Are standingorters by across the world, ready to deliver the stories that will drive your day. We are following astrazeneca as pfizer gets ready to make its bid. We have details on buyers talks with marks. Jonathan ferro has a look ahead to the u. S. Jobs report. Have details on meyer talks with merck. The importance of we spoke us was a plea to the South African finance minister and he spoke about the importance of entrepreneurship. We need to increase the support, mentor in, incubation of onchip ownership and small businesses. Ownership andrial small businesses. We have to increase the scale at which it is happening in order to make your games. Fendi opened its flagship londons bond street. We caught up with the chief executive of the italian Luxury Fashion house about what the store means for the brand. This is for us a major brand statement. We are very happy about this opening and i think that fendi as luxury in london, one of the coolest cities in the world. The launch of the new bond street store. We will be bringing you more with the conversation in this onkends 30 minute special the luxury company. That is insight fendi. Raise its bidto four astrazeneca to more than 100 billion. After zeneca stock hit a high yesterday. We have been looking into the details. Is this going to seal the deal . Will it bring astrazeneca to the negotiating table . Pounds, 106. They rejected the first one. This will not be the final set of terms, there would be some more negotiations. Just think of the mastery of dealmaking. 24 hours, hitting the city, the square mile. Those are the two key drivers. That matters because a lot of shareholders are dual shareholders, arent they . Absolutely. Shareholders,jor those are the boys and girls that get that over the line. If you get that done, you have a better chance of getting that over the line. Blackrock, wellington, they own over 20 of the company. It is about getting momentum. The chairman defended the original backing away from the on stock. E valuation we understand there would be more cash on the steel and that the offer will be raised. Will there still be obstacles in place. What are they . Parliament. The parliament of public opinion. Building was to speak to pfizer. How do want to do business. He has a bit of form, he has. He is not prepared to commit. That is on jobs. That is going to be the critical issue. And rmb as well. A lot of business is taking place outside of the u. K. A lot is done outside of the u. K. Is this. , theat deal of pr and mna senators that we will bring. When these guys actually bought in 2009. They shed nearly 5 billion of r and d. The reality of it is that the spentition is that pfizer threeillion, they brought ack buster drugs worth billion dollars. The proposition is this, pfizer dues these deals but in doing these deals, they ripped out the heart of r and d. They destroyed the possibility of new drugs finds. That is not my opinion. They want to stay independent and develop these drugs which will come to the market later this decade. That is their proposition at the moment. Which blew myline mind is that Institution Shareholders were quite impressed that a ceo got on a plane and lobbied. Get real. Youre supposed to be an institutional shareholder. Why wouldnt he come over . A flight toon paris. Pfizer is prepared to pay for an international conglomerate. Billion, that is considerably higher than the initial 10 million. Payayer is the pear to for merck. The deal coming in the next couple of days. It is the price tag. Rickets dropout. They said that statement saying that it was too high for them. What we have is an asset swap between buyer and cash and buyer and merck. Claritin, dr. Scholl, the allergy medicine. You look at these things, you dont think of them as core to the pharmaceutical business. What bayer gets is a clear consumer focused division. Is the Animals Services had they can build up a veterinarian unit. They will have a cash and asset swap. You can see this energy for both companies. Another clean win for our reporters who had this and sent the stock up two percent. We will be watching it to see how it reacts. We have finality to this deal. A bloomberg exclusive, the pfizer deal. It is all about us today. Fridays focus is on jobs. The march unemployment report out of the eurozone as well. The u. S. Jobs report, always the big number today. 218 thousand. That is the median forecast. I will tell you why this matters. This matters because you cannot blame the weather anymore. That excuse is pretty much dead. It is no longer about this headline number, we need to look at a whole range of and caters. Labor a plethora of market numbers. The average hours worked, wages become particularly important. Weakness we had in the First Quarter and the absolutely prophetic gdp reading, this really matters. Dont just look at the number in isolation. Want to kick off on a good one. We have a new way job to track this. A lot of guys on wall street, they get the jobs number wrong. It is difficult to predict. We now track the guesses on twitter and collate the meeting. You have the number, the bloomberg estimate, your number will feature. Is the overall forecast. I think we are around 210,000. This is this treat. Fascinating to track. It will start the economist. I will not ditch the economist. Person knows this is difficult to forecast. It really is a guess. Is not just about the u. S. But some data coming out of the eurozone, the Unemployment Rates are released. This is short of the record high in the eurozone. Did the ecb care about this . Increase price pressures on the inflation side. Not become data did part of the mandate. If theyd did, i hope they will do a lot more than they have done. I hope there will come right off of these record highs. Unemployment is a much bigger concern in that region than it is in the u. S. John, see you later. Later on today, we will have the entrepreneurs making it settlement. Well get a behindthescenes look at what it takes to make it into the prestigious list of the worlds 50 best restaurants. That is in the know coming up in the next hour of countdown. A strategist take on how that data could affect the dollar. Time for todays company news. Berkshire hathaway has agreed to ltalink. They operate electric transmission lines in canada. The deal is worth 2 billion. Missedond Quarter Sales analyst estimates at linkedin. Linkedin, the online professional Networking Service has had six trade quarters of decelerating growth. 4. 5 infell as much as tokyo trading. Sony posted a preliminary net loss of 1. 