European headquarters in london. We have all angles covered on the alibaba story. Alibaba makes it official. The Online Retail giant has filed to go public in the u. S. It will be the biggest Public Offering the world has ever seen. Ferro. Joined by jonathan lets start with you, john. We have this billion that they are talking about, but nobody believes that. As 20ould be as high billion. We are expecting a filing and here it is. The price of the shares, how big the offering will be. Around 250e volume, billion last year. That is more than ebay and amazon put together. How on earth do you value this company . We also know a little bit more about these billionaires involved. Huge personalities. Be the poster child for the hero of liberal arts. His parents were singers. He taught english. Business wasnto something new. He failed the teachers exam twice before he exceeded succeeded. There are some Big Companies involved here. Yahoo has a huge stake. Softbank, a huge stake in this business as well. All kinds of questions. We talk about the has to puts, jack ma down the microphone. The singing is just terrible. We are talking about amazon versus alibaba. Whether that is the correct comparison is a debate. I want to talk about the margins. You can talk about transaction volume. Revenue at alibaba is much lower than amazon. Much amazon makes. This is jeff bezos sacrificing shortterm gains for longterm gains. He makes less than one cent per dollar. Ali baba is making . 43 per dollar. These companies they might look similar, but are very different. That means something Going Forward. For me, it shows a strong personality who fears nothing. You. Will find it for karaoke. Fran loves it. What i find amazing is the sheer footprint this company has in china. It is colossal. It is a huge chunk of gdp. Two percent of gdp in 2012. It is 70 of package deliveries in china. That china is something we all want a slice of, but not many people understand. How do you evolve outside of china . How do you not love that . I think rob is with me on this one. He is not the only singing billionaire. Warren buffett plays the ukulele. He might be a little bit better than jack ma. Softbank, he will not sell his stake. Yahoo will probably sell some of its business. Can we believe him when he says that . Probably not. This is a guy who has made a career of getting in and out of deals. Yahoo got really lucky on this one. Encounter that he had with jack. Ahoo news the cash needs the cash. He is looking for the next wave. What happened yesterday with twitter, everybody turned around and said, we will not exit once the lockout ends. The timing is a really big issue. The nasdaq has lost 150 billion this year so far. How confident can you be that these guys will not exit Going Forward . It depends on whether he wants to play with a strategy. How much does he want to get involved . Much. Nk you so alibabacinating billionaire story. Slightly addictive. Siemens and tom. Ro we have the angles covered here, believe you me. Siemens has announced a review. The elephant in the room is what is happening with there is an Analyst Conference going on right now. They keep on coming back to that elephant. What do they want to get out of alstom . Some sort of onesided offer and wee heard about conveyed her interest that we would be willing to talk to shareholders. Line, joe kaeser wanted to be given the opportunity to have a look and that is what they are doing. Theyre not going to consider any type of threeway bid with the General Electric. He came under political pressure in germany when he went to russia after the annexation of crimea. To beela merkel said extremely annoyed about that. He is still on the intent of on the agenda for the st. Petersburg for him. Onthe amount of things going in our organization, the dedication and leadership it takes to get this sorted out in a meaningful and longterm way, this requires me to be here. He will have to cancel. Righto what i believe is and not what the mainstream says i should be. Think the point is, he is not going. Vladimir putin is going to be fairly lonely in st. Petersburg. Much, david so tweed. Lets turn to alstrom. Bring us up to speed with what we heard this morning. The seo of alstrom is speaking in a press conference. We are not in crisis but we do have the problem with Critical Mass. Are leaving they the door open for unsolicited offers. Leaving the door open for siemens to come with a binding offer. Ining access to siemens order to make this offer and there is no hostility against the german rival. Germany. S 9000 in obviously, the french government has been pretty vocal about the 17 billion bid for alstroms energy unit. I spoke with the french finance minister and he said it is not all about the money. It is not only about the money. The money question is for shareholders, not the state. The state does not have a preference. It is here to look at the different offers a two alstrom shareholders. Areour strategic interest preserved and how they can be improved. We are playing a role, just like any other state would. Another member of the french geernment suggested that could sell some of its trade unit to alstrom. The ceo says he sees little synergies. Thank you very much. Break. Take a back in a couple of minutes. About going against it. The french government is not here to counter any offer. It is here to check whether french Strategic Interests are respected. You have the jobs, decision centers, and what happens to production, especially in the energy business. It also in regards to French Public orders. He is talking about the french finance minister speaking to us about the takeover battle for alstrom alstrom. Our next guest joins us from outside houston headquarters. Lets talk about outside alstrom headquarters. We are watching ge, we are watching siemens. Do you think they have a serious run at this . Would that be the