Transcripts For BLOOMBERG The Pulse 20150331 : vimarsana.com

Lets quickly chuckled the markets to cause we have quite a good quarter to talk about. European shares extending their biggest quarter expansion since 1999. The benchmark equity measures in germany and portugal rallied more than 20 . This comes as we have the qe program and Economic Data that was slightly better than forecast in the last two years. We are expecting a lot more to come. We have employment figures and consumption figures later this week amongst the 18 European Countries greece is the only one falling for the quarter. Lets kick off with greece and a search for allies and a search for allies in the fight against austerity britain creditors protecting greece proposal and Alexis Tsipras is pushing to look further for support. Domestically and abroad. Hans nichols has it. First of all, tell us more about the reform proposal. We had at the official list and they want more. Hans officials are unimpressed by the 15 page document for the it raises about 3. 7 billion in revenue and that is above what they expected to raise. They give you the point of its surplus surplus. Basically going after high net with individuals, people with a lot of tax revenue they think they can capture. 400 million from rules and three under 50 Million Euros from an auction cell at 1. 5 billion euros from state asset sales. The other government talking about the significance of the debate in athens last night and am supposed to go for 70 minutes and went for 4 hours. Quite a lively discussion for we had Angela Merkel. And she seemed to indicate that some willingness to give to really help greece make their payments get over the finish line. This is crucial, if it is unpopular in germany here is what she said. She said what i am doing doesnt rely on the polls which are very quite a bit but will greece be able to fulfill the expectations that we all have . One more note on mr. Sievers and he talked about having a third bailout package in june but those talks would start in june and back of the what the news merkel is referring to. Francine thank you. Athens to nilkos, what is the latest on the cash situation . Nikos it is tight, they have run out of cash. They are using some government sectors and it is like universities, hospitals to pay pensions and salaries. This is not the first time this is happening but it seems to be more severe than ever it we do not know exactly when the buffers will be depleted of but a matter of weeks and not months. Francine what are the chances of greece turning to russia as a source of funding . Nikos chrysoloras well, this is been a persistent theme since the beginning of the debt crisis. Political forces in greece and should have instead of asking for an eu bailout, it should come from russia or even china. The truth is that at the greek bailout, the amount invested in negligible and the size of the euro economy, was equal to about 20 of actual gdp. Even if russia for some reason wanted to bailout degrees, it could not afford it. This does it mean that the political partner is greeces biggest trading partner mostly because the government is dependent on fuel. And it was the fastestgrowing market for greek tourism. And the sections imposed on russia sanctions imposed on russia is catastrophic on the in economic and marvin. Francine how are the negotiations going to play out will there be further deadlines . Hans greece needs to start making payments, pension salary. On april 9, the imf payment due and that is about 453 Million Euros. In mid april, 2 key bills that will be rolled over for 4 billion euros. It is the imf payment everybody is focused on. Will it be liquid enough frankly to pay them . On the team bill, will bring banks be able to buy that debt was mark thats why will listen to the chairman of what the ecb has to say in brussels when he testifies in front of the european parliament. Francine a lot to watch out for hans nichols and nikos chrysoloras. Now to iran. Sergey lavrov will return to take part in that the talks according to a russian delegation a member who asked not to be named. It could be tricky issues as secretary of john kerry thing can be resolved. Tricky issues that the secretary of state john kerry think can be resolved. The final hours of negotiation . Reporter one significant indicator is the foreign minister Sergey Lavrov now is not only reported for coming back for said he will come back and we are seeing allowed rob is taking part lavrov is taking part in a press conference and he things u. N. Sanctions should be lifted after a deal is met. Thats the one the Sticking Point that has held up an agreement between iran and the powers who are negotiating with them here in switzerland. We will see if that issue is going to be resolved. But we know after a session this morning among the socalled p5 1 powers of the German Foreign minister told us theres still difficult difficulties and they have to work through it. Francine with or without a deal, what is it for president obama . Indira it is big. If he gets a deal he will be faced by a senator for congressional oversight on any deal. If he doesnt get a deal he will be met by congressional sanctions more sections on the run of not reaching a deal ends either way he goes, itll be an uphill struggle with the Political Forces in washington whether he gets it or doesnt. Firstly bank Indira Lakshmanan francine Indira Lakshmanan thank you. We will cross back in the next hour. Iran is said to be hoarding as much a Million Barrels of oil and it could put more pressure 35 Million Barrels of oil and it could put more pressure on the price. We were hearing from the russian Sergey Lavrov saying sanctions should be lifted after the deal is made. Lets say we did a deal by tonight. It will not be a massive surge of oil from iran and a short time. It would take what, 56 months . Guest it depends a how quickly the sanctions are lifted. It is a Sticking Point. The iranians what all sanctions lifted whereas p5 1, most of the members want a gradual lifting of sanctions which will then it mean it doesnt hit the market at once. The market will be bracing for this news. We have already access to suppliers and concerns not just about iranian supplies but increase supplies from iraq this year and more from libya. So there is definitely a glut of oil and there could be more on the market. Francine how much does iran store . How much all sure . Kevin daly i do not know the specific number but the market will look and extrapolate what the run has. Iran has. They