Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC Business Live 20171121

Message coming out of europe to start with, it is down, bucking the trend weve seen across asia and the us. Educating the masses well be speaking to the founder of a tutoring company thats helped 20,000 students in just four years. In the us, a turkey will be pardoned by the president ahead of thanksgiving. Today, we want to know about your holiday traditions. Is it trees and lights . Eggnog . Carols . Is it too early . Let us know. Just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. Hello and welcome to business live. Easyjet has blamed a weaker pound for a 17 fall in annual pre tax profits. The budget carriers profits for the year ending in september came in at 540 million. However, it was not all gloomy news, with passenger numbers rising by 9. 7 to 80 million. In recent times, the company has been looking to expand, having put in offers to buy parts of the now defunct airberlin and alitalia airlines. Its been aided by the collapse of rival monarch earlier in the year, especially on some key routes. And of course, its main rival ryanair is dealing with the fallout of a disastrous scheduling malfunction that led to the cancellation of around 20,000 flights and shaved millions from its bottom line. This will be the last time chief executive Carolyn Mccall reports earnings for the airline. She finishes the job on december 1st before taking up a new role as ceo of itv television here in london. She told the bbc about her decision to leave. I think we have turned the company into a really great airline. So, i leave with sadness, but i also think there is always a time to leave and i would rather be leaving when things are starting to look very positive and thats why im leaving. I think seven and a half years is about the right time. Victoria moores is european editor and bureau chief at air transport world. Good morning. We heard from Carolyn Mccall, there, a good time to leave, reve nu es mccall, there, a good time to leave, revenues up mccall, there, a good time to leave, revenues up by 8 , even though profits are not doing so well. Thats a real indication of the where think way things are and the air transport market at the moment, passenger numbers up 9. 7 , reve nu es moment, passenger numbers up 9. 7 , revenues up moment, passenger numbers up 9. 7 , revenues up by 8. 1 but at the same time, profits are down which reflects the fact the passengers are paying less for their seats. Less than they have before. It is more about that than the currency fluctuations or drop . Its a mix of everything that is going on in the market. We have a fiercely competitive market. 0bviously, things like currency fluctuations, brexit and the uncertainty around that does not help but the main thing is, european aviation, we have got a lot of airlines and a lot of competition. But is it clear skies for easy] et competition. But is it clear skies for easyjet now . It has come out with a good set of numbers, ryanair is struggling with scheduling, we have had the collapse of moloch. Do you think the future looks good for ryanair . I dont think that any airline ever celebrate another airlines misfortune. But yes, certainly if there are fewer players in the market, fewer people fighting for the passengers, it makes things a bit easier if you have got airlines that are really struggling and desperately trying to get hold of passengers exiting the market. We have seen more of that busier than we have in a long time, it has been predicted for a long while that we need consolidation and its finally happened this year. But it feels like a confident airline, Carolyn Mccall is obviously going to talk it up mccall is obviously going to talk it up as she goes but they are out on the ground, looking to acquire, looking to build for the future. Absolutely. Willie walsh was speaking recently and he said the Traditional Airlines were a bit arrogant about the idea of low Cost Carriers when they first came on the scene. Low Cost Carriers have proven they are to here stay, that the Business Model works and under Carolyn Mccalls leadership, easyjet has branched out to really attack the primary hubs, to get business passengers. Easyjet is a very Innovative Airline as well, you see them doing a lot of trials with Technology Like using drones for aircraft inspections, doing a lot of automation together with gatwick airport. They are really trying to push the curve as opposed to following it. But possible Turbulent Times ahead with the loss of the open skies agreement with brexit. Do you think easyjet can weather that storm . They have already got some contingencies in place. Airlines have to be majority owned within the continent they operate or the market they operate and they have set up a new airline in austria called easyj et new airline in austria called Easyjet Europe to maintain the rights to be able to fly the kind of routes passengers are used to flying with easyjet. They are putting contingencies in place but there is no doubt that doing that costs money and ultimately when passengers are not prepared to pay very much for their tickets, it puts further pressure on profits. Thank you for joining us. Were going to bring you a big story from the us. The department ofjustice will sue to block a proposed 85 billion takeover of time warner by at t. Regulatory concerns around the deal have ramped up in recent months and now the Usjustice Department is saying it violates rules governing fair competition. Samira hussain reports from new