3 billion. The downward revision was the dirt since october. Countdown. To it is jobs friday in the u. S. Lets look at how the data could affect the dollar. Just todays jobs data. Perhaps going to give the dollar and left. The dollar, that so many projecting would be higher at this stage of the year that it is right now. I think definitely it does. First of all, we have an above the senses forecast. Jobse looking for 250,000 in this report. As recalling mentioned, theres a lot more to the report than that. We will pay close attention to what is going on with average hourly earnings. We are actually getting to the rate of unemployment that is starting to create english very pressures. Is ultimatelythat what will force the fed to start hiking rates. That is what will give you the on the dollar down the road. This report could be a key starter for that. Why hasnt the dollars strength comes through when many were predicting by now but it would be much higher than the position it is in today . One of the issues that we are justis that it is not expectations of higher Interest Rates in the future that matter, we actually need to see that through into nearterm carry in the dollar. You dont have that yet. That sort of puts the real sustained dollar rally farther in the future. Another big issue has been some of the issues surrounding geopolitics. In fact, that is sort of undermined some of the Dollar Strength associated with expectations for the u. S. Economy to take off. You have to be weather related issues. All of those things kind of took away from that. Right now, we are looking for some of those issues to start to settle. Ultimately, this report should be less affected by the weather. In fact, maybe we should get some payback. That is what people are starting to look for. Volatility has been a big scene in the markets. You mean the lack of it . What does it take to engender a bit of volatility in the fx markets . I think we need a really key trend that people can jump on. One, you need to see a clear are on a u. S. Rates trend higher. This might be the start of it. You need to see something from japan in terms of how do they get through this whole hike we have seen. Do we see inflation sustaining . Ultimately, we need to see signs of what will happen in the euro area. Yes, unemployment is important but ultimately what is really the focus right now is whether we will fall into a deflationary trap in the euro area or the ecb will be able to start. How would they start . We think they will start to get some inflation but it will be very slow coming. As a result, is not likely to move next week. Of course, we did get a slight downside. The odds have increased slightly. The problem that they have is that they dont see the sort of tools available to them right now that they would like to use. They would ultimately like to do credit easing not qualitative easing where they are effectively injecting credit. They dont have the tools for that. I have to have a market for that and that will take a bit of legislative work and work with the committee. The euro stays around these levels. Stay innk we will relatively close range is in the very near term before it ultimately is falling. Lots more to discuss. The boj, we will chat about. What is happening in the u. K. As well. Boeerday, we have the meeting next week. We have some Strong Manufacturing data. Welcome back, this is countdown. You did touch on the boj. Lets dig in a little bit more. We have the latest meeting this week. They can hit two percent, are you on the bank of japan side or those doubting the ability to engender that sort of inflation . Looks ultimately, we are on the bank of japan side. This is not just about the depreciation from last year or at. Ut th whether we get to two percent, we are not ultimately there. We do think that they will get in the range. They probably need to take additional policy steps to get there. We are expecting in july that they do that. We think that will be one of the that will top out at those ranges. We dont go above . Works i dont think we wont go above 105. Model there is a famous and describes this. We think youre in that overshooting phase where ultimately people are trying to decide, is the inflation going to be sustained or not . If it is sustained, effectively price back to where we sort of cd deliver him in dollar yen. There, people have to effectively price and a risk premium which means that dollar yen might go as high as 105. Strong manufacturing data, warnings about the Housing Market are coming from all sides. What do you think . On the house inside, we still have constraint supply situation. We have a booming economy in the u. K. All of that seems to support prices. Economy, you are firing basically on also wonders. Not only to we have consumption strongly supported, we are seeing it feed through the wages. We have seen exports pick up in the u. K. We have seen investment pickup. Adds a lot of potential upside. What we think is ultimately theg to cap it here is inflation just isnt there. Much the same situation as the fed faces where they are held back from hiking rates because they dont see inflation. The bank of england is actually facing falling inflation. Suffering from low inflation. This is the case. If you look around the world, there has been downside surprises to inflation virtually everywhere. I use the bloomberg median forecast. You look at this across countries, you find that analysts everywhere have been getting this wrong. It is also the Central Banks that have been getting it wrong. Only ones where the bringing it is the bank of japan. Gotten it right. If inflation stays low, rates stay low . In many places, that is the key issue. We will chat more about this. Just ahead, we will go inside of the first whiskey distillery in more than a century. Welcome back. This is countdown. Lets get straight to jonathan ferro. I want to start with sterling. This one just off of the fiveyear high. We have had better data. We have had a lot of talk about m and a activity. Pfizer could pay over 63 billion pounds. Give this one abu. Here is your question, 307 u. S. Companies have about 2 trillion dollars in cash. How much of that cash is already in pounds and is already in euros . Is the impact of those deals likely to be less than you think. Is demandingputin that Ukrainian Forces pull out of the east of the country. Could bet report released which could be one of most important reads of the year. Theyre hoping that the economy added at the excessive pace. The eurozone Unemployment Rate has been stuck at 11. 