could double and they could deftly double in a short period of time. That could be an increase which is then has a negative impact on price. Francine lets say what are the chances of getting the sanctions lifted immediately or the next month and what does that mean for the price of oil . Kevin daly there is a low probability all of the sanctions will give lifted shortly. I think that is something which will have to be ironed out in the coming days. The other thing to mention is we have the socalled deadline of tonight but the congress, u. S. Congress is not reconvening until april 13. I was speaking to an analyst last night and there is room between now and when Congress Reconvenes because congress has said we will put more sanctions on iran if no deal is reached. Theres a little bit of time between now and the 13th to hammer out a deal. Clearly, we are coming down to the wire. Francine give me a sense of what you are doing with your portfolio strategy. What should you be buying . Kevin daly everyone is concerned about the exporting countries and you look at venezuela and nigeria. On the other hand, you look at russia. Russia is one of the bestperforming in hard currency and local currency. You look at what russia has gone through with the Exchange Rate last year and now russia is going to be running a surplus this year. Even with the oil price, down sharply over the past year russia is in a good position. Francine what are you buy in russia for example . Kevin daly we have ruble exposure and it is working a lot better than last year. We added external debt in russia. The russian situation is much better than some of the oil exporting like nigeria and venezuela. Francine thank you. Kevin daly stays with us. We will talk about nigeria next. What else is on the radar hsbc is seeking compliance and falling short of agreement with the u. S. To cleanup operations according to people familiar with a thousand page report. The purchase creates the worlds biggest luxury good maker. It will give richemont a stake. Tesla, the ceo elon musk, shares are soaring after he tweeted day will have a major product and not a car. He did not give details but analysts say it could be a battery for peoples homes. That brings us to the twitter question would you live in a battery operated home . Tweet us. Coming up votes counted in nigeria. Goodluck jonathan is in the lead and mohammed. We will bring you the details. Francine welcome back to the the pulse. Nigeria now and with half of the states reported results from the president ial election, challenger Muhammadu Buhari holds a slim lead over Goodluck Jonathan. We are joined on the phone by uche. How likely is it that Muhammadu Buharis lead will hold . Uche it is too early to talk about the winter because it the results. Partial results are sure in the opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari is leading by 2 million votes and this from a team of the countrys 36 states and also important to know that we saw many states and the southeast where jonathan is popular has not been reported. However, Muhammadu Buhari has won in the 2 biggest states. We are expecting more results today. They did stop publishing results just before midnight and announced they would resume around 10 00 this morning. So far the results showing it will be a tight race between Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari but it is worth noting that the winner must take 50 of the total votes and 25 of the countrys 36 states. It is still quite a close vote. Francine how great of a challenge is facing the next president with a Falling Oil Prices . And the insurgency from boko haram . Uche boko haram is going to be one of the biggest issues on the next president s table. The Islamic Group led a bloody insurgency in the northeast in the past 4 years and have killed over 5000 people according to Human Rights Watch. Besides the boko haram, the next president will have to deal with issues in nigeria such as the oil issue. Oil prices have been falling and falling about 50 other previous level. Africas Biggest Oil Producer Nigerian Government is going to be heavily impacted by this. Or is heavily impacted by this and nigerias currency has lost 18 against the dollar in the past six months. These are some the issues the president has to deal with. Francine thank you. Uche okoronkwo. Lets keep the discussion on nigeria and how it is affecting the largest oil producer. We are back with kevin daly. Thank you for sticking around. What do you make of what is going on in nigeria . Very close results. Kevin daly i am not surprised it is going down to the wire. When i was in nigeria on a trip back in february, we got two days after the selection and the various sub people that this would be a very, very close race. The closer it is, the more contested and legally challenging it becomes. We could have a runoff. We could be here next week talking about the runoff. Nigeria has never had a runoff. It is a problematic situation. The results now suggest that and not just a tight election but it will be contested legally by wever loses and hence, the reaction on the ground will be pretty interesting to see where it kicks off. Things are going to be difficult on the ground. Francine what you do for your portfolio strategy . Kevin daly we have no exposure in nigeria. We want to see the cars and just another 10 50 before we got involved. A couple of the banks we have a very small exposure to our toptier banks and we have no concerns, they are short dated. Francine how much of an effect will have on oil prices . Nigeria such a large producer. I guess, there needs to be kevin daly in the short term, i do not think it will have any impact. What we would have to see is disruption in the delta region which would have an impact on production. That could take a little bit of time. The Market Reaction will suggest that it is negative for oil prices and production starts to fall in nigeria. The interesting thing the last couple of years with boko haram and that has not had an impact on the oil industry. Thats why this election potentially could have implications for oil prices. Francine kevin daly thank you for joining us. Coming up could taste love beyond tesla be unveiling a battery for the home. We will have more. Francine our batteries for your home a project of the future . Tesla ceo elon musk said that is what they are unveiling. The company grew 4 after he tweeted. Joining us to make sense is Matt Campbell. Great to have you. What do we know about this product . Matt we do not know