york. This is a deal that has always made sense for the two companies. At t is one of americas leading mobile telecom operators. So owning time warners news and Entertainment Properties would really give it a big competitive advantage and based on precedent like comcasts take over of nbc which went through in 2010, this at t merger looked like it would be accepted by regulators, but as soon as it was announced in 2016, then president ial candidate donald trump made it clear that he did not like it. Mr trump has also been very clear about his deep dislike for the News Coverage of cnn, which is owned by time warner. Now responding to the news that mr Trumps Justice Department is going to try to block the deal, at ts boss didnt hold back from the politics of the situation. The bottom line is that we cannot and we will not be party to any agreement that would even give the perception of compromising the First Amendment protections of the press. So any agreement that results in us forfeiting control of cnn whether directly or indirectly is a non starter. The department ofjustice denies any suggestion that the deal is being blocked because of the president s animosity towards cnn and says that the at t and time warner would simply have too much media power. The companies are clearly determined to challenge that view. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. The last big procedural hurdle to the completion of keystone xl pipeline was cleared on monday, when five members of the Nebraska Public Service Commission Voted to approve an amended route through the state. But opponents have promised to tie the project up in court for years and tra nsca nada is still studying its commercial viability. Colorado regulators have fined uber 8. 9 million, saying the ride hailing app allowed 57 people to work as drivers without a valid license or had committed other offences that would have disqualified them. Uber said it recently discovered an error in its background check process and is working to correct the issue. The turkish lira has fallen to a new record low, after the countrys Central Bank Cut borrowing limits for turkish banks. The move was made to reduce liquidity of the currency, which has led to high inflation over the past 12 months. Which is one of the worlds worst performers over the past year. Tencent, chinas Biggest Social Network and gaming firm, has become chinas first 500 billion Technology Giant it now has sights on securing success in the rest of the world. Leisha santorelli is in singapore. Do you think it has got its sights set on becoming the next facebook . It is actually bigger than facebook by market capitalisation now and this is really exciting news because it is the First Asian Company to join that exclusive 500 billion club. Its only other members being apple, alphabet, microsoft, amazon and facebook. Many viewers are probably unfamiliar with tencent because the bulk of its success comes from within china. As you mentioned, it is chinas Biggest Social Network and Online Gaming company but the crown jewel is its messaging service, wechat which is whatsapp but on steroids, both have about i whatsapp but on steroids, both have abouti million whatsapp but on steroids, both have about i million users whatsapp but on steroids, both have abouti million users but an wechat, you can pay bills, orderfood and haila you can pay bills, orderfood and hail a taxi so whether always can duplicate its success is where remains to be seen but its recent investment in snatch at might be key to that. In snapchat. Investment in snatch at might be key to that. In snapchat. Lets have a look at the markets, easyjet 9. 7 up a look at the markets, easyjet 9. 7 up 0enone wood is set up on the passenger numbers. Lets see if we can get the markets. Count to three committee we go, they are there now. This reflects how europe has started this morning, not very encouraging when you think of the asian markets, the hang seng on a 10 year high in hong kong again and also the dow jones last night was going along pretty nicely. But europe, a rather disappointing start. May be that reflect the increased political risk. Michael hewson is chief market analyst as cmc markets. Good morning. What do you think . The colla pse good morning. What do you think . The collapse of German Government Coalition Talks has raised the spectre again that we thought had been put to bed with the election of emmanuel macron. Yeah, and i think fractious european politics is nothing new but now it appears to have spread to germany and we saw the dax rebounding yesterday after ending last week lower, there was a perception germany would get past this but the fact Angela Merkel feels it necessary to call an election throws a host of new uncertainties out there and the likelihood is this political gridlock is likely to move into next year. Part of the rebound of the dax yesterday was mastered by the fact that vw announced a significant infrastructure boost to german factories which is why it rebounded but i think Political Uncertainty is going to make it very difficult, not only for germany to return to a sta ble only for germany to return to a stable Political Climate but it is also going to complicate the brexit talks as well. You talk about vw. What exactly. They said they would invest in electric cars in particular, quite a significant sum. Its a five year plan and they will be investing about 30 a0 billion euros between now and 2022 with ia billion euros in german factories alone so it will have a significant impact, not only