Mark hello and welcome to countdown. Manus also coming up on countdown today, as the first person faces trial for alleged libor ratereading, we take a look at how the billions of dollars collected are being spent. It is probably something you would not expect. That story later in the show. Mark shall we bring the numbers from ryanair . Fullyear earnings jumping. Profit after tax gaining 66 . 867 Million Euros. That is 247 Million Euros higher than the top end of predictions made the previous year. Fiscal 2016, the airline is predicting profit of 940 million to 970 Million Euros. The company is ramping up winter capacity and seeking to the were a new generation of passengers with a softer approach. It raised its guidance to 2015 earnings five times. It is targeting major european airports and looking to tempt passengers away from Network Airlines like lufthansa air france, klm group. Joining us is carry longer. The big driver of this was the number of passengers, the increase in passengers. An 11 increase in passengers, just over 90 million. They are getting the airplane 88 fall from 83 . More people on the plane. Over the winter period they traditionally kept their planes on the ground to this year, they say, ok, we are going to put everything in the air. They actually saw fares rise 1 . They were not having to completely slash fares. Caroline it is arguable that they have been a bit too conservative this year. They keep raising their profit guidance. Give us a sense of what we are expecting in 2016. Kari raising your guidance five times is a little extreme. The guidance will definitely be what the market is focusing on this morning. They are always very cautious giving this first guidance of the year. This is very early in their fiscal year. Remember, their fiscal year starts in april. It is still very early. Having said that, they are feeling pretty confident as far as bookings. We will have to see how they are always Getting Better plans how this revamp of their image settles in and whether that continues to pay off for them. Manus year 3 of that rebranding, being warmer towards the customer. They are getting more business customers. Where are we in the strategy . What more can they do in terms of communicating the message . Kari i think primary airports will be a key thing for this year. They got rid of some of the annoying things like the second bag the allocated seating. They put in place some of the obvious things that drive people nuts. This year, it will be the primary airports, focused on getting some of those business passengers that easyjet has been so successful with. The other thing that easyjet and ryanair are doing is looking at their Digital Strategy and trying to be quick on their feet trying to think more like a retailer like aldi. It will be interesting to see how successful they are. Mark thank you for joining us. Stay with us. We will be joined by ryanair cfo. Do not miss it. Caroline lets switch gears a little bit. Greek officials revived their bid for Financial Aid today. A spokesman said a deal can be reached by the end of may. Disagreement still remains. Lets get over to hans nichols in berlin for the latest. What is the dealbreaker here . What seems to be stopping an agreement from being brokered ahead of the end of may . Hans good morning, caroline. From the greek side, there is one dealbreaker and that is austerity. That is the latest from jan is varoufakis. He said the creditors are subtle and steadfast and the deadline is coming up. Yet they are remaining firm that there no further austerity will be imposed. Here is an important quote from varoufakis. If there is potential daylight between varoufakis and his Prime Minister, then you can see a way out of it. He said, our government cannot and will not accept the cure that has proven itself to be worse than the disease. The Athens Exchange was down some 30. 1 yesterday. Here in germany, you are hearing an emergency consensus. Wolfgang schauble talked about how the blame was squarely with the greeks. If greece wants to compromise if citrus tsipras wants to cut a deal, it is up to the greeks. The germans do not want to go any further. Varoufakis seemed to be blaming greece germans for their overlygenerous pension system. It does not look like there will be any give him the imf will either. Caroline clearly, varoufakis is talking tough it what about tsi pras . Does he have the mandate to get this through . Hans a status check on how they have done recently, a big, long meeting. Remember, syriza has a 12vote margin in the 300seat parliament. The vote was to say, do you want to default on payments or stay true to our principles and not compromise . The vote failed by a count of 9575. That means there are 75 within the Greek Parliament that do not want to compromise the principles, even if it means defaulting to the imf. This is going to be center stage at the finance ministers meeting that takes place here in germany. Wolfgang schauble it looks like he will be holding the line that austerity needs to continue to be implemented. We will can we will see whether the americans and others give in to this demand side argument. We have to see how this is going to fall out. Caroline hans nichols from a bright and sunny berlin. Thank you very much. Manus lets go over to hong kong now. Chinese stocks have been surging towards a sevenyear high. It is a bullish story from china. The analysts keep upgrading the stock. That is right. Take a look at all of asia. Stocks this morning still relatively in the green. Korea and hong kong were both closed yesterday for buddhas birthday. A little bit of losses here, down. 5 . The hang seng playing catchup. We saw the gains in shanghai yesterday. 1. 