what it is what elon musk has dropped hints that it is not a car and he said during the last Earnings Call that the company is developing a home battery for solar storage. The way it works is solar panels are efficient but the problem is storing the power. If you introduce a very efficient, inexpensive battery to the equation, the economics change completely. Thats what you money musk is after. Francine batteries are important for the solo world for have others looked at it . Matt others have and there is a race some based on lithium ions which is what tesla and solar city, the firm that elon musk backs. Others have worked on exotic like lithium metal, and lithium sulfur batteries. There are others will most of them are in the laboratory stage. Some are moving into the real world. Tesla has skill and capital and the ability. Francine the vision is almost everyone, you need the sun first of all. Matt it is a bit of a misconception of refuting it is only viable in nevada or the middle east. Some son all of the time just not a lot of sun. You can reduce your need to pull it from the grid than replace it. Francine we have no idea about cost . Matt no we dont. One of the big things elon musk has been trying to do, he is building a battery plant, to drive down the cost. That reads are quite expensive. The battery innovation has lacked and he is trying to change it. Francine what a great story. Matt campbell. You can follow us on twitter. The twitter question is would you buy a battery that powers your home . You can follow guy and francine and Matt Campbell on twitter. She knows a lot about batteries. Francine welcome back to the pulse. Today marks the deadline for countries to commit to becoming founding measures of the Asian Infrastructure investment brain. It may Infrastructure Investment bank. Japan has expressed reservations. Teck resources exploring a merger that could create one of the largest copper producers. An agreement hinges on the approval of the families that control both. Jayz is teaming up with a starstudded cast to take on spotify and apple. The rapper said tidal will be offered for 9. 99 per month. Breaking news in terms of u. K. Gdp. Lets have a look at the figures. It was revised upwards from 0. 5 . Consumers and exporters are driving the economy in the u. K. If we have a look at pounddollar, betterthanexpected figures. Check it out. You can see that up after that number coming through. Europes biggest bank in the firing line. They were fine for claims that it has access the American Financial system. Here with morris caroline hyde. In terms of the facts this is reputational damage. Caroline we were talking about the issue with the swiss traveling unit. They paid out 1. 9 billion to the u. S. Because it was part of this nonprosecution deferred agreement. You give a fine and then you promise youre are going to amend your ways. You have a monitor in store. They had michael come in and a first couple of years, they have been trying to clean up their act. This is a one thousand page report those given to the Justice Department in january. It summarizes hsbcs one year and how it has done under the monitoring. There is a litany of problems. The bank reforms, the compliance procedures, one instance of bank manager was criticized. Another discovered documents that was meant to be dated before a decision was made to a client alert was made after the decision. You are getting country such as the philippines not being up to scratch. It is not good enough. Francine this has a huge read across. This is not what they were hoping for. Caroline they were breaking the rules even after the initial agreement was made. Suddenly it made the u. S. Justice Department Think are they doing what they are meant to do. It raises the doubts of the effectiveness of these agreements. We have seen banks agreed to take a fine, admit culpability they do not want to go through the criminal procedure. We have the Justice Department threatening to revoke such settlements. They are coming into scrutiny and a few weeks ago we heard the Justice Department was thinking of tearing them up saying we want you back. Were going to investigate you. Francine it is investigational damage. Stuart gulliver and Stuart Goldman is held up. He is going to be under scrutiny. Authorities were reinvestigating some of the claims. Many are saying the incentives are not Strong Enough with these agreements. Francine thank you. Labor leader ed miliband has valid to crack down on tax avoidance if he becomes prime minister. A Financial Hub . Guy they are not part of the u. K. And they are not part of the eu. The Channel Islands are owned by the british crown. Just off the coast of france there are five main islands. The people here carry british passports and enjoy the protection of the u. K. They are governed by different fiscal and legal systems. Francine talking tax is a big theme. Guy johnson is on his way to an island. Why is this taking center stage . Ed miliband has been threatening to crack down on tax avoidance. He spoke out and said they needed to they do not like to be called tax havens. They are more transparent than the labour party in particular. He gave us the impression they are still looking to crack down on tax havens. I think all of the offshore jurisdictions i think to the extent people want to work with us, we will work to reduce issues of avoidance. If people stand in our way, we are going to take action. Anna they are not labeling them tax havens at the moment. If they take more than six months to come up with certain changes to the way they do business. David cameron hailed actions against tax avoiders and tax havens. It he put a lot of interest into this subject. He is very to point he is very quick to point out it is not a haven. Global funds go through squares me goes through guernsey. Francine house separate from the Channel Islands house separate from the Channel Islands from the u. K. . Anna says they are owned by the crown. They have their own fiscal and legal systems. There are diversions is across various parts. They have an extremely favorable tax rating. 