9 since october and the estimates for the numbers released later today show no change is once again affected. Angela merkel is in washington for a twoday trip that will include meetings with president obama. Hans nichols joins us for more on the chancellor special position in the ukraine. She is seen as an intermediary between obama and cutin. Putin. She is seen as an intermediary that is leaning more towards the u. S. The challenge has been to balance or business interest in germany. You look at some of the traits they have what russia. It is the largest trading partner in the eu. Seen her get increasingly upset with vladimir cutin. Putin. Of her relationship with barack obama, we have seen clear telegraphing from german officials is that they will put aside all of their nsa, the snooping, the eavesdropping and put all that aside. The focus will be how do you get the European Union and the u. S. Aligned with one voice. Does that mean additional sanctions. What were they due to present a unified front . In some ways, they look at putinl as a kind of baye whisperer. They look to her tables translate putin to her to translate putin. It will been interesting conversation. Courses might be a little bit early in the morning. I went into a whiskey distillery but theres only one catch, they havent officially made any whiskey yet. Is the first whiskey maker in london for more than a century. Darren brooks, this is part of a wider trend towards craft brewing in the u. K. And a dayhree years for this to become whiskey. The money comes from another spirit. Close we started to do a gym. A gin. E started to do we were building the space and thatund through an image was sent in, a business perspectives for another london distillery company. He actually did not succeed. We dug in to this end he was responsible for lot of bridges around london. And you named your gin after him . He deserved it. This has become a creative hub in south london. Funded by a, it was lot of High Net Worth individuals. With those letterforms, a lot , they were not doing Due Diligence on the valuation models and we were being very conservative. Trying to give a good amount of equity for investment and i think that was one thing that was attractive. The Company Cares about its ingredients from traceable juniper the stork Barley Varieties from the southwest of england. Each have a flavor profile. What should you drink this with . Flavored White Chocolate with carter mom is incredible. We are taking a kind of whiskey twist on gin. It is 50 . Dont be surprised. 50 are set . Not50 alcohol content is for the faint hearted. I convinced myself it was almost a health food. That is much easier to drink than i thought it would be. I have to point out that was pretty early in the morning. Went to the bus stop after. I had two sips, that is the honest truth. Lets take a closer look at ther london facility distillery that was established in 2009. It is one of only four distilleries. But what about this with the founder. Content and alcohol 11 in the morning. This is a bit early. Welcome to our world. It is all about quality. Where did your business come from . Our inspiration came from some of the smaller and craft businesses. I spent a lot of time living under there myself. I was enamored with this idea that when you use your hands to make things in small batches, things taste phenomenal. You get really great quality. You have got a wonderful story what we will stop really wanted to do was to lift this veil of mystery, essentially, that exists in distilling. Educate me, how does one craft a bottle of gin . Well, we start with a really great base. I really great english base that we use and we crafted in really small batches. This is a very classic style gin. There is an explosion in gin right now globally. Us, botanicals that we choose our very classic. This is a reflection of London Dry Gin that once was. June had an incredible history, especially in london. Gin has an incredible history. Years,ively give it 200 one in four habitable structures in the center of london had its method of distilling. It changed the way that people ended up making things in the end. More people were involved. The laws ended up changing. Suddenly now in the modern era when you have our bartenders really making a difference. They are taking time to share the story of the gins that they represent. The second influences consumers. People wanting to share stories and go to experiences. We have had about 15,000 people through our doors in the last five years. That shows how much people are interested in learning in a formative and intertwining way. You show more people around your distillery then you share bottles . No, we sell more. The Craft Movement is beyond just london. I wondered how you managed the Great Expectations for business that design is small. We have just moved sites. We are moving into a larger area so we can increase our capacity. As we grow, we will never compromise the way in which we make it. This in a oneshot distillation compared to the guys were it is concentrate. But bigmake in a year, guys make between 9 00 and 10 00 in the morning. They are caught in the non on. Re cottoning is that a complement to the likes of the small distillers like yourself . Yes, i think so. For the craft and, for the people that really do this in a think to way, is a great story to be able to share. They add the flavors afterwards. Yes, they do. Weve gone back to the way that gin has used to be made. Thank you very much for joining us. Last night, fendi opened the doors of its new flagship store. We got the inside scoop from the ceo. What is the bill is challenge facing the italian fashion brand . The biggest challenge is to make it in even more desirable and wellknown brand. There are still many wellkept secrets. We will bring you more from behind the scenes in the 30 minute special, it inside fendi. The penultimate weekend of the british premier league. You might be surprised when you sportst which team the gives a 51 chance of coming out on top. In tree into the sub 30,000 in tree into the sub 30,000 luxury car business. The brandsbuted to 19 increase from a year earlier. April was the second best month ever. F reported fourthquarter earnings that beat analyst estimates. Before interest, tax, in onetime items fell 3. 