23/05/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Victoria

Europe's largest discount airline - Ryanair - warns that security fears

and intense competition could hit profits.

Live from London, that's our top story on Monday 23rd May.

Despite reporting a 43% increase in profit, the Budget carrier

Ryanair has warned of tough times ahead - we'll hear from one of

Also in the programme - sowing the seeds of a mega-takeover!

German pharma giant Bayer makes a bid for US

A potential tie-up would form the world's biggest

to date with the markets - where dismal trade data for Japan

pulled down the Nikkei - in an otherwise mixed

Europe is being pulled down by commodity stocks right

across-the-board. Are you a whiz in the kitchen, always mealtime a mess?

We will get the inside on a business which is trying to make cooking

easier. It comes up with recipes and sends you the exact measurements.

But at what cost? We will meet the founder.

And as a new guide to elevator etiquette is published -

People who take the lift only one floor?

Let us know, just use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Business Live.

When a 43% uplift in profits is just not enough.

Some people and some industries are just too hard to please.

Europe's biggest budget airline, Ryanair, announced a big

rise in net income - but it fell short of expectations.

What's more - that profit growth is going to be cut right back -

to just 13% for the coming year, according to the company.

There's a big battle going on in the skies over

A price war is raging between carriers on specific routes,

Many of the traditional airlines are now leaner,

after adapting their business models to the challenge set out

No longer are you guaranteed a free meal on a full service

The big boys have also launched their own

These include Air France's Trans-avia, IAG's Vueling

So - what does the Finance Officer of Ryanair have

As we look into next year, we are looking at about a 13% increase on

last year's results. We will have our focus on costs, which is always

the case, expecting those to be down 1%. We have a ?200 million saving on

our fuel bill. We expect to have backed lower fares to our customers

in the next financial year. -- we expect to hand back.

John Strickland, airline expert from JLS Consulting is with me.

Let's talk about the figures. 43% rise. But the warning is what has

got everybody worried. The outlook is tough. It is what about the

threat of terrorism and the volatile price of fuel figures. It could have

an impact. No doubt. This year has been challenging, particularly in

the second half because of the terror attacks in Paris and

Brussels. Both markets where Ryanair is a player. As traffic control

strikes, as well. Particularly in France, affecting the business.

Companies are always cautious at the start of a business year. They

expect profits to grow at a better rate. And that assumes no external

factors. As for how the business model works from Ryanair. It is

about load, getting bums on seats, and they will cut prices to make

sure the planes are full. But that is not how the industry works

overall. It is critical. One word underpins that. Load is important,

but cost is important. Ryanair is zealous on keeping costs down. They

benefited last year with lower fuel prices. But it is a detailed

exercise day in day out that allows them to achieve the lower unit

costs. Anybody can fill planes, but many feel planes and lose money,

they are still turning very profitable performances. What is so

interesting about the industry is so many other people have tried this

model, but few have managed it. Ryanair and EasyJet dominate the

market. What are they doing differently? The cost focus is key.

Ryanair and EasyJet are well-established. They have fleets

which go to hundreds of aircraft. They have aircraft on order.

British -- British Airways, KLM, and Air France, have tried to do it with

low subsidiaries. But Air France and Lufthansa have been littered with

strikes, as well. If anybody wants -- was to ride out the threats, it

is Ryanair. But there are other factors, including the volatile fuel

price, and the terrorism threats. It is quite a sobering warning, isn't

it? The fortunes of the airlines often go hand-in-hand with the

fortunes of the wider public