40 of the gdp is made up of the Financial Services industry. It comes down to how okay is it to compete as a competitive advantage. They say they are not a tax haven. They built up this specialism in serving the financial industry. We are talking about how it relates to the u. K. Election campaign. Francine the big contentious issue the one thing everyone cares about. Thank you. Anna edwards. Coming up, we talking fisher after the retailer reported results. Shares are higher this morning. We will tell you why. Francine welcome back. Fouryear revenue. Proof that kingfisher came in line with estimates. They planned to close around 1 6 of its stores. It has scrapped a bill to buy. Lets get to caroline hyde. What do the results show . Caroline new chief executive coming to the helmet and taking some tough action to turn the company around. Shareholders driving the stock higher. Lets look at the deal that was scrapped yesterday. It was the number three rival in france. They wanted to merge it. Some problems arose. It was agreed last year. It seems to be about regulation. How would they get through the analysis . Would they have to sell off some of their shock . This would be jeopardizing maybe back out of the deal. Lets look at the challenges. She has managed to steal to steer away from the deal. Clearly concerns in the french housing market. In the u. K. , discount is coming in. This is what many of the analysts are trying to flag. Euro weakness, you bring it home , the best banging on your bottom line. Take a look at what the numbers showed us today. We are seeing sales falling. These are the big moves being made. They are closing about 60 outlets of b q. She is trying to redeployed people she hired into new branches. There will be concerns about shuttings. That will help margins and profitability. We are seeing changes at the top. A new management team. We have already said goodbye to kevin. The u. K. Ceo will leave may 15. When you are looking at her, she is taking wisdom she has built up in 26 years of the industry. Many are saying it does not seem to be working in the way they wanted it. Still a cautious outlook for france. The shareholders are still giving money. Looks like share price is driving higher. Francine thank you. Time for a check on the other top stories. Campaigning for the general election kicked off yesterday. The independent party is expected to accuse the government of deceiving the public. Party leader nigel says the message is in line with the majority of the public. We are talking about our relationship with europe. We are the party [indiscernible] francine the liberal democrats say they would spend an extra 2 billion pounds on Mental Health care in england over the next parliament. They are launching a manifesto for the mind. The vast majority of the people want us to keep this country and our government anchored. We balance the books and provide the right services to the public. That is the message i will be taking to the country. Francine they have completed a blockade of yemens ports. The conflict has escalated the rivalry between saudi and iran. Up next, we talked tesla and batteries. Would you live in a batterypowered home . You can tweet us. Guy is in guernsey. No deal yet. Deadline day for the nuclear program. No solution has been found. Details after the break. Francine welcome back. Streaming on your tablet, your phone. Nuclear talks with iran. Our middle east editor, Elliott Gotkine and reports. Elliott the permanent members of the unc Security Council want to inshore iran is unable to build a nuclear bomb. They want curbs on development. Iran has said it has no ambition to build a bomb. After reneging on agreements, iran is not trusted. They cost the economy 120 billion in lost revenue. Iran wants them scrapped. They want they will have three months to conclude a deal. It could blow up with a fresh round of sanctions if they do not like what they see. Francine we will have more from our reporter on the ground. These are the other Bloomberg Top headlines. Hsbc slow to fix compliance lapses. According to two people familiar with the material, they are falling short of its agreement with the u. S. To cleanup operations. The head of the royal bank of scotlands Security Unit is leaving over a clash on how to implement a strategy to scale back the bank. Today marks the deadline for countries to commit to becoming founding members of the asia Infrastructure Investment bank. In may lack standards of institutions such as the world bank. Taiwan well seek to join the bank and japan has expressed reservations. A merger could create one of the largest copper producers. That is according to people with knowledge of the matter. Miners have held early stage talks. Both Companies Deny they are in negotiation. Jayz is teaming up with a starstudded cast to take on spotify and apple. Tidal, part of a Swedish Company he bought will be offered in the u. S. For 9. 99 a month. Sprint will be partner. The service has the backing of beyonce, coldplay, and kanye west. The second hour of the pulse is coming up. We have everything covered on the battery fronts. We will be talking to Matt Campbell about what teslas newproduct will be. We have clues and we will talk about the iran nuclear deal. European shares extending the biggest firstquarter increase. The only one amongst the western European Countries that has not risen between 16 and 20 . We will be live in berlin and athens to cover. You can follow me on twitter, flacqua. Francine greeces cash the windows. Tricky issues to be resolved. That is how john caray described hurdles to reach a nuclear agreement. Net supportnet a porter will acquire of the company. Good morning to our viewers in europe. Welcome to those just waking up. This is the pulse. We are getting unemployment and inflation figures. We did have a very good unemployment figure from germany. This is the one we are watching out for. This is the one the central bank is looking at in terms of deflation. Consumer prices rising from a year ago. This is for the month of march. We will get the boards up for you. We saw a pretty good quarter. Shares extending. You can see your dollar. A search for allies in the fight against austerity. Eu creditors reject greeces reform proposals. Hans nichols is in berlin. Together, they have the full story. We have the official list. It seems creditors are not happy with it. Hans we do not know if it has been submitted. He was due last night. The greek government plans to raise in revenue. There is some 875 million and audits for offshore entities and another 400 million for streamlining income tax rules. 1. 5 in terms of selling private assets. All of this get you to about a. 2 two about a 1. 2. All of this gets you to about a 1. 