3 the quarter. Billionaire steve wynn says exclusively that opportunity in macau is quite terrific. They reported a firstquarter profit that beat analyst estimates as more gamblers visited the largest casino. What is happening is the opportunity in macau is so terrific that it makes other things look less than terrific. So, yes, it is true that we are primarily a chinese company. You can watch the full exclusive interview with Stephanie Ruhle later on bloomberg. Mark, i hear you are talking sport. To weekend of the english premier season. Manchester city with a chance of becoming a champion. Then littleton looks at the analysis. This really surprised me. Whatese are rejections of the bee sports numbers saying, which have the best chance of going on to win this. You can see liverpool, still, the 50 chance. The reason for that is the points on the board. They only have two games left to liverpool. T they have got to win all three. Everton. Is that a tough game for them . Very. The sub lot is that everton and liverpool, everton wins it, that will help liverpool win the title. The everton manager did say, of course we want to win. They have still got something to play for. The players do want to win. They can say, maybe some of the fans will be less intense about the results of this. They are four points behind arsenal. It is unlikely that that will be that anyway. Chelsea, they need both teams to lose. The, thes where tactics have been very defensive. He has not had a striker all season. Theo you personally share do you think city has more . This is fascinating. Were looking at the Manchester City defense. You focus on two of their key defenders. The fellow on the left has been deemed the key defender. And the fellow on the right has been slandered for much of the season. The captain, he is a talismanic defender. Dfaas also named in the team of the year. His defensive partner has group more important. I am not saying he is a better player, companies probably overrate the season. You can see more duels, fewer errors, more deceptions. They hadcaliphs plays, less cynical again. And we dont have a picture. He has a long ponytail and it sounds funny to say. He has a Bad Reputation because it is him look like a traditional tough guy. Will he be laying in the world cup . No, he will not. He needs to chop off that ponytail. Hamburgvent mentioned too many times this season. This is the other end of the bund is league of. Hamburg, they are in the bottom three. Yes, they are two points from the bottom spot. They have never been relegated from the top flight. This weekend, they played by and. They conceded more goals than anyone else. If they lose this weekend, it will be difficult for them to stay up. There is a british connection there, isnt there . There is. Anotherrtnering with arsenal player. Has tailed off a little bit . They will be twice. Obviously, this week they lost big to real madrid. They have got the cup final against dortmund. He would not be sacked, would he . He would not be sacked. Maybe then well tell us about that. Thank you very much. Coming up, this movie blockbuster has only awarded two stars after its debut. We will have that story in more. That is coming up next. Newspaper time. Kickoff with you. I have a story about mayday, a protest at harvard university. Calling for divestment of fossil fuels from the 33 billion endowment. Good to see that they are doing something other than apply for jobs at investment banks. They are taking over buildings. Activism lives on. I have a music meets money story. They are channeling in their headline, motown. Ernment funding is using is music to peoples ears. A goodve decided it is idea to invest in exporting music so they are putting money into some British Music acts in the hope that they will export more. Quotes thatf the says i plan to complete my u. S. State fridge magnet collection by the end of our album campaign. They are clearly grateful for the money they are receiving continuethem to touring in america. This is from the guardian. The Dutch National coach is said to be appointed united manager but there are already divisions appearing. The owners wanted someone with more. Wise to choose d or gigs . I think he is a shortterm appointment. If things dont go well, it will get ugly very quickly. This is the new film, pompeii. It is titanic with great balls of fire. Two stars. E given it do we care . The sufi us interrupting, yes, please. Suvius erupting, yes, please. We will have results from rbs amongst others when we come back. Stay with us for the second hour of countdown. Farmer frenzy friday. Two bloomberg exclusives. Pfizer is set to raise its bid for astrazeneca. Bring on the jobs. Employers in the u. S. May have addeded the most workers in five months. Were taking an inside tour f fendis new store. Hello. Welcome to countdown. Im mark barton. Im anna edwards. 7 00. Another day and another british bank reports its numbers. We are just getting numbers through from r. B. S. Earlier we had the numbers from lloyds of course. Who better to speak to on the banking subject than manus . I applaud your optimism. Q 1 net profit 1. 2 billion pounds. What are we looking for in all of this . How much restructuring charge on this quarter. News on citizens and u. S. Business and irish business. Operating profit coming in at 1. 5 billion pounds. Things are turning around. This time last year, they ended the First Quarter. You see the profitability rising. The markets division, this is important. Markets division up 14 . 318 Million Pounds and the costs are falling there. Of course when you are blocked om paying market market mune ration. Would the market stay with you . 2 billion pounds versus the profit last year of 393 Million Pounds. On the markets business, profits are rising. Costs are falling. Im paraphrasing here it is a numbers drop. Really what i want to get to is the restructuring charge. That is what the markets are looking for. The story is they were getting ready, getting ready to think about possibly using the word dividend. Smacked on that. Bought out the governments right various issues with the government. That has been blocked. The bank makes its First Quarterly profit since 2009. R. B. S. Trying seek private equity. That would be pretty forpt try to get that off their books. A modest increase in Net Interest Margin for the rest of the year. We know things are getting better. We talk drugs, manus. You were going to talk astrazeneca. We were talking around 50 earlier, werent we . I suppose when you see that headline, pfizer going in at 50 pounds, 46 pounds, 61 pence. That was the last in january. That was the last offer, informal offer in january. You know what . This takes us into the realm of over 100 billion. This is about getting astrazeneca to come to the negotiating table. They are still not there. They have their own plans they want to stick to. They have a relatively new c. E. O. He didnt think they wanted to sell. Well see how that plays out and what shareholders have to say about it. Mkt not really in the mood management not