The time in london is just on 7 00. A french president ial audience for ges ceo and a rival bid from germanys siemens. Settles a remarkable threeday scramble. Hans nichols is in berlin to break down oust him down break down alstoms choices. Are they going to be open on friday . They will not be open until wednesday. They have until then to , oneerate over one bid formal offer. It comes down to one crucial question. Here is the ceo of an american company. Do you ask for permission from the french government first before putting out that big . Jeff himmel had the conversations with alstom. His board has approved it. Then the french government got wind of it. Today, he has a meeting with french president for an swap along. Francois hollande. Did he oron there is, should he have contacted the french state before he started getting everything in line . What has happened in the meantime, siemens has put together a rival bid. This is an asset swap. Siemens would take the energy unit from alstom and give them the train unit. They are prepared to make guarantees for no job cuts for at least three years. It would make france the leader of rail and transport. The deutsche bond trains would be built in france. They would match or exceed the financial terms offered by ge. Here is the ge case. They have approval from their board. They have done their Due Diligence and are much further along. They say acquiring the Energy Business would lead to growth throughout france read transport business would be spun off. Some of those assets would stay in france. And fewer job losses because there are less costs over this, lest sharing. It would be a binding offer. A decision has to be made by wednesday and it is a remarkable choice read so much at stake, not just with french industry, but what france is going to do to revive their economy. Will they accept bids from outside companies, from u. S. Companies that have all of this cash . They do not want to bring it home because if they bring it home, they have to pay those high tax rates. Thank you. Hans nichols covering that mnj story. That m a from one bid to another. Pfizer and astrazeneca are in talks. An offer is on the table. Pfizer had previously offered 46 pounds for astrazeneca. It could make an offer anytime for less than that offer. Last week, this was a big story. They were in talks a few months ago. Nothing came of those formal talks. As we have been reporting all morning, pfizer has come back to the table and it is confirmed, continued interest in the country. Confirming continued interest in a takeover of aster zeneca. It reminds you of the value of some of these businesses and the size of a takeover. Astrazeneca valued over 51 billion pounds. That is 86 billion u. S. Dollars. This would be a big deal even in a sector where we see big deals. Pfizer continues to have interest in astrazeneca. It is continued it is considered to add to adjusted eps. There is a deadline they have to make an offer, may 26. About another three or four weeks to officially launch that did. We will continue to watch that story. Further analysis later today on that one. Lets focus on what is happening in ukraine. U. S. Will impose new sanctions as early as today on russian individuals, russian countries. Ryan is here. This follows the fear of international by prorussian separatists. The ministers will meet later today in brussels. They may act today. They may have to wait for the leaders of the eu countries to sign off. We expect them to begin deliberations today. The Deputy Foreign minister of germany says they are going to add 15 names, at least, to the name to the list of individuals that they will sanction. In addition, the United States is prepared to act today. Have a listen. We will be looking to designate people who are in his inner circle, who have a Significant Impact on the russian economy, we will be looking to designate companies that they and other inner circle people control. We will take steps with regard to High Technology exports to their defense industry. All of this together will have an impact. In terms of the individuals they are sent to designate, we understand they may designate the ceo of rows left of rosneft. That bp has a 20 stake in. Does that have ramifications for bp . Is that embarrassing for bp . What would you say . It may not have any direct impact. We have russian oils ceo, he has been sanctioned. Yet Russian Railways appears to be functioning, as a company, more or less normally. Despite the fact that the ceo has been designated by the United States. Clearly, if you are bp, uncomfortable if you are doing business in the United States. The United States could actually sanction and that might create discomfort for you in terms of your relations with the u. S. Government, the european government. I think we actually have the Ukraine Foreign minister is that that is my mistake. We are hoping to get him this hour. As soon as we get him, we have lots to talk about. Of course, the interesting thing will be to see how the russians respond. Late last week, we saw Vladimir Putin say that visa and mastercard are going to lose market share in russia because they declined to service the credit cards of some russian banks after the first round of sanctions came out. The biggest loser on the Dow Jones Industrial average last week. Dropping about five percent. An interesting space to watch. We will see you later. The farmer frenzy is waiting is reaching into germany. Bayer is said to focus on growing its health business. We are joined by david tweed in berlin. Bayer reported firstquarter earnings in the last hour. Take us through the numbers and their intentions with regards to a. Nd a m ebtina came out with numbers, better than expected. And estimateersus of 2. 