France

A Paris court ordered the liquidation of books-to-music retailer Virgin Megastore France on Monday, sending hundreds more people to join France's record jobless queues, Reuters reported. Virgin Megastore France, which employs 960 people in France, filed for insolvency in January, blaming high property rental costs and an industry-wide slump in CD and DVD sales as consumers download more film and music online. The court last week rejected two takeover offers by clothing group Vivarte and specialist retailer Cultura, deeming neither sufficient to safeguard Virgin's future.

French state holding company FSI said it was confident of a positive outcome to debt restructuring talks at Saur, the water and waste treatment company in which it is the leading shareholder. Saur, burdened by 1.8 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of debt, is trying to negotiate a restructuring with its lenders and shareholders before June 30, after which the firm risks being put under a court-sanctioned reorganisation scheme. "Important progress has been made in the past few days. We expect a positive outcome for these talks," FSI Chief Executive Jean-Yves Gilet told Reuters.

Renault SA, France’s second-biggest carmaker, is ending a five-year partnership with Better Place LLC after the operator of electric-vehicle charging stations announced plans to shut down, Bloomberg reported. Better Place filed a motion for liquidation with an Israeli court yesterday after failing to attract new investments, according to a company statement. Renault and Better Place began working together in 2008 and said a year later that they aimed to sell 100,000 of the Fluence ZE, the French carmaker’s first electric vehicle, in Israel and Denmark by 2016.

France and Italy presented a united front Wednesday on the eurozone debt crisis amid deepening divisions over belt-tightening policies in the European Union as some countries reach breaking point, Agence France-Presse reported. French President Francois Hollande met Italy's brand new Prime Minister Enrico Letta, in Paris only days after he took office, and warned that austerity alone was "no longer enough", stressing the need for a focus on growth.

French film camera manufacturer Aaton has entered financial receivership, according to a statement from company founder Jean-Pierre Beauviala posted to the French Society of Cinematographers (AFC) website, StudioDaily reported. Known for the Super 16 Xterà, the tiny Super 16 A-Minima, and most recently the 2-perf and 3-perf 35mm Penelope, the company was most recently developing the Penelope Delta, a digital camera that sought to replicate the ergonomics of the 35mm original.

President François Hollande offered an olive branch to France's restive business community on Monday with measures aimed at encouraging investment in startups, in a country desperate for economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Hollande's proposals—including breaks on capital-gains taxes as well as visas for foreign entrepreneurs—are part of a broader effort to build bridges to corporate leaders angry over sharp tax increases, and to alter the perception many foreign investors have of France as unfriendly to business. Indeed, Mr.

Unemployment in Spain and France has jumped to new highs, data showed Thursday, lending ammunition to a growing chorus calling for easing the euro zone's austerity drive as the cure for its debt crisis because of the high social fallout, The Wall Street Journal reported. The jobless rate in Spain rose sharply to 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter, the highest level since records began in the 1970s. In France, the number of registered job seekers who are fully unemployed rose to more than 3.2 million, topping a previous record set in 1997.

French chemicals maker Arkema will book a first-quarter charge of 125 million euros ($163 million) to reflect its exposure to unprofitable vinyls business Kem One, which it spun off in July 2012, Arkema said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A French commercial court opened bankruptcy proceedings for Kem One in March at the request of its new owner, Klesch Group, led by American investor Gary Klesch. A court-appointed administrator is due to oversee Kem One's operations as part of the initial six-month procedure.

The French government threw in the towel Friday on plans to levy a 75% tax on the rich, a key election pledge of President François Hollande, and acknowledged it wasn't clear how it would hike taxes on the country's wealthiest citizens, The Wall Street Journal reported. After receiving advice from the country's top administrative court, French finance minister Pierre Moscovici said that the top tax rate applied to earned income couldn't exceed 60%, and that the maximum rate on a taxpayer's revenue could not rise above 66% overall.

France is set to follow in Switzerland’s footsteps by tackling private sector wages in the latest attack on European executive pay, the Financial Times reported. Legislation to increase shareholder power over remuneration and limit or ban enhanced pension deals and “golden parachutes” – similar to measures overwhelmingly approved by Swiss voters in a referendum this month – is being prepared, officials said.