really in the mood to do a deal, but the chairman basically said look, were not getting this this offer back on evaluation terms. There is a headline and that hash element is 15 pounds 98 for each share. And this is important to sweeten the deal for the top 20 shareholders. Ok . Who we understand just wanted a more sweetened deal. The likes of blackrock, wellington management. We have done a graphic for you. They own over 25 of the company. This is about convincing them that their price is right in terms of cash and market at 50 pounds on the nose with a sweetened offer in terms of the cash element of it, this is battle up to the real to convince astra to get involved. That is one battle. The other, were hearing fascinating stuff about what they want to do here. They are assuring the dwovet of their longterm commit to the u. K. Pfizer is a company that recently pulled out of parts of the southeast of england with the loss of a few thousand jobs. That wont have been forgotten by the u. K. Government. Jobs. We had the c. E. O. From pfizer originally saying that he would not guarantee jobs. What they are guaranteeing for the moment at least is that they are going to be tax residents in the u. K. That is good news. Here is a pretty important line swl, anna. 20 of the combined total or the research and Development Workforce in the u. K. Going forward. The reason why that catches my eye is one of the big arguments, on bloomberg this morning, is that when pfizer did the deal with wyat in 2009, they closed own nearly 5 billion of r d business. Since the year 2000, they have spent over 240 billion on m a d produced three blockbuster drugs. The argument is this. You stymie the research and development. You dont let it go. Pfizer has been responsible for blocking two to three. From a position of weakness which guest after guest after guest seems to be saying. The logic for a combination with astrazeneca. Many commentators have been saying is this really about growth . To your point, manus what this does to ready. Changing your headquarters for tax purposes to the u. K. Certainly goes some way in explaining some of the logic surrounding this. Third party bid because they said they may bid less under astra. That 50 pounds is conditional on two bidders. If a third party comes in to this party, neighbor bid price will be lower. It is going to be one to watch. The best line out a of all of this that ive seen so far is there was an institutional investor. Came all the way to london to talk to them. That blew my mind. The shareholder was impressed. I think he has a british background anyway. Maybe he had family to visit. Manus, thank you very much. Plenty more on the jobs sector. In talks with merck prepared to pay 14 billion. Hands nichols has been following that story. That is much higher than the initial 10 billion price tag, isnt it . It is apparently worth it to bayer. They are in talks. We could see a deal in the coming days according to two people familiar with the matter. There is a bloomberg scoop from one of our colleagues, stateside. Ask yourself this question. Do you need prescriptions for dr. Shoal shoe inserts . The answer is no. You see these two companies wanting to get back to what they do best. What their core role is. Bayer wanted to have a consumer unit and you want to see merck get more involved in animal sciences, the veterinarian unit and you want to see basically leaner and more narrowly focused company. That is what could come out of all of this. Rickets said 14 billion is too much for us. Now we have exclusive talks in agreement and principle. It looks like this deal is all but done and dust. They need to have final terms. It looks like were heading towards closure. Guys . Thanks, hans. Well see you later. Our International Correspondent, hans nichols in beuerlein. Our focus son jobs of course. Well have the figure from the eurozone and the jobs report out of the United States. Jon ferro is here with details. Im guessing well stop with the u. S. 218,000 is the number were looking for. It matters because you can no longer blame the weather. If there is a weak number, i think people are expecting a stronger one because they are expecting a rebound. This matters across the three months coming because this quarter is supposed to be the rebound quarter. Just 1 growth. Pathetic. The Federal Reserve is pinning a lot on this. They are expecting some growth. It is not just the jobs data. No, it is not. Nobody is going to be looking at one data point. They are going to be looking at a broad rangor indicators. Were looking at underemployment. Those that have part time work and want full time work wage specific sli right at the heart of this labor market. Youre tracking this in a new way today . Im going share that with you today. Twitter guess is around about 211,000. If you do hash tag nmp fp guesses or bloomberg estimate nsp, we collect all of that data and do a nice little forecast. 211,000 and the economist forecast 218. Eurozone unemployment, numbers set to be released today. Part of the puzzle that mario draghi is trying to put together. In some sense. What you would like to see is his number come down. Start to get eaten up because that will feed through hopefully into price pressures. It is just off a record high. If they really cared, i would have expects some much more robust action. F there is a crisis in the eurozone, it is the record high for eurozone unemployment. The stars were out in force including Francine Lacqua. She got the inside scoop from the c. T. O. On the latest trends in luxury. People you have to be more selective on what they buy. They like to maybe by pieces. They like to buy quality. They like to hear beautiful stories and i think Francine Lacqua will be bringing you more from that conversation in this weekends 30 minute bloomberg special on the Luxury Fashion company, inside fendi on bloomberg this weekend. Tune in at 6 30 saturday and sunday. We have a look at what it makes to make it on to the prestigious list over the 50 best restaurants. Coming up after a short break, how does r. B. S. s road to recovery compare to that of the other bailed out british bank . Well have more on that. Berkshire hathaways has altalink. Uy the Purchase Price will be 2. 2 illion u. S. Dollars. Inked in, the Biggest Online network, has faced 16 quarters of decrediting growth. Decelerating growth. Sony posted a preliminary net loss of 1. 