2. Here is what Angela Merkel said. What i am doing does not rely on the polls. Will greece be able to fulfill the expectations that we have. He asked for the oppositions backing. We have this trip coming up. He will be going to rush on april 7. That is two days before the 453 million euro payment is due to the imf. Because of the timing of this, a lot is being read into it. I would caution that they have been clear they are not interested in a loan from russia the maybe they can tease out other elements that may be looking more east than towards brussels. Francine before we get on to how much cash greece has, what do you make of what we heard between greece and russia. They were talking about sanctions. Are they talking about money for russia . You need to take this with a pinch of salt. The russians have not been keen to the agreements. They have denied it. Going back years before we heard about rumors that the russians might ride to the rescue. There are economic crisis. Also, tourism, a major market. Russia was there largest growing market. There was economic interest and cultural ties. That explains why he has been reluctant of sanctions. Francine how much cash is left in greece . The thing is there are so many different moving parts. A lot depends on how much money is left in the kitty. It also depends on things like revenue. We do not know what happened in march. Tsipras said the tax scheme raised 100 Million Euros in the week. It is possible march was a good month. Maybe the april the ninth redemption. There were a lot of moving parts to the situation. Things are tight. Francine are the negotiations ongoing with the creditors . Hans official germany is on holiday. We have the big easter weekend here. Negotiations continue. We are in debate on how much gas a greece has left in the tank. Negotiations will continue. We know the preliminary list was not. Creditors wanted to see more specifics. Francine thank you. Greece has proposed reforms for unlocking the bailout funds. It still needs a lot of work according to european officials. Do they have the cash . We were going over the same issues. What has changed . Should we worry about it . The most likely outcome would be a compromise but it would go down to the wire. We have been at the wire at several points in the past. Most of my opinion stays unchanged. I am confident there will be a deal. The more interaction there has been, particular the time spent between Angela Merkel and tsipras must have allowed for trust building. That is the feedback i got from. Everything else you see is posturing and noise. The fundamental question greece has mostly given in. If you look at tsipras election rhetoric, it is almost separate from a democratic party. Greece has come a long way. I think Angela Merkels remarks recently, there is significant armed to compromise. My point remains that a compromise is likely and it might go down to the desperate lastminute wire that cash can always be found. I do not think the imf payment is going to be missed. I think it might be partly political to visit. I am sure there are people looking at how money can be borrowed in the future. There might be calls going out to Goldman Sachs and other banks. The 450 Million Euros is not that challenging to find. Francine what does it mean for the banks . If you look at the percentage of funding coming from the ecb and the domestic greek deposits, those of the biggest components. As long as the headlines continue to be uncertain you will see a bleeding of the deposits. If there is a political signal, i expect the ecb to increase the ceiling. I think a lot depends on the political signal and what i see, despite the rhetoric and disagreements we will see a compromise of one kind or another. Francine we have breaking news. I was trying to find it on my bloomberg terminal. This is a rating by fitch. The outlook is stable. We will have more from china. Stocks have had a spectacular rise. Fitch the latest to affirm the a plus. Here is a look at what else is on our radar. Hsbc slow to fix compliance lapses. Has agreed to buy netaporter. It creates the biggest luxury retailer. It will give yoox the biggest share. Elon musk will tweet a new product on april 30. Analysts expect it could be storage batteries for peoples homes. That brings us to the twitter question. Would you live in a batterypowered home . Tweet us at flacqua. We are on the ground. Francine welcome to the pulse. The final day of nuclear negotiations. Sergey lavrov has confirmed he will return to take part. Sanction should be listed after a deal is made. What is the significance of the announcement . It is an important deal indicator. When Sergey Lavrov left, he said he was not going to come back unless there was a good chance of a deal. The fact that he is planning to come back this afternoon gives us the signal that something will be hold out. I think the way we are looking at it now it seems as if the two sides are going to come up with a joint text, even if not everything is resolved they will try to discuss the principal areas of agreement and they have three months to work out the technical details. Francine what is going to be part of the deal . John kerry talked about these tricky issues. Are there other points . It is that, to begin with. The iranians are upset about the sanctions. Once they come out from those it gives them International Standing that they are not being treated as a rogue state. They do not want to lift the sanctions right away because they have to do with proliferation and missiles and other issues. Not just the nuclear program. Also, the pace of research and development and what enron is going to do after year 10. What happens between years 11 and 15 . Francine thank you for the update. We are back with a director on how this could impact europe. It is our understanding that it is likely if the sanctions are lifted, it will be gradual. What is the impact on europe . How much are low or are Lower Oil Prices welcome . If you look you up the inflation prices, a lot of that has to do with the fact that the oil price has been and the statistics. Some of the confidence that is coming is almost surely because of the higher purchasing power. So much of the energy, about 3 . Most of the European Countries are almost completely dependent on energy. It has had a positive impact. It is important to give mario draghi the excuse to launch qe. It was a temporary depression. Qe should have been 2. 