Word: corty
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Aziliz Gouez, 29, anthropologist I might start the day at Librairie José Corti, tel: (33-1) 4326 6300, an old bookshop with beautiful woodwork across from the Luxembourg Gardens. It was founded by José Corti, a man of exceptional taste, who published Julien Gracq and other surrealists. After that I'd head up Rue Saint-Maur, stopping for lunch at the magnificent Algerian pastry shop La Bague de Kenza, tel: (33-1) 4314 9315. I'd order something hot like a m'hajeb - bell-pepper-and-tomato-stuffed pastry. Finally, my day would end at the bistro...
...much for France. Then Corti moved on to Belgium, where he scored his biggest victory in last month's agreement with the Belgian government on funding for Sabena, the national airline that has had only one profitable year in its 40-year history. As with the French holdings, Swissair took a minority stake, 49.5%, in Sabena because as a non-E.U. company it was initially barred from having majority control. But it had agreed in January to raise its stake to 85% of Sabena, which posted losses last year of $307 million. Now Swissair is freed from that obligation...
...payments it is making to get out of the three airline deals were already covered by provisions in the company's reports, analysts note that the firm remains a minority shareholder of Sabena and could be affected if the Belgian airline's recently announced restructuring plans are not successful. "Corti has certainly done well in managing to get out of obligations in France and Belgium," said Andrew Light, an airline analyst at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London. "He's bought himself some time...
...Along with bailing out of airline partnerships, Swissair has been selling non-core assets in hopes of lightening its debt load. Swissair ended its 10% stake in Austrian Airlines and sold its hotel division Swiss?tel to the Raffles group for $247 million. Corti said he expects to raise a further $1 billion by selling aircraft and leasing them back. But he also noted that the debt had fallen just slightly, so it was still around $4.4 billion at the end of June (its equity in December was only about $720 million...
...Swissair remains a minority shareholder in LTU, a German tour operator, which is, yes, losing money. Swissair's last financial report showed that the annual cost to the company was at least $309 million. Corti says cost-cutting measures at LTU are in place to return it to profitability by 2003. Swissair, the airline, has also been losing money ($110 million in 2000), even with load factors above the industry average. Swissair does have some businesses like Gate Gourmet, an airline caterer, that are profitable and downturn-resistant. With the worldwide industry in descent, it could do with...