3 billion. The downward revision was the third since october. Welcome back. This is countdown. Im mark barton. Im anna edwards. For more on the r. B. S. Earnings and a discussion on whether they can retain any of their vestment banking business is it looks like a good First Quarter for r. B. S. It seems like they have not taken a lot of extraordinary charges which there are a whole bunch really looming out there. Restructuring charges. The target of around 2 billion for the full year. Regarding they will be higher later on in the year. Yes. I havent had a chance to see exact details but it looks like they are taking relatively few in the First Quarter. Clearly they are loading that towards the end of the year. There is also, you know, the whole complex of litigation with, especially in the u. S. , you know, the whole bit of rnbs, etc. , related litigation for which there will be many billion probably to be charged by r. B. S. , again, not seeing it in the First Quarter. Actually a relatively clean First Quarter. But showing very nice trends in the commercial and retail bank. One of the dark spots for r. B. S. Made its First Quarter of operating profits since 2009. Exactly. Clearly it has been a very costly restructuring. R. B. S. Is stuck with it. It is very encouraging to see that they are also coming out of their slump along with the irish economy, really, which has started to improve for the last quarter. The other irish banks are also doing considerably better. They are on track to become a pretty boring retail commercial. That is the ultimate goal. If that is saying how it is. How long is it going to take to achieve that . The companys plan of course is basically for another two years to get to a sort of fully implemented steady state, new model, if you like. One of the core challenges to get there, the capital situation. You know 9. 4 capital today. That is actually very good. Helped of course by the absence of all the extraordinary charges. Which might come later. Exactly. R. B. S. Said a few weeks ago that the capital in 2014 should fluctuate, depending really on the exact timing of all the charges coming through. A good First Quarter allows them to raise the ratio. It certainly gives them some cushion for the rest of the year. Are we going to see any volatility around r. B. S. And other Scottish Financial Services . We have the governments stake in the business that is going to be put to the market at some point. What sort of time scales are we looking at on that. Im not sure. Yes, certainly the press will certainly pick up on this issue. I would imagine that, you know, even in a scenario where scotland became independent, i would imagine eng listened and scotland would still, you know, trading partners england and scotland still would be trading partners. The company, even if the headquarters were in scotland, could still run banking branches in england or vice versa. Im not sure it would really completely change the business model. The government stake . The share price has recovered to some extent. Maybe this result would help it along a bit more. The government has started to share some lloyds shares already. They could certainly over the next quarter look at r. B. S. Or at least make a start there. Thank you very much. 7 20 here in london. Just ahead, well look at angela erkels unique position on the ukraine crisis. Welcome back to countdown. Im anna edwards. And im mark barton. German chancellor Angela America sl in washington today on a trip she will be meeting with president obama. On e going to talk position ukraine. Talk to us about this dynamic . Well, she is an intermediary. She is also a bit of an interpreter. President obama looks to her to figure out what is going on inside Vladimir Putins head. She could be able to impart some of the intel to the states. We dont know last time obama and putin spoke, but last time they officially spoke was in mid april. This is a relationship that has gotten kind of cold. Here is the challenge for merkel. She understands russian. She is a russian speaker. Her country has big foot prints in russia. Siemens. Merkel is has also proven she is willing to hurt herself not hurt. That is too strong of a word. She is willing to have some business damage like last month when they cansedled this airbus satellite sale to russia what was worth 700 million euros. So merkel is willing and in some cases this could be bad for german business, but im going to go ahead and press forward with it. Two months ago, three months ago, the merkel obama relationship was defined by the n. S. A. Scandal. Now it is all about ukraine findings Common Ground and binding the United States and the European Union closer together. Hans nick hans welcome back to countdown. Im mark barton. And im anna edwards. Lets get right to jonathan ferro. I want to take a look at sterling. It was 169 yesterday. Up by half of 1 on the week. Were looking at the data. It is getting better. You get u. K. Construction in about an hour. That is one to talk about. I want to talk about m a. Pfizer boosting their bid for astrazeneca. How much of that sterling do they already have . Here is the data for you. 307 u. S. Companies have about 2 trillion in cash overseas. What is the fx impact . That merger and acquisition activity . Could it be less than you might think . Thanks, jon. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines today. Russian president Vladimir Putin is urging the ukraine to withdraw its forces. In a few hours, the latest u. S. Jobs report is released. It could be one of the most important reads in years. Investors are hoping the economy added jobs. The april numbers wont see the effects of Winter Weather which have downturned the markets in the past few months. The eurozone Unemployment Rate has been stuck at 11. 9 since october. The estimate for the numbers today shows no change is once again expected. Ahead of next weeks elections in south africa, we spoke exclusively with the countrys finance minister. He talks about the state of the countrys economy. I think Growth Numbers in themselves dont tell the whole story. Swrow established your economic base. It is about the sophistication of business interest in ones economy. Also the sophistication of the Business Enterprises that we have. While the number itself might suggest one set of issues, if one looks at the economic base and infrastructure and capability of those South African firms and the manner in which they have penetrated the african continent with its mining services, telecommunications, south africa is in a league of its own. Great to have you on the program ahead of those elections. Tell us how did the conversation go . How was he approaching the runup to the elections next week . It is quite interesting. We have been seeing a big concern coming through on the growth front. Remember, the government is still expecting 2. 