5 years back. Because of the purchasing power and because it has allowed qe to happen, it has had a positive impact. The Lower Oil Prices are here to stay. The idea that this is not normal oil price is not wrong. Until 2007, oil price has been under 62. This is the normal situation. What was not normal was the price spike between 2007 until last year. Francine sony thank you. Coming up, we talk batteries test law and plenty more in terms of equities. European shares extending their biggest increase since 1998. Francine welcome back. Cashing out of china. Investors are selling out of the countrys the rally as stocks surge at the prospect of desperate wire foreigners worried . Our reporters have been talking to investors. The conclusion they have reached is that investors they are taking a topdown approach. They see slowing economic growth. That is what indicators are telling us. They are asking the question, is the rally we have seen all of those technical indicators show those stocks are near a bubble and is not worth it. A lot of them are taking their money off the table now. Around about 900 Million Dollars coming out of the chinese indexes right up until monday. We saw more money coming up from foreigners. Francine wire the locals still confident why are the locals still confident . The hedge funds it for mainland investments are around 50 million. You can take money out very fast. They are taking the view that because you see the slowdown in growth, the central bank will take measures to boost growth making it worthwhile to keep money in the market. This is a retail driven market. You are seeing new stock accounts being opened at a record pace. Some Foreign Investors might be worried about whether this rally can be sustained. Francine we have heard news regarding deposit insurance. This has just been announced. It is an indication china is moving towards liberalization. What it means is savers can go out and ensure their deposits. The depositors can get their money back. It is also paving the way for seeing the cap on Interest Rates being removed. Your ordinary favorites might be able to get a higher amounts of Interest Rates on their deposits. That is part of the overall scheme of the government to encourage consumer spending. Depositors are going to get a decent return on their interest on their deposits. They will not being purged to take money out of the Banking System and put it into shadow banking. Another step in this move towards Interest Rate liberalization. Francine interesting. Thank you. Coming up, an interview with a London Advertising ceo. We will ask about the u. K. Elections and how he sees politics going. Coming up, we will be talking about a merger in the world of ecommerce luxury. This is netaporter being bought by yoox. A reporter on the ground in paris is andrew robinson. We will go live to him next. You can follow guy and us on twitter. Guy is in guernsey. They are looking at tax havens. We have plenty more coming your way. Keep it here on the pulse. Francine welcome back. Lets talk online luxury. Italian Online Fashion retailer yoox has agreed to acquire richemonts netaporter. The deal would create the Worlds Largest online luxury goods retailer. Joining us from paris is andrew roberts. How much of a surprise is this merger . Andrew good morning. It is not a tremendous surprise. Yoox and reach my richemont or in talk a couple years ago those were postponed and now the deal seems to has been done. We are bringing together to companies which are pretty much pioneers in online luxury of a the past 15 years. In slightly different ways. Yoox is stronger from a logistical and distribution perspective. It has a strong relationship with italian luxury makers. Netaporter pioneered the online magazine etailer. It has rich editorial content. We are bringing companies that will together create a global entity with combined revenues in the region of 1. 3 billion euros. I spoke with yooxs ceo federico marchetti, who will become ceo of the combined company. He says this is the beginning of something new and exciting and it is not a defensive strategy as some analysts have suggested. Francine this makes sense strategically. Not only to save costs, are they going to get market share out of this . Andrew from what marchetti said geographical strength and more penetration in places like the u. S. Netaporter is strong in the u. K. , yooxs stronghold has traditionally been italy. You will have more penetration in those markets. He will be keeping the range of portals customers has in order to basically buy these goods. Yoox also has two full price models, netaporter has mr. Por ter and i discount channel. The combined entity will be able to give more brands for consumer but also by bringing together the two parts of the business which he says are complementary, they will be able to take market share is the category expense. Francine can we say richemont believes an online luxury . Maybe more than ever before. It will own 50 of the new company. Andrew if you are going to be looking at it from a perspective, richemont is still tied up or locked in for the next three years. It is not going anywhere. It shows something about richemonts appetite in fashion. This solution enables them to remain part of the business and to have a stake in it but they have not done a tremendously good job running fashion. Netaporter is still unprofitable, yoox is profitable. If you look at richemonts fashionleather goods portfolio it pales in comparison to its harder luxury offering, which includes watches and jewelry. It allows richemont to say you run this business, you have the expertise and we will remain a shareholder. From a voting percent perspective we will have 25 of rights. It allows the yooxnetaporter combination to play to its strengths. Francine andrew, thank you so much, from paris. Lets get you up to speed with some of our other top stories. Today marks the deadline for countries to commit to becoming founding members of the Asian Infrastructure investment bank. The u. S. Stood firm in rejecting membership of the chinaled bank, saying it may lack institutions such as the world bank. I want taiwan will seek to join the bank, along with australia. Japan has expressed reservations. Jayz will take on spotify. Part of a Swedish Company he bought in january it will be offered in the u. S. For 9. 