make it possible to combat the tax optimization of digital giants in particular."The countries intend to sign a multilateral agreement in 2022, with a view to its effective implementation in 2023", according to the OECD."On the minimum tax, I think we are going to take the deadlines," reacted this Thursday, December 30 on BFM Business the specialist in taxation questions within the Pascal Saint-Amans organization.On the other hand, it is more measured concerning the second part: the distribution of profits from the most profitable multinationals.

To read the USTAXATION OF MULTINATIONALS: Historical agreement at 136 countries with a rate set at 15%

August 9: GIEC and COP 26 report

Climate change has "irreversible consequences for centuries and millennia", concluded 234 scientists from 66 countries in the first part of the IPCC report (group of intergovernmental experts on climate development) published in early August.Experts estimate that the temperature will increase by 1.5 degrees from 2030. It is ten years earlier than their previous calculations;Unlike the Paris Agreement dating from 2015 which aimed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.An observation all the more freezing less than three of COP 26 in Glasgow in Scotland ... The meeting of the 200 international delegations will have just reiterated the objective as the global powers depend on fossil fuels (coal, oil...).Starting with India and China.

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August 2021: France fills its delay in the deployment of 5G

Just under a year after the allocation of 5G frequencies, France had around 28,000 dedicated antennas in the summer of 2021.It was not until four years for 4G, launched in 2012, reached this level.This dazzling departure is explained by the time available to operators to perfect their preparations after the various obstacles to the launch of 5G: the first confinement, blocking by worried elected officials, and forced withdrawal from the Huawei market.By making it possible to connect more objects on a more resilient network, this new technology finds a large number of applications for businesses and in services, such as health where it must promote the development of remote monitoring of patients, to betterManage home hospitalizations, disease prevention ...

September 2021: Facebook shaken by the revelations of Frances Haugen

The leak begins with an article in the Wall Street Journal on the impact of Instagram on adolescent girls.But quickly, it is a flood of revelations and controversies.In September, Frances Haugen unveiled thousands of pages of internal documents in Facebook in the press, which demonstrate the shortcomings of the company in, in particular, the management of hate speeches and political manipulations.The company led by Mark Zuckerberg tried to turn the page in retropedlant on certain controversial projects, such as Instagram for Kids, but also by announcing the company's turn to the Metaversse.The group A, on this occasion, was renamed: he now wants to be called Meta.

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