7 growth. Look at the sophistication of the institutions in south africa. Yes, south africa is number one when it comes to on the financial sferses front in the world and that is according to World Economic forum. We are falling behind in other instances. Remember, south africa is now the second largest economy in africa, number two to nigeria. When you look at the other growth rates, they are set to grow by 5. 5 . South africa, by 2. 7 . Were seeing inequality. Remember, we right now have the longest ever running platinum strike seen in this country. 70,000 workers on strike. It basically shows that were really concerned about not only the inequality on the front but also that 31 of the population is below the poverty line and the finance minister saying we have to address these issues going forward. Thank you very much. Voted the best restaurant in the world top 50 they retain the an italian ot restaurant came in at number three. For more on what it takes to be a winner the world of fine dining, were joined by one of the judges on the list. Richard, thank you for joining us. Is it a worthy winner . It is a fantastic restaurant. Thought the number three was going to win this year. For it to come back at the top spot is a surprise. The food is amazing. It is so invent pifment what does it take to win . You cant be traditional and win this award . Is that the takeaway . One that won five times has been doing something new. Another has experience and classic technique. It brings up all sorts of debates, doesnt it . The list. When you look at blumenthal, dinner came in at number five. And how do you how do you explain that . Compiled best list is by panels, each with 35 people. There is really no way of controlling what wins and what doesnt. Fat duck, you to try a it is a fantastic restaurant. You have to get the votes. To get the votes, you have to have people eat there. To wait them, you more than year. Especially the ones that have won on this list before. Raupts actually google guests. They can try and work out who is important and who is not. They catch journalists. I once tried to book at the Gordon Ramsey restaurant. They recognized my phone number. Did being a journalist help or hurt . It helped actually. They wanted to boost the magazine. They came one this idea in a brainstorming session. On the back of an envelope they said delothse the worlds best restaurant. You have some examples. In 2010, 100,000 people checked the website and tried to get bookings. Enough to fill restaurant for 1015 years. The one that won last year, they had to pay two people full time to say no to people who wants reservations. Youre involved in this. Are they always a good thing . These kinds of competitions . I think so. I think they bring attention to restaurants around the world. Everyone talks about them now and im not sure they would if they had not been in the 50 best. Everyone knows the famous french restaurants, but this has drawn attention to the other restaurants. The chefs turn up. For the awards. It turns into three or four diverse meals. Do they eat . Thats what i want to know. They go dressed to eat and did e main awards, you dance this year . I know you danced last year. This year was 2 00 a. M. Or people at the restaurant. The brits, three restaurants in the top 50. Two in the top 10. Is it that good . Yes. It is a fantastic raupt. The problem is the chef is australian. We kind of claim him as ours, but it is an australian chef doing well in london. What are the restaurants that didnt make it on to this list but you think need more recognition . I think it is difficult for restaurants outside of london to get on the list. Probably the best restaurants ive been to this the u. K. Where will you be dining this weekend . Im going to lyles. James lowe opened this restaurant in the t building. Very nice. Richard, thank you for joining us. Talking to us about the 50 best restaurants. Coming up, a new replica of contingency tut. Of king tut. Well show you how it was created. Welcome back to countdown. Im anna edwards. This time for hot shots. A look at some of the most compelling images of the day. One in every five people worldwide owns a smart phone, but charging mobile devices takes up precious time now they have come one a solution. The company has created a battery that can be completely charged within 30 seconds. It will be two more years, though, before the bat i have ready for market. Egypt unveils a replica of king tuts tomb in the valley of the kings. It received support from the egyptian antiques and tourism department. The company used digital photography, 3d laser and scanning to create it. Welcome back to countdown. Im anna edwards. Im mark barton. Thanks. Jon is here. Top macro themes of the day. P. M. I. Construction. Were looking at 632. 2. Lower than the 62. 5 delivered last month. Anything above 60 is pretty serious growth. Manufacturing number Beat Estimates and that pushed the pound up. To 1. 69. The pound is hitting some pretty it is all about the u. S. Jobs report. Yeah. I think a lot of people always get excited about this but were getting more mature about it as well. We look at the number, 219,000 jobs if youre 211 if youre a water to. Yeah, if youre a water to, 211. But i think everyone else is looking at a broad range of indicators because we know it is what the Federal Reserve is looking at. Average earnings. Why do we carry . You checked with our guest. To put it quite simply, wages will go up when you see less slack in the economy. Unemployment coming down. More people less people chasing jobs. You have to push up the offerings to attract the talent. When you a lot of slack in the economy, the opposite applies. When wages rise, it is a good strength indicator to the economy. The question is how much slack is there in the u. S. And the u. K. . Agreements within the fed and the bank of england as well. Does anyone care about this . Because it is such a big deal. 11. 