in german factories but also the supply chain. That is why you saw the dax rebounding as strongly as it did yesterday, vw shares closed up a , as did portias. Porsche was mac. Shares closed up a , as did portias. Porsche was mac. Had that not been announced yesterday, it makes you wonder how much further we might have seen the falls. It makes you wonder how much further we might have seen the fallslj think that is why you are seeing a tale of this morning. If there had been a substantial bounce to the lower euro, we would have seen the dax build on those gains but i think it is going to be difficult for it to significantly move higher, given it is fairly close to all time highs anyway. Michael, for now, thank you. We will talk through the papers with you later. Still to come. The price of top tutoring well meet the 22 year old founder of a company specialising in education thats now worth millions. Youre with business live from bbc news. Kingfisher, europes largest Home Improvement retailer, has reported a fall in sales. The company, which runs b q and screwfix in britain, says weak sales in france are to blame. Theo leggettjoins us live from the business newsroom. The Company Announced a huge Restructuring Plan a while back. Any sign it is reaping rewards. At the moment it is causing more problems than reaping rewards. This is the early stages of a five year plan an pa rt early stages of a five year plan an part of what it set out to do was to rationalise the way kingfisher bought products for its different chains so b and screw fixed in the uk, castorama an brico depot in france and so on. At one point, very few of the products were sold across Different Stores which was seen as being wasteful, they had nine different purchasing teams, there was too much duplication so now they are trying to get rid of that but the consequence has been that the chain has been trying to sell off a lot of old product and has been having a bit of trouble finding enough of the new product lines. Theres been a bit of what they call business disruption as a result. But they say they are confident that in they say they are confident that in the years to come, this major structural change will read big rewards. France still clearly a disappointing performance. Absolutely and we dont entirely know why that is. About half of kingfishers business is done with france through castorama an brico depot and both of them have seen like for like sales fall. Across the james connor it is down by about a . In the uk, it is more of a mixed picture, brico depot down about 2. 5 but brico depot, this monitor growing rapidly, saw its sales rise 10 so it is the shining light, doing well indeed so a mix picture across the different businesses of what is quite a large retail group. Thank you forjoining us. There is some breaking news about how the drugs firm concordia overcharged the nhs by millions. The Canadian Drugs Firm overcharged the nhs foran Canadian Drugs Firm overcharged the nhs for an essential tried royed drug. This is from the competition and markets authority which investigated how much the company was charging for those certain ta blets. Was charging for those certain tablets. Much more on the bbc live page. Youre watching business live. Our top story in the last set of results with Carolyn Mccall as chief executive, easyjet has reported record passenger numbers but a i7 fall in annual pre tax profits. Now making money from education. Its a fast growing sector particularly in emerging economies. Last year, the Global Education industry was worth 3. 3 trillion with india, china and the middle east all strong growth areas. 0ne company which has been able to take advantage of the growing sector is the new zealand based firm crimson education. Set up just four years ago by a 18 year old student, its now worth more than iao million and has a network of more than 2,000 tutors and mentors. Jamie beaton, founder and ceo of crimson education. Now 22 i understand. Jamie, how have you managed to set this up alongside your own education. You have set up this company now worth millions of dollars. How did you do that . This company now worth millions of dollars. How did you do that7m this company now worth millions of dollars. How did you do that . It has been an incredible journey. Dollars. How did you do that . It has been an incrediblejourney. I guess it came out of my personal experience, growing up in new zealand there werent many students heading overseas. My own experience navigating going to harvard. From there it lass been a Brilliant Team and amazing support. Frankly the biggest thing has been the success of our students. How well we do for our students drives the growth and it has been the incredible results. You applied for and were accepted at 25 universities . Yes. So, i presume from that one thing you learnt apart from that one thing you learnt apart from the fact that you can get in wherever you like, there are different approaches for everywhere you want to go which is the basis of what you are delivering . Definitely. I guess students are faced with a really challenging and complicated decision today when they are navigating through university choices. Every University Degree is distinct and everyone has big implications on your future. We really help our students navigating what is the best programme for them anywhere in the world. Many students are looking at us options and singapore and domestic options here in the uk. I suppose, as well, different schools offer varying degrees of help for their students depending on whether they are private schools, state schools and what they can offer . High schools do a fantasticjob of working for their students. The key thing is for the career councillor, there is so much complexity. It is hard for any one person to have all that content in mind. So our students work with the teams and mentors, based around the world helping navigate the difficult choices. Some are under graduates. I can see the attraction for a bit of extra cash, but others, they have gone through the process. They are injobs as well. Gone through the process. They are in jobs as well. They are still willing to be mentors . Yes, so our network is incredibly diverse. We have got over 2,000, that includes season educated experts. 