50 6 billion. Illion. B inset by improvements operational performance. Good numbers all around. That said, what a bit of m a isching bayer and it focusing on its plastics business. This is an area that a lot of people have been speculating like to hideuld off because it has not been making as much money as its cost of capital. With their earnings today, they do say that there ebitda rose by 80 . M all be back with more on surrounding bayer later this hour. Thank you very much. We have had breaking news from pfizer. It is confirmed a possible offer for astrazeneca. Manus cranny is here. What do we know . Inthey made the original january. Because of the dramatic changes of the landscape within the pharma industry, they came back to the table within this month, just last week. Pfizer is saying that they 46 pounds is what they originally offered. As you said, they have until little bit later in may to make up their mind may 26, i think. Pfizer is line is saying a deal like this would be accretive and would add to the earnings. They are beginning to build well, astra will be building the emerging defense and pfizer will to going for the deal through. What is the motivation here . That is part of our bloomberg story, these early stage immune drugs for cancer. Astra has a strong pipeline in terms of cancer drugs. Pfizer, that is what they want to get their hands on. Astrazeneca has three drugs at trial stage, which could be worth 1 billion. They have 11 drugs that are in late stage and goal trials. Clinical trials. 19 drugs are under study. That gives you a sense of what pfizer is going after. Give us an idea of the hurdles this deal faces. Very interesting strategy by pfizer. Go public and go now. Market andod of the shareholders is about creating value, there is more pressure on astrazeneca. Bear in mind, i was reading through some of the copy that astrazeneca has 7000 employees in the united kingdom. We talked about the alstomge yes. What would the richest governments reaction be to Something Like this . What are you off and on about . It is free enterprise, free economy. Hello. , bring you back to calf raise a deal that was it happened. Thank you. It did go through. It brought out a great deal of british nationalism. That was chocolate, this is drugs. Exports 2 of the u. K. Market. Coming up, seven International Observers remain in the custody of progression activists in ukraine. Sanctions loom over russia. We will talk to the Ukrainian Foreign minister next. Welcome back. This is countdown. It is 7 14 in london. The u. S. And the u. N. Will impose new sanctions as soon as today on russian individuals. This follows the seizures by prorussian separatists in ukraine last week. We have the eu foreign minister meeting today. They may come up with an expansion of the list of sanctioned individuals. Maybe it will come later in the week. Sometimes the eu heads of state have to gather to sign off on those things. The u. S. Is expected to make an announcement on sanctions today. We have the Ukrainian Foreign minister on the phone. Thank you very much for being with us. I want to start those ofce observers. This group was taken hostage by the separatists over the weekend. Ofce negotiators bet with them yesterday. The release of one of the group of 11. Why is that and how are the negotiations going for the release of these observers, which the separatists call spies. Good morning. Do kept the rest of the group that they have adopted last week abducted last week. I think the main reason they have they are keeping these people is to show that they are andmasters in this plan that anyone who wants to go to this land needs to talk to them. The other thing that they will most likely try to negotiate the release of other separatists kept by the Ukrainian Police to exchange for these observers. Theyt is disgusting what are planning to do. We saw a prorussian militia, a group of several hundred, seize a police tv station. Given all the chaos over the weekend, how confident are you that you are actually going to be able to carry off these residential elections on the 25th of may and if you do go forward with them, will you hold elections in these contested areas, these places held by the separatists question my separatists . Thehis is the goal of counterterrorist separation in Eastern Ukraine, to restore order to these reasons regions and make people feel safety. To restore order and make people participate in the elections. That is what everyone wants. Ofce,e, european union, russia, we all want to hold the election for president. To do so, we need to restore order. We are committed to fill the elections on the 25th of may and we will do Everything Possible to make possibility to the people in Eastern Ukraine to participate in these elections. There was talk that there would be negotiations in vienna today. A day that was discussed. Are those talks going to go forward today . We are going to discuss the implementation of the vienna document that allow the International Terrorists to monitor the military drills that near thew has started ukrainian borders. But russia did not want to comply with the documents. What they received on saturday was not enough, no details of what they were planning to do. Or end on the beginning of the exercise. This is the reason why we asked to hold consultations in vienna on those documents. Ent toe russians commitm this document. Another set of talks will begin in london on returning some of the money that may have left the company under the the country under the previous government of ukraine illegally. What is the goal of those talks . Can you give us more specific information about what negotiators that will be here in london are hoping to do . I think it is better to wait for one more day. Goal of thise Main Initiative is to discuss the assets, this these which were illegally taken from ukraine under the previous government, can be returned back to ukraine. It is quite a big number. Much foryou very giving us your time this morning. , as tensions in ukraine continue to escalate, prospects for additional sanctions against