better solution . The ge story seems to be fading. I am very confident that the best solution is a deal with General Electric. You have many more synergy om and General Electric down with siemens. For new synergies, it is obvious that the best deal is with General Electric. Christopher, you have me a sense of what we heard. It seems he says, this is not the price, we want assurances that jobs are kept in france. Profit missed, they had provisions, writedowns. This seems to be a Company Ready for a takeover, whether it be ge or siemens. Should the french government really step aside . Government, it tries to put pressure on houston alstrom toeal make a deal. Alstrom is an economic difficulties for many years. Find a real partner, this partner seems to be General Electric, because it is a company that is in front of everybody and we can create new synergies. It will become a true energy business. Christopher, the french government is in trouble. Looking forhey are something to use to try to turn the story around. This fits. Do you not worry the french government is going to force through a siemens transaction . So. Do not think of course, the french government has a small share of alstom, but i do not think anyone in the government can influence alstom. It is a private company, dont forget it. Thank you so much. We are just getting some breaking figures. 6. 8 billion. Lets get the details. You. Cannot hear number one rule, switch on your mike. Hsbc coming in online. It is pretty much in line. That is just pretax. We want to talk about socgen as well. Africa,talk about south the country is going to the polls today. The anc is expected to be victorious. Welcome back. Live from Bloomberg Television and radio. Lets get some company news. Debeers will raise diamond prices by five percent every year. Engagement rings just got that much more expensive. Socgen is like the biggest foreign banks in russia inside of market uncertainty in taking the 500 25 Million Euros writedown. Alibaba makes it official. Couldline retail giant raise 20 billion making it the biggest Public Offering in the United States. Alibaba has been called the amazon of china. Online payments, music streaming, cloud computing, and ecommerce. How to get the most from its services. Alibaba . You use people say chinas largest ecommerce site is like amazon, paypal rolled into one. The original site is dedicated to connecting businesses with other businesses. So many of todays Consumer Products are built in china and what alibaba does is directly connected businesses around the world to those chinese manufacturers, creating relationships. Ats see lets say you are small american store. Go to the site and type in alarm clocks. There is no price tag, leaving you to haggle or bid. Either contact the supplier directly or bid with a payment. If they can, your payment lives in escrow account. There is usually a minimum order size. That leaves the profits higher and the shipping margins lower. Clearing those alarm clocks through u. S. Customs is entirely up to you. We will talk more about the ipo later on. Lets talk about what is happening in the market this morning. Glorious technicolor and stereo sound. 101 of broadcasting, switch your microphone on. Equities are finding it tough. Sales are falling, that could have implications for bad debt. Reduction, manufacturing under pressure, but there is only one issue for jobs there. Janet yellen has to say about the United States of america. Technology is interesting, it is getting slammed on the consumerist tight consumer side in the u. S. Twitter down 18 . If i had stock, i know what i would do. I am not a millionaire and i do not have stock. Big bold strategy day, we have heard from our counterpart in berlin about the first order. Oing higher delivering record profits for sainsbury, holding onto market position. Alstrom missed on their headline numbers. But see how the deal works out lets see how the deal works out. Money going into yen, it is coming out of equities. It is a little bit nervous ahead of what janet yellen has got to say. What is happening on. Delivering record profits for sainsbury the political stage between europe, the u. S. , and ukraine. Look at this. Eurosdollar. 1. 40, watches them scream. Draghi and for mario the ecb is that the market begins to lock and load. Or is the market already so long and so very long that it is overbought . See themaybe when you ecb stepped into action. By the way, i quite like the shirt despite the twitter debate. I do not know what you are talking about. A special french skier captured the perfect birds eye view of the swiss out. Swiss alps. Landing successfully. With the help of a wing suit and a parachute. 236 million, that is how much kristis collected from a recent auction of impressionist and modern art in new york. That would be my heart rate if i was jumping off that hell. Jumping off that hill. Welcome back. Live from bloombergs European Headquarters in london. The u. S. Is urging ukraine to proceed with its may 25 president ial election and reject russias calls to postpone the vote. John kerry threatened further sanctions against russia if it continues to sabotage the democratic process. The u. S. Is pressing the guilty pleas of the Parent Companies of banks under investigation, including credit suisse. It could include a penalty of more than 1 billion. The u. S. Is sending a team to nigeria to locate and rescue more than 200 girls captured by militants. Boko haram has claimed responsibility for the abductions. We spoke with nigerias finance minister. She said the rise in militancy stems from a lack of jobs. Focus of inclusive growth is theating jobs immediate problem we are facing. We have to look at the underlying factors. We need people to be engaged in this type of activity. How do we create jobs for our youth so they are not tempted to join these extremist groups . She