9 . Just off a record high. We have hardly seen any improvement here. If there is a crisis here, we have to get these people to work. That number right there, the headline number, we talked about it. On the youth unemployment side of things, it is horrendous. Jon, thank you very much. Shall we recap one of our top stories today . Pfizer has updated their offer for astrazeneca coming through with a new price. Giving new details. We have seen the share price. It is 10 higher i saw in one particular call. What is interesting about the offer is some of the commitments that go with it from pfizer to them talking about being committed to a complete reconstruction of the cambridge counter. This is fleshing out how much they are committed to being part of the u. K. Economy if they manage to take control of astrazeneca. They have to sell it to the u. K. Government, havent Snape Astrazeneca wants more cash. The latest bid has a cash come opponent. Stockholders would get almost 16 pounds in cash. It equates to 50 pounds per share, the informal offer in january was 46 pounds. Investors yesterday assume there would be a higher bid, as you say, a 10 increase in the shares today is going to send the shares above 50 pounds. Does that mean they want even more . Investors are anticipating a higher offer. A lot of Politics Around this. Pfizer is saying they are giving a commitment on tax. They are based in the u. K. For tax purposes. They are saying this 70 of its revenues are actually outside the u. K. Mostly in the u. S. Astrazeneca. It is already a global business. It is a big u. K. Exporter. That is why this matters. It matters to tuck government because this is a government talking about diversifying the u. K. Economy. About knowledge jobs. Just the kind of jobs that they are talking about here at stake if you see a big company from outside coming into the u. K. I saw bit of history. Pfizer taking over companies. It slimmed its operations and many are worried history might repeat itself. More on that when we come back. Up next also on the program, r. B. S. Saw profit triple. 7 47 in london. Welcome back to countdown. Im mark barton. Im anna edwards. It is 7 50. Rbs profit tripled in the third quarter. We spoke to an analyst earlier on, brenda, who was saying there were not so many oneoff items in this third quarter. Did it impress you . I think it certainly was better than what i had hoped for. If we compare it to the number we saw last year, it looks like r. B. S. Is starting to make inroads into good. Over the last six weeks or so, we have seen good support. I think in some respects, investors have been hoping for some good news. Of course some of the caveats they would have put to the good news is that there are still some problems in regards to mortgages in the u. S. And that could weigh on the share price and indeed whatever provisions they put aside in the near future. Nevertheless, unless we stave off that 295 level, i think we can see a pop from here. It is down 23 since october. Were in an m a frenzy again, arent we . We verbatim. That is becoming the normal thing. We had i. P. O. S and now it is m a activity. I think it tepids to mark the beginning of the on the other hand a fiveyear bull cycle. I think what we have is the promise of lower Interest Rates from certain Central Banks. I think some of the Bigger Companies are taking and certainly pfizer, astrazeneca deal is one to watch for the time being but im not so sure it is a done deal yet. Ebb and flow over the last year or so. Is this m a ackthathe were seeing, is this going to give it another boost . I think well have to see a little bit more Global Growth if that is going to be the case. The fact that 7 of its revenues from abroad. The m a addict might not be enough to push it up to its all time highs. Nonfarm payroll is out later on today. It might be optimistic to expect a real upside at this particular juncture. Nonfarm payrolls today is the big one. The u. S. Jobs report. Where are you . Below con senist us is . Im not consensus. Im always contrarian. Thats just how i roll. The fact that were seeing such a narrow range of actual estimates from the economists at the moment is a little bit worriesome. I find every time we get too bullish on the figure, it tends to be disappointing. Remember, back in january, there were 220,000 jobs expected and we got a mere 74,000. I think the wirpt weather may still have im Winter Weather may still have impugned the market to a certain degree. What is the psychology surrounding this number . How do you think market is going to respond to it if it disappoint or exceeds estimates . We saw such a muted response the the tapering of the quantitative easing by the fed earlier this week. I feel that maybe the markets are waiting for this and i think a good nuff number is necessary if we are to push higher. Tapering is continuing to happen and seems like it is continuing to happen. Im expecting the market markets to rally from here. I think it will be a sign that the u. S. Growth is not all it has been cracked up to be. Eurozone unemployment. P. M. I. Final reading as well. Yes, very important figures. But does it change the picture when it comes to e. C. B. s strategy or not . Im not so sure it is something that the e. C. B. Is watching very closely. I think the 11. 9 figure is such a confident number. You need to break it down into the individual countries. Spain is starting to creep up over the last months or so. If we remain at 11. 9 , it will be good enough but ultimately we need to tick down. I think the e. C. B. Are far more concerned with the Exchange Rate at the moment and the Inflation Numbers and employment numbers are something for the individual governments themselves to work with. Peripherals, the yields are so low, i think the individual governments need to utilize that relief that they are getting in order to stimulate growth in their own member states. Give us one of your favorite stocks at the moment. You quite like arm despite concerns about slowing smart phone sales. I think apples smart phone sales proved a point. Pretty good evidence that smart phones are not dead. I know people with nokia hand sets so surely they will move into the smart phone market soon. Arm has been a good area getting able to take advantage of apples move. Next, youll be doing on the move. Well be ack after a short break. Back after a short break. Welcome to on the move. Francine lacqua will be joining us later. We are Just Moments Away from the start of european trading. The market scene is everything covered from companies to currencies. Lets kick things off with you, jonathan ferro. Matters because you cannot blame the weather anymore. We are actually expecting a bit of a rebound. A lot of people will be disappointed because what on earth will they blame it on this time. Speaking of big ones, a big offer from pfizer. If anyone comes in to spoil this offer, he may indeed offer a lower price. I will bring that to you a little bit later. They are really cranking up the pr machine to get the deal done, anna. Our International Correspondent is in berlin. Hans, youre on the other side of the frenzy watching bayer and merck. We are expecting a deal to come in the coming days. It seems to inking this 14 billion deal