99 a month. Sprint will be a partner. The service has the backings of beyonce and rihanna. Tech resources exploring a merger that could be one of the largest producers for stop the approvals the agreement hinges on the approval of the families. In nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari holds a slim lead over incumbent Goodluck Jonathan. Were joined on the phone from lagos by Uche Okoronkwo. How likely is buharis lead to hold . Uche we are waiting on the Electoral Commission to announce the full results from the 18 remaining states. So far partial results are showing that the opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari is leading with about 2 million votes. This is based on results from 18 of the countrys 36 states. It is important to note that many states from the southeast where jonathan as popular have not reported their results yet. Buhari has won in nigerias two biggest dates lagos and kano. A tough race between Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari. Francine could the nigerians be looking at a difficult post electoral period . Uche this is the most hotly contested election since military rule ended in 1999. It is seen as a sign of progress but also a huge challenge in terms of stability. In a key oilproducing state in the southeast, we saw protesters tear gassed monday. They took to the streets alleging they had seen something that had some red flags in terms of voting there saturday. A curfew was put in place last night there. Also asking for a rerun in two other states as well. This is the fourth consecutive time buhari is running. Observers fear if he loses again, serious protests could take twice in the northern part of the country. Francine uche these are great challenges facing the next president. From the Falling Oil Prices to the boko haram insurgency. Uche the issues on the president s plate, the next president s plate would be boko haram, like you mentioned. Theyve been leading a bloody insurgency in the northeast and currently control some areas. In the past four years, Human Rights Watch says they have killed over 5000 people. But the president will also have his hands full with other areas in the economy. Nigeria is africas Biggest Oil Producer. With Oil Prices Falling and two thirds of government revenue coming from oil this will impact the economy. Nigerias currency the naira has fallen against the dollar. These are concerns the neck president will be facing. Francine thank you for the update, Uche Okoronkwo in lagos. The vote counting continues today. London advertising ceo michael has just returned from abuja, wh ere hes spent the last seven weeks running about jonathans campaign. Goodluck jonathans campaign. This is a country faced by huge issues. Michael nigeria has many challenges but also opportunities. You mentioned the Falling Oil Prices. That has halved government revenues. President good luck has been successful in the diversification of the nigerian economy away from oil ahead of the time now when it is going to have to focus on how to build new Revenue Streams and growth in the country. The diversification of the nigerian economy away fromthe other thing he was successful in doing was using the time when oil price was high to make significant investments in the infrastructure and the future of the country. Five years ago, there was 5000 kilometers of motorboat roads in the country, today theres 25,000. Francine you are speaking like a true campaigner. Give me a sense of how difficult it was. Did you do billboards . What was the campaign might . Michael the campaign was on his track record. He did not want to attack his opponent. He wanted to demonstrate what he had done for the country to have a positive campaign. We produced in a matter of a few weeks Something Like over 100 videos and tv commercials. Francine on social . Michael social and tv. Social has a global dimension into the domestic arena. We saw the issue of boko haram. Everybody is in a connected world. Francine i was going to ask you, if i were a nigerian voter the thing that would scare me off in voting, you have to get people to the polls, is the violence and the insurgency. Was there a message of trying to get people to vote in the first place . Michael theres a lot. There are voter cards encouraging them to vote. The message is that boko haram do not want you to vote and therefore you should. The conduct of the election has had some violence. Overall it is a great day for democracy that such a large country the most populous country in africa, was able to conduct a fair unreliable election. Francine we will have the results in the next couple of days, maybe even today. Give us a sense do you think this is a vote against the current government if the opponents win . Or is it a vote on policy . Michael the fact that they have had one ruling party for 16 years has led to a feeling of apathy and perhaps it is time for change. That was the focus and singleminded message of the change candidate. General buhari was a failed military dictator he arrested journalists. You would not be here today if he was in power, perhaps. Francine what i am in london so i do not risk anything. Michael there was a groundswell probuhari. Big turnout is down which is a change. Whatever happens, nigeria is in a better place. It has already overtaken south africa to be africas largest economy. In the next five years it will be twice its size. Francine unfortunately with ibo boko haram insurgency, it has killed around 5000 people. That is something that not a lot of countries have to deal with. Give a sense of how difficult is it when you have an electoral race and it is a close call, how much of a difference does a campaign make . Michael campaigns can focus on helping the party get out the vote at that stage. We were called in just before christmas. My joke was it was a year too late. In order to create a campaign that will create momentum you need a lot of time for planning and to initiate it. You cannot imagine David Cameron going into the Election Campaign that started officially yesterday without everyone knowing that his platform is he has achieved a solid base on the economy. Unfortunately when we arrived people did not know about the achievements of president goodluck. We tried to make up ground quickly. Francine what can you tell us about the u. K. Election . How closely do you watch that . If you were in charge of a campaign, just getting people to vote, if you were David Cameron, when you focus on personality . Is that what you want people to go to the ballot thinking about . What kind of personality do you want to vote for . Michael i have been fortunate to work with the 2005 conservative campaign. Keeping a consistent message which is competence of the conservatives and chaos of labour. Which is not necessarily a personality issue but people are taking up their own minds in terms of everything they see through the media, the way the leaders present themselves. I do think i actually believe conservatives are in a small majority. Not a very mainstream view. I think what