is atned the World Economic forum. What is the situation, the security situation . There is a very strong contingents of Armed Security forces. Police are everywhere. A 510 kilometer radius around the hilton. There has been a of Security Issues on the ground. We have seen roadblocks checking every car, checking bags. We are seeing something torecedented in nigeria ensure security and the safety of the delegates arriving from countries of the next few days. The finance minister said the top priority is finding the abducted girls. Is she concerned about the perception . She is saying the best thing we could have done is continue with the World Economic forum. Security issues are endemic to the african continent. We keep on seeing Security Issues coming up and investors are very present in the likes of kenya and she does not believe it will deter investors from investing in nigeria. Topics,the important creating job opportunities. We hope it will not be overshadowed by security. She is saying this is a conversation that needs to be had if the continental drive itself forward. Creating sustainable and quality growth. Thank you very much. Lets stay in africa, South Africans take to the polls today. Jacob zuma is widely expected to win another term. We are live in johannesburg. What do they need to focus to revitalize the economy . I think the immediate priority for the Incoming Administration is going to be to try to bring some type of stability to the Labor Relations environment. Particularly in the mining industry. We have a three months left and three the moment months platinum strike at the moment. Millions of dollars on lost revenue for the mining workers. I think the resolution of the strike is going to be a keep drivers seat. Has spokennt himself about getting involved in some type of mediation to low end the strike and that is going to be lets talk about corruption is a massive issue for south africa right now. How credible is the economic plan . Investorxactly sentiment will hang on the policy clarity and certainty the administration can bring in the second term. Q2 that is implementation of the National Development key to that is the implementation of the National Development plan. Ringing the jobless rate down to 14 and creating a favorable business environment. There is some optimism that there will be implementation of this program in the second term. There are indications that the Current Deputy president of the anc is an influential businessman and he is likely to lead the government efforts and of wanting the program. Of leaving the program. Leading the program. Stay with us. We will get more on the South African elections. Attention fromur what is happening in south africa to what is happening in the car sector. Romeosor europeans, alfa for americans. Wants to increase sales by 60 . This is his third plan. The first two did not exactly come to fruition. What about this one . It is all about delivery. He talks a very good game. Analyst do not seem impressed with his ability to deliver this one. Itsplan is remarkable in scope and ambition. 7 million deliveries in four years. Vw is about 10 million. In terms of what they need to spend, 48 alien euros. They want to see revenue in 132 billion. That is up from under 2 billion 2 billion euros now. This does not depend on francines ability to get a drivers license. A want to double cheap deliveries. Jeephey want to double deliveries. Really coming up with 400,000 deliveries. They are not looking to europe for this growth. Listen to how he talked about that when he spoke in detroit. In 2010, i was hoping that europe would not go to hell. In the interim, you have managed to send europe to help. To hell. Maybe i was incredibly naive. Maybe i was taking some illegal material without realizing it. I was hoping that europe would stop bleeding. A you are more confident i am much more confident not relying on europe. The number for the plan for the fiat brand, 700,000 cars. Driving licenses are overrated. It is unclear whether or not the Market Reaction is because investors do not quite believe what the grand ambitions are. Y are disappointing disappointed in their quarterly earnings. Overall, the disappointed and this is the challenge for Fiat Chrysler automotive. Will they be able to convince investors to stay with this plan is to rock they will need cash for it. There are financial ways to get the cash without new stock offerings. They seem to need a lot of money to revitalize these brands. It is unclear where they will get that. The debt loads and the investment levels, it will make life interesting. We have a great guest coming up later on who has written a to the point note on the company. Up, carlsbergs russian hangover. We will look at the problems the brewer faces. Welcome back to the pulse. Carlsberg reported results today. Profits missed estimates. Brush is the brewers largest market. We are joined russia is the brewers largest market. Last time we spoke, we talked about the uncertainty you had surrounding russia and ukraine. How difficult could the situation get for you in russia and ukraine . It is always very difficult. It creates some uncertainty. We have changed our outlook for the russian markets. Could the situation get for you in russia and ukraine . It is always very difficult. Compared to what we had in february before the crimea situation happened. The change in the outlook for the beer category is driven by the more uncertain, more negative macro environment. Anng into the year, we had assumption to gdp in russia would be between 1. 5 increase in now we are assuming flat tdp for the year. Gdp for the year. We are saying the worst outlook for russia, we will be able to compensate so we can still deliver the same underlying performance as a business. Because of worse Currency Exchange rates, the russian it will be a low single digit increase. In terms of the wea