7 this morning. The volumes are pretty high right now, about 30 higher than the 30day average at this time. We are seeing a lot of those gains coming from the financials, the basic materials, as well as your industrials, up about. 3 . There is a lot of talk about this crossborder trading that we are in terms of the share sales or the share fund, i should say. China and hong kong approved that a couple of days ago. That would be effective on july 1. A lot of speculation about how this is going to do for the hong kong market. Most think this will benefit hong kong markets because the china stocks you can trade in hong kong for the past one year have been up about 47 . Looking pretty good. They still have quite a bit to catch up on. You take a look at the shanghai composite for the past 12 months 140 rally how all the major equity indices out there. Still room to go, really. When you take a look at these reports coming out from the local media in hong kong today saying that the shanghaihong kong stock link that we saw launched recently, the aggregate quota of that might be abolished by the time the shenzhen equity linked starts around summer. A daily limit may be increased. We could see more money flooding into this market. If you were one of those analysts a year ago that said this rally was going to be hitting 28 , you may have been an optimist before, but now you are being seen as a pessimist because stock prices just blowing all of these target prices out of the water. They said it is getting embarrassing now, trying to upgrade these target prices. There could be some hiccups along the way. They said especially if we are going to start seeing the shanghai composite hit the 5000 mark. We are almost getting there. About 4892 for today. About two dozen or so ipos happening in june, not a small amount either. Manus lets hope that it continues to glitter. Mark the wave of dealmaking between u. S. Cable companies is expected to continue. The latest is news that Charter Communications is close to a deal with Time Warner Cable. Quite a premium is likely to be paid. Caroline, what is the story here . Caroline lets dig into the numbers. It is a huge deal. The fourth biggest smaller Charter Communications lying the secondbiggest player, Time Warner Cable. The deal could be announced as soon as today. Charter Communications Offering 55 billion. That is a 14 premium 195 per share, cash and stock. It is about 100 in cash, the rest coming in stock. There is an option to up the cash portion if shareholders prefer that. But this is all about the race to become a bigger player in the united states. Remember, Cable Companies feeling the hit when it comes to amazon netflix. A content war is going on. If you become a bigger player acquiring number two quadrupling the number of customers would mean it becomes the secondbiggest player. A Bigger Company needs more leverage and more clout when negotiating contracts with television networks. You are trying to get that content. A big price tag, a big premium going on. There is a tussle to buy the Smaller Companies in the u. S. It is all about mergers. Suddenly, things got a little spicy last week. We suddenly have a lastminute competition coming from alt the French Companyice. From altice. The French Company coming into the u. S. Suddenly, you have a little bit of a heat going on. Charter communications making their second bit for Time Warner Cable bid for Time Warner Cable and offering a big premium to fend off the competition. It is not just Time Warner Cable that they are going for. They are also in the midst of buying bright house. That was announced early in the year. They are trying to work out how much that cost them at the moment. We understand it was about 10 billion. That is actually charter, the number four player, trying to buy time warner, the number two but also the number six player brighthouse. A bit of a tussle going on for Time Warner Cable in general. Look at what they have done to try to fend off patrick druggie draghi coming back for a second bite of the cherry. John malone is the man for Charter Communications it he owns Liberty Broadband and will help to fund this deal. That makes it a very difficult price point and structure for altice to be able to top. They are taking into consideration the competition for the asset and the antitrust concerns. Remember, Time Warner Cable was being merged with comcast, the number one and the number two players but the regulators did not like that. That deal unraveled and now the likes of Charter Communications are coming back for a second attempt. They are going to have a big breakup fee if it does not happen. Manus lets get you up to speed with some of the top stories on bloomberg at this hour. David cameron met with the European Commission president to talk about renegotiating the terms of britains membership of the bloc. It is part of a weeklong tour discovery discussing a referendum. The french Prime Minister in paris on friday. Apples top designer jony ive will give up his daytoday managerial duties in what the company says is a promotion to a new creative position. Apple said he will still need design efforts while his deputies take on managerial duties. Retailers have agreed toend to end they dispute. It puts an end to shortages that grounded airplanes, shut banks and threatened businesses. Major fuel retailers work baning they are still owed 1 billion in payment. You can find more detail on all of those stories on bloomberg. Com. Caroline you can join the conversation on twitter. Mark arden mark barton, manus cranny, caroline hyde. Give us your thoughts on the m a that is happening in the united states. Jony ive, everyone thinking this is carving him out to be the focus of the future. Mark coming up we look at the prospects for an agreement between the greek creditors and government. Stay with us. Mark the greek