will happen is people will go into the ballot box, there can only be one of two prime ministers David Cameron and ed miliband. People who would have been tempted to vote for another thirdparty, in that moment they will decide i cannot see one of those leaders representing us to the g7 and taking command of the economy when things go bad. Francine and that is what you think people will think about. Michael the framing of the choice which has been handled in a very meticulous and clear way by the conservative campaign. Francine does aggression work . We heard a speech by David Cameron sunday and then we had ed miliband getting his first policy announcement to the Business Community cap bloomberg. The styles were very different. You heard from David Cameron attacking almost personally ed miliband. Ed miliband not doing so yet. Does it work . Seems like it is a very americanstyletype policy before the election. What do the British Public react to . Michael different people react to different things. It was interesting yesterday, labour launched its Election Campaign on an issue which was not its wicket. Talking about businesses and the Eu Referendum creating uncertainty. Theres not a lot of votes in that area. In terms of people casting that vote. The Business Community has taken a view of the labour party and are not going to convince them otherwise at this stage. Francine thank you so much michael from London Advertising. Coming up, could tesla be in unveiling a battery pack power . Stay with the pulse. Francine welcome back to the pulse. Are batteries for your home the product of the future . Teslas ceo thinks so. That is what he has hinted they will be unveiling. Shares rose almost 4 after he tweeted about a new product line. Joining us is Matt Campbell. Thank you for joining us. How much do we know . Are we certain it will be batteries powered by solar for the home . Matt we are not 100 but elon musk, ceo of tesla and many other things he is sort of a renaissance man, has teased this very explicitly that there will be something to do with batteries unveiled soon by tesla. This is about making solar power more practical for consumers. Musk has a stake in solar city which installs home solar systems. The missing piece has traditionally been the ability to store the power for when you need it when the sun is not shining or to use it to supplement what you are taking from the grid. If this is a practical and inexpensive home battery that is potentially revolutionary. Francine do we know of anyone else trying to make these batteries . Matt there are a slew of startups involved, some using traditional technologies like lithium ion and others using very exotic new technologies. What we have not seen so far as someone with the scale, the capital and the manufacturing knowhow of tesla getting into the game. That shows that there are Big Companies beginning to get into this interesting subject. Francine this would be 510 years away or even sooner . How much of a revolution would this be . Matt we do not know the details of what tesla is going to be unveiling. He does not typically talk and 510 year increments, he has been about driving out innovation as soon as its ready. The missing piece is the giga factory. The amazing facility tesla is building in nevada to build more batteries than anyone has ever built before. The idea is to drive down the cost and make these more affordable and more practical, something the average consumer can go out and buy. When that is finished, in the next couple years, then things could ramp up. Francine we have not had any Significant Developments in the world of batteries for some time. Matt we can tell by having to plug in our smartphones after lunch every day, the technology around all things advances faster than batteries. To have elon musk heading into the game is significant. Francine thank you so much Matt Campbell. We are back in two. Francine welcome back to the pulse, streaming on the ipad and bloomberg. Com. For a look at what we are watching, anna edwards will be talking tax on bloomberg politics. A key issue ahead of the u. K. Election. Anna focusing on the Channel Islands. We have been talking a lot about the role of the Channel Islands in the tax conversations that are taking place the labour party threatening to enable guernsey and others as tax haven. Guernsey and others have been saying we are more transparent than the labour party understands. The conservative party has been trying to increase corporations cooperation between the Channel Islands and the u. K. The labour Party Accuses the conservatives as not getting as far. Were going to be speaking to jonathan, the chief minister of guernsey a little bit later on during bloomberg politics. Talk about how the election is playing out, how they managed to forge their business. Guernsey specializes in providing Financial Services to the private equity industry, how they see that flowing into the rest of the u. K. Economy. The debate about eu membership as well. A focus on tax, a Channel Islands story. Francine not only tax, much more. Anna we will put the news flow of the last 24 hours in the context. We saw plenty of conversations about the labour partys plans for the Business Community launched in this building by ed miliband. We are joined by george, talking to him about what the party is offering on business and some of the latest politics. We will look at the u. K. Economy. Francine looking forward to it, anna edwards with the u. K. Politics show starting five minutes from now. That is it for the pulse, surveillance is up next for u. S. Viewers. For european viewers it is anna edwards. Follow us on twitter, i am flacqua. This is bloomberg surveillance. Tom negotiators entered a final 12 hours of a 12your disagreement. Hardliners in tehran say red lines cannot be crossed. Oil, gold and the dollar signal deflation. The American Housing economy searches for economy searches for normality. This is bloomberg surveillance, live from new york. Tuesday, march 31, the end of the quarter. Olivia sterns and Brendan Greeley with us. Lets get to our top headlines. Olivia it is deadline day in the negotiations on Irans Nuclear program. John kerry staying true centric issues have to be resolved. Negotiators worked late into the night in lausanne switzerland. Irans Deputy Foreign minister says it is unclear whether an agreement will be possible. I think it is unlikely that we reach a deal tonight. Tomorrow we might reach a point of an agreement or come to the conclusion that a deal is not feasible. We