russia loom. Welcome back to countdown. Is 7 23. Me in london the situation in ukraine is intensifying. The u. N. And the u. S. Could impose new sanctions as early as today. How is this playing out in the minds of investors . Joining us is michael osullivan. How is it playing out in your mind . Todayhink the next step will be a slight ratcheting up of sanctions from the u. S. European side, adding to the list of individuals to face sanctions. So far, the tempo and the pace of this crisis is being set by the prorussian side. What will their response be to sanctions . Will it be something involving gazprom, complaining about unpaid bills . You might see an agitation of some of the other Eastern European states. I think that would be a big escalation. I continue to believe that it is not in russias interest to formally have troops in ukraine and to have a military conflict with ukraine. It would be, i think, a mini and wouldn for russia plunge them so much deeper into a geopolitical crisis. I think their strategy is to continue to undermine ukraine. Corrects what do you think it will be for the International Investment community . That this issue featured more prominently in their minds . You were pointing out the volatility was low in the third quarter. In the first quarter. We have discussed this in the past. There is a groundhog day or you a fiscal crises, be it crisis in washington, europe, or a geopolitical crisis. , cash comeseasures back into the market. We have been a good year and a half now without a volatility event. And on setting that most of the major indices, given the things that are happening macrowise politically, have not really budge. Indices up a little bit more. We are at the margins where we are beginning to see some risky positioning coming off. Some of our Hedge Fund Positioning indicators show the Hedge Fund Community selling the tech stocks down quite hard. What has been interesting is , coupled with availability on the with the volatility on the dax, has been a big part of the story. , you may seepen some profit taking. Stay there. We will come back to you after our short break. Ceo at osullivan, Credit Suisse private banking. Pfizer has confirmed its interest in a 58. 8 billion pounds acquisition of astrazeneca. At least that is what it is worth in the market right now. We will see what pfizer will have to pay if they managed to get their hands on this business. More on the industry when we return. Welcome back. I am anna edwards. Lets get right to Jonathan Ferro for the fx check. Lets have a look at eurodollar over the last couple of months. If you look at it on the month, pretty much dead flat. This week is a pretty big week. Tomorrow we get german inflation. We are looking for euro zone inflation to come back towards 0. 8 . Still way below target. In the ecbs words, for asset purchases to take place the inflation outlook would need to worsen. Listening to mario draghi and reading his speech, the best Case Scenario is pretty much unchanged. Inflation will stay low and cut act towards target. That is their base case. They are going to remain unchanged on the policy side of things. Stay where he on the euro. I am mark barton in london. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines. To agreeats will meet on the names of more russians to be targeted in the broadening of sanctions over moscows actions in ukraine. Yesterday, prorussian separatists freed a foreign observer in ukraine. Seven others are being held. Minister tonyme abbott says it is possible a missing Malaysia Airlines jet will never be recovered. Searches for the plane have been canceled with authorities pointing to a new underwater operation. President obama has just arrived in the philippines. He will be in manila for a state visit. The u. S. And philippines have reached a 10 year pact that would allow a larger American Military presence in the Southeast Asian nation. Back with us now, michael osullivan. Thank you very much for sticking with us. Lets talk about some of the m a activity and whether that is featuring on your radar. Theyou exposed to any of Drug Companies at the center of all this takeover talk . Very much so. We have seven top ideas for the year ahead. One of those is copper cash. At three biotech companies, some of the mining companies. Think that the pace of this is beginning to pick up. You are seeing some of the big companies. We had novartis a week or so ago looking to use some of the cash pile they have beyond their jurisdiction. Trying to clean up the Balance Sheet. Focus degree of strategic coming into some of the big multinationals. Is that what the motivation is here, using cash piles in a tax efficient manner rather than trying to put together deals that make sense strategically . Particular for the u. S. Certainly inat is the back of the mind of the management. If you look at proposed deals like gehouston gealstom, you can see the industry structure story coming through. There were some big macroeconomic events this week. The fed meets, the boj meets, u. S. Jobs, u. K. Gdp. Out of those, where does the biggest risk lie . Probably thursday. When you havent mentioned was chinese pmi. I am much more relaxed about u. S. Pmi and jobs numbers. I hope the jobs numbers will go through the 200,000 mark. The fed meeting i think well pass off with another slice of tapering. Tapering is taking the speed out of the market. That is why rk levels have been kind of flat whereas last year they were rising more steadily. I think we are not going to get a positive surprise. An increase in euro zone cpi, does that allow mario draghi and his colleagues further room to hold off on implementing further policy measures . I think he is in a bind. Qe, need a an act data crisis. They need probably weaker inflation to do qe. If there is a stabilization in inflation, it will give them the couple of months that they need to prepare qe. I think qe in europe will come to