Groupe Banque Populaire

Groupe Banque Populaire is a French group of cooperative banks. It is controlled by 18 regional banks, the CASDEN Banque Populaire and the Crédit Coopératif.

In 2006, Groupe Banque Populaire created a new company with another French cooperative banking group, Groupe Caisse d'Epargne in order to create Natixis. The new Investment Bank is the result of the spin-off of the two Investment Banks of the two groups : Banque Populaire's Natexis and Caisse d'Epargne's IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank. Natixis is equally controlled by the two groups.

As of December 2008, Banque Populaire had:

Merger

In October 2008 the group announced plans, since approved by the French government, to merge with Groupe Caisse d'Epargne. The companies merged in 2009 to form the Group BPCE and retain their separate retail banking brands and branch networks. Banque Populaire's chief executive officer Philippe Dupont has been nominated to head the enlarged company.

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne (/vɜːrn/;French: [ʒyl vɛʁn]; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright best known for his adventure novels and his profound influence on the literary genre of science fiction.

Verne was born to bourgeois parents in the seaport of Nantes, where he was trained to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, but quit the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Verne is generally considered a major adventure novels author in France and most of Europe, where he has had a wide influence on the literary avant-garde and on surrealism. His reputation is markedly different in Anglophone regions, where he has often been labeled a writer of genre fiction or children's books, to some extent because of the highly abridged and altered translations in which his novels are often reprinted.

Banque Populaire V

Banque Populaire V is an offshore-racing trimaran and Team Banque Populaire's fifth boat designed to set oceanic records. She was launched on 4 October 2008 in Nantes, France.

With her 40 m (130 ft) length, she is currently the largest racing trimaran in the world. Her current skipper is Yann Guichard. Her previous skippers are Loick Peyron and Pascal Bidégorry. Her original sponsor was the French bank Banque Populaire. Currently she is owned by Dona Bertarelli & Spindrift Racing and sponsored by Mirabaud Zenith and Genes-X.

Design

The architectural project for Banque Populaire V started in 2006. The architects VPLP (Van Peteghem / Lauriot-Prévost) designed this G-Class maxi multihull. The trimaran was built by the shipyard CDK Technologies in Lorient.

Career

She was launched at the end of August 2008 in Lorient.

In 2009 she made her first attempt across the northern Atlantic from west to east. On Sunday 2 August 2009, she established the new record in 3 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds (an average speed of 32.94 knots), beating the previous record, held by Franck Cammas on Groupama 3, by more than 12 hours. During the attempt she also broke the 24-hour distance twice, first with 880, then, several hours later, with 907 nautical miles (1,680 km).

Vendée Globe

The Vendée Globe is a round-the-world single-handed yacht race, sailed non-stop and without assistance. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. The 2016–2017 edition is planned to start on Sunday, 6 November 2016.

As the only single-handed non-stop round-the-world race (in contrast to the VELUX 5 Oceans Race, which is sailed in stages), the race is a serious test of individual endurance, and is regarded by many as the ultimate in ocean racing.

History

The race was founded in 1989 by French yachtsman Philippe Jeantot. Jeantot had competed in the BOC Challenge (now the VELUX 5 Oceans Race) in 1982–83 and 1986–87, winning both times. Dissatisfied with the race's format, he decided to set up a new round-the-world non-stop race, which he felt would be the ultimate challenge for single-handed sailors.

The first edition of the race was run in 1989–90, and was won by Titouan Lamazou; Jeantot himself took part, and placed fourth. The next edition of the race was in 1992–93; and it has since then been run every four years.

Populaire

Populaire (French for "popular"), may refer to:

See also