government has expressed confidence a deal can still be reached with its creditors by the end of the month, in time for a payment to the imf jute do on june 5. Disagreements still exist on sales tax rates and pension rules. Stanley fischer weighed in on the situation yesterday. He says europe will find a way to deal with these situations. There is still a great problem. Nobody quite knows how that is going to be resolved but it is expected now by most people that the euro area will break up. They will probably find a way of dealing with greece. If they do not, they have put a lot of safeguards in place to make it possible for that to happen. Mark lets discuss the situation in greece and some of the other key stories. Joining us is christopher. Stanley fischer is hopeful some sort of agreement can be reached. They still have to pay a lot of money in the month of june. Christopher absolutely right. I think greeces problem is, to negotiate effectively, they need to cause pain among the creditors to scare them into some kind of more flexible position. It never quite seems to they are trying to be sometimes to amicable too amicable. Behind the scenes the finance minister is shaking the tree a little bit. I agree with stanley fischer. It seems like a deal should be in the cards. We have been doing this for a long time now. The likely scenario is the deal gets done. It is a unique event. It still could worry markets a little bit. Caroline having to scare them to a certain degree certain affected london and greek stocks. What about the rest of the eurozone . Christopher it has been contained. That has been the difference this time around. So the contagion is not so much economic now. It is more political. Manus i was thinking of what Christine Lagarde said recently. A comprehensive approach, not a quick, dirty job. I do not know how dirty it is but that is the fundamental point. Lets say, delay the imf. It is piecemeal. There is still no big resolution. That is what the market really wants to see. Christopher i think greek debt has to be written down. That is the resolution we are ultimately heading towards. The greek voters have spoken. The imf and germany have taken a very hard line which is they are only negotiating positions the only thing they can do. Two sides both know where we need to end up, but no one can take that first step. Mark austerity, when it comes to antiausterity, when it comes to elections, reared its head. How does that change the Political Landscape of europe after syruza syriza took power in greece . Christopher it is definitely shifting left. Not a massive shift, but a difference of opinion. Voters want change. I think that is what we are seeing. Not just for greece and spain, but britain as well. I think the current slate of affairs in the European Union is not really satisfactory. Maybe it never really had democratic support, but i think people are beginning to speak. Caroline shifting gears a little bit and looking elsewhere in the world, we have chinese stocks once again rallying. What are you feeling about china . It seems as though investors just cannot leave it alone even though they know is is getting into bubble territory. Christopher it is all about news flow. We have msci deciding whether chinas share of the index will increase. And then we have a series of data going on until november when it is debated at the imf level within the chinese become part of the special drawing Rights Reserve currency. A lot of stages towards liberalization of Chinese Capital markets. It is all about news flow. Manus janet yellen spoke of providence. She is going into the june meeting with an open mind, which is sort of ominous. Where do you stand . The most dovish tightening on record. Christopher i could not agree more. Tightening is not quite the right word for it. The u. S. Economy has been surprisingly weak through the first quarter. You can attribute that to the temporary factors, the strong dollar, the oil industry, the port strike, the weather but it has been very weak. The Employment Data we have had a lot of week that is worried people. Will it bounce back question this is critical for me. Bounceback . This is critical for me. I do not think we will know until we get the gdp number four q2. Mark the yield on the german 10year was at 64 basis points. Christopher bond markets are not driven by fundamentals anymore. If they were, they would not be where they are for the last year or so. For me, it is about the buyers and sellers. The buyers and sellers are the Central Banks. To predict the behavior of the Central Banks personally it looks a little bit better than it did a month ago. I am more probond markets now. Mark thank you so much. Caroline coming up, Energy Crisis in nigeria. We will talk about the fuel shortage that is grounding airplanes shutting banks, and crippling africas biggest economy. Stay tuned. Meanwhile keeping a close eye on the oil prices today. How these markets continue to play after we reopen after the bank holiday in the u. S. Holiday. Manus you are very welcome back to countdown. Lets check in on the Foreign Exchange markets. Are you a Dollar Strength trader or a Euro Weakness traitor . Trader . Janet yellen said she is going into the Federal Reserve meeting for june with an open mind. The dollar, of course the question is, how dovish will the tightening be . Consumer confidence comes in today. We are expecting that to dip ever so slightly. Us home sales come in today along with durable goods so the fed goes with an open mind. The dollar rises. 7 today. The slate of fed voices this week is fairly light. You will get the richmond fed governor, typically hawkish, due to speak later today. The euro is definitely moving lower. Is that the greek story . Is that varoufakis saying, we will ta