PARIS/ZURICH (Reuters) – The Paris offices of UBS have been searched as part of a probe into allegedly aiding tax evasion in a sign that a months-long investigation into the Swiss bank’s French wealth management activities may be gathering steam.

The evidence-gathering move was part of a broader enquiry which saw the bank’s offices in Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Lyon searched in July.

PARIS (Reuters) – Calling in the law is an unorthodox takeover defense, and it shows just how much luxury goods maker Hermes fears Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man, and his reputation for exploiting internal dissent to get what he wants.

Hermes, a highly profitable maker of 10,000 euro handbags women wait months for, had already formed a laager of family shareholders to keep Arnault and his LVMH luxury goods group at bay, and on Tuesday called in the cavalry, asking prosecutors to investigate him for insider trading and share manipulation.

PARIS (Reuters) – Calling in the law is an unorthodox takeover defence, and it shows just how much luxury goods maker Hermes (HRMS.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) fears Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man, and his reputation for exploiting internal dissent to get what he wants.

Hermes, a highly profitable maker of 10,000-euro handbags women wait months for, had already formed a laager of family shareholders to keep Arnault and his LVMH luxury goods group at bay, and on Tuesday called in the cavalry, asking prosecutors to investigate him for insider trading and share manipulation.

PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) – Barclays is proposing to
swap a 140 million-euro ($169.73 million) loan to troubled
French poultry group Doux for an 80 percent stake, though the
bank wants to sell off parts of its holding to potential
partners, a source close to the transaction said on Thursday.

Family-owned Doux’s struggles – it is operating under court
administration – have emerged as a headache both for Barclays as
its main bank creditor and for the French government, which is
grappling with job cuts in various industries.

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s banks are expected to post sharp profit falls in second quarter results as they count the cost of the debt crisis and try to anticipate the impact of the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal on the industry.

The European economy is heading towards recession, making companies nervous about issuing stocks and bonds. Trading has slowed and this has hurt investment banking, typically the most lucrative part of a bank’s business.

PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) – Faurecia, Europe’s
biggest maker of car interiors and exhausts, warned its
full-year profit would be weaker than expected, knocked by
falling car production in recession-hit Europe, still key to
Faurecia’s fortunes despite efforts to diversify.

Tumbling European auto demand has hammered automakers
including Faurecia’s parent company PSA Peugeot Citroen
, which has announced plans to shutter a factory and
cut thousands of jobs.

PARIS (Reuters) – Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is in exclusive talks to sell its Cheuvreux brokerage unit to financial services group Kepler Capital Markets, in the French lender’s latest move to shrink its investment banking business.

Credit Agricole, which has been cutting jobs in its investment bank, had been looking for a partner for Cheuvreux since Chinese group Citic Securities (600030.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dropped plans to buy a 20 percent stake.

PARIS, June 29 (Reuters) – Just three months ago Vivendi’s
veteran chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy, under fire
for a slumping stock price, said asset sales were “not taboo”.
Now that he’s quit, the group could be looking at a more
dramatic shakeup than he could have imagined.

Video game maker Activision Blizzard and Maroc
Telecom head up the list of candidates for sale,
analysts and bankers said, but his successors could now mull a
Murdoch-style split or even the sale of the SFR telecoms unit
which Vivendi grabbed control of just a year ago.

PARIS (Reuters) – Carrefour (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Europe’s biggest retailer, is selling out of Greece in a sign companies are finding it increasingly difficult to do business in a country where demand has plunged due to a debt crisis and whose future in the euro is at risk.

The French group said on Friday it was selling its stake in a Greek joint venture to local partner Marinopoulos, which will become its franchisee.

ATHENS/PARIS, June 14 (Reuters) – Greek lender Emporiki,
majority owned by French bank Credit Agricole, said on
Thursday it was to transfer shares in its Albanian, Bulgarian
and Romanian units to its parent, completing a process that
started in 2009.

The move was the latest sign Credit Agricole is moving to
minimize any impact from a Greek exit from the euro, which
analysts have estimated could force a roughly 5 billion euro
($6.3 billion) writedown because of its exposure to Emporiki.