0ne have got over 2,000, that includes season educated experts. One of our team, kevin simm got students into 0xbridge and bridge and many have won gold medals. So there is a huge diversity in the age and background of the mentors. The key thing is the high calibre. How does the mentoring ta ke high calibre. How does the mentoring take place . Is it via skype, orface time or do the mentors meet the stu d e nts time or do the mentors meet the students in person . It is a blended mix. We think thats the most effective combination. We have built an online classroom experience for our students that lets them road map their future and plan the different yea rs map their future and plan the different years of university. They can work with their mentors online and share resources, but we have in person delivery in london for our students. This is not something you pick up when you start revising and say help me get through this. This isa say help me get through this. This is a long term strategic view for youngsters to take, maybe a couple of years even . Absolutely. And thats going to cost . Yes. I guess the key thing is many of our stu d e nts the key thing is many of our students are signing up when they are 13, ia, 15 students are signing up when they are 13, 1a, 15 with the view that they are going to spend multiple yea rs they are going to spend multiple years in high school. The key thing for us is to unpick their interests. This is another example how you just have to be wealthy to access the best education. Surely, its not really fair for those people who cant afford your fees . really fair for those people who cant afford your fees . I disagree with that. One thing we are focussed on at crimson is access. So any student can apply and get funding for our programmes and we are committed to making sure whatever stu d e nts committed to making sure whatever students have the potential to go overseas do that and we have do that through our platform crimson hub. We are through our platform crimson hub. We a re really through our platform crimson hub. We are really trying to improve the base and level of access for anyone in any country going through the journey. Give us an idea of what it would cost . I need two years of help to get through and to get to my dream university. Whats that going to set me back . £3,000 to £10,000 foran to set me back . £3,000 to £10,000 for an annual programme. It is personalised so some students come to us, they have one mentor that helps them with a specific application and in other cases it is application and in other cases it is a four year intensive programme. Application and in other cases it is a four year intensive programmem isa a four year intensive programmem is a good little earner for the mentors who are at university i suppose who dont have to work in a bar, they can work on skype. Im glad you have come along after my boys left university. Thats another bank of dad it sounds like to me. Boys left university. Thats another bank of dad it sounds like to mem is important you are investing in education and all that money on your degree on the best programme. Many of our students get financial aid. In many cases our fees are paid for by the scholarships. Thank you very much. In a moment, well take a look through the business pages but first heres a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. The business live page is where you can stay ahead of all the days breaking business news. Well keep you up to date with all the latest details with insight and analysis from the bbcs team of editors right around the world. And we want to hear from you, too. Get involved on the bbc business live web page, bbc. Com business. On twitter, bbcbusiness and you can find us on facebook at bbc business news. Business live on tv and online, whenever you need to know. Michael is back to look at the papers. We will talk about the brexit talks and this headline in the papers today that apparently there is going today that apparently there is going to be an up in the offerfor the divorce bill . Yes, interesting. Interesting dynamic that because i think with the budget tomorrow, i think with the budget tomorrow, i think its increasingly obvious that the chancellor is very cash strapped. So i think where to the budget it will be difficult for him to do anything. Given the fact that there is talk that the offer is going to be upped. Contingent on parallel trade talks by another 20 billion euros. 20 billion euros. Thats a good question, it might be sterling. I think thats in the negotiation nothing is agreed until everything is greed. I think this will be a tough sell for some in the conservative party. When youve got widespread austerity that were going to stump up a0 billion euros. We dont know what the end result is going to be. Boris johnson has gone from go whistle to something for something. So there is shifting there. There is shifting, but youve got to look at it from the eus side. Michel barnier yesterday suggested that ultimately they may not get what they want with respect to parallel trade talks in the irish border issue is resolved to their satisfaction. We have headlines saying no matter what divorce bill is agreed and where the trade talks start, banks in particular, Financial Services firms will start moving staff abroad because its too late . Well, from what Michel Barnier said, uk banks are going to lose their passporting rights. So its good planning to have some contingency in place within the eu for any business that you need to do within the eu. So, given the shambolic nature of this governments brexit negotiations and the lack of any real opposition to them. I really want to bring in this last story about the turkeys waiting for a pardon in the united states. They are waiting in a hotel room. Look at this there they are. They have had a luxury wait for the turkeys in washington. They have had a luxury wait for the turkeys in washingtonlj they have had a luxury wait for the turkeys in washington. I hope President Trump is not expecting a thank you from them otherwise he will spend the next 1a hours shouting at them. Ray grant saying he is not going to be eating turkey. He will be watching football with his family and friends. Sounds like a plan. Thank you very much. Those turkeys have come from minnesota this year, but which one will get the pardon. 0nly minnesota this year, but which one will get the pardon. Only one is going back to minnesota. We will see what happens. Thats it from business live today. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, goodbye. Hi there. Its an exceptionally mild start to the day. Temperatures about 12 or 13 celsius across many parts of england and wales and Northern Ireland and it is cloudy and wet for some we have got this area of rain associated with the warm front moving northward. In the meantime, another band of rain which is going to move in towards western areas. For england and wales, while rain clears from northern areas, there will be dry weather and bright spells developing towards the east of any Higher Ground and rain returns towards the west. Further north, it will stay wet across scotla nd north, it will stay wet across scotland this afternoon. Particularly towards western scotla nd particularly towards western scotland and just still a bit chilly here. Especially in the far north. Temperatures about five or six celsius. Rain should clearfrom Northern Ireland and there will be drier weather for a ireland and there will be drier weatherfor a time ireland and there will be drier weather for a time across Northern England before further rain spreads infor england before further rain spreads in for later this afternoon. But towards the east of the pennines, towards the east of the pennines, towards the east of the pennines, towards the south and the east of england, it is looking dry and there will be a few bright spells here and there, but mild. Temperatures typically about 13, 1a celsius, but in the sunshine, it could be as high as 16 celsius. Tonight, further rain and stronger winds developing across many parts. That rain mainly towards wales and into Northern England, later in the night into Northern Ireland. A bit chilly in the far north of scotland, but elsewhere, again temperatures staying in double figures. During wednesday a breezy day. Some rain which will be heavy as it pushes its way up into north west england and south west scotland. There could be localised flooding problems with that rain. Pretty wet for much of scotland and Northern Ireland. Further south and east, again dry and bright, where again its going to feel really quite mild. Going through wednesday night and into thursday, a bit of a complicated transition going on. We have got this weather system which is bringing outbreaks of rain t behind it though, some colder air which is going to start push its way south during thursday. That could give a spell of snow over the Higher Ground of scotland during thursday morning, but the mild air will stay towards the south and the east. This is how thursday is looking. Early morning snow across scotland. Rain in the south east clears. Brighter skies here. More rain in the south west later. But hold on to the milder conditions. 12 to 1a celsius. Further north though, it will turn colder. Temperatures down into single figures and as we go into the weekend colder for many of us. Snow showers and also frosts. Bye bye. Hello, its tuesday, its 9am, im victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. Our top story today, senior government ministers have agreed the uk should offer more money for its divorce from the eu, but only if talks about trade start soon. As brexiteer is on the backbenches threatened trouble over the bigger divorce bill, brexiteers in the cabinet give the thumbs up to more money for brussels. Also on the programme a group of outsourced workers at a London University are issuing what could be a Landmark Legal claim to establish the joint employer principle in uk law. The university is the entity that essentially decides what their pay and terms and conditions are going to be, and unless they can negotiate directly with the university, they cant really negotiate over their pay and terms and conditions. If successful, it could lead to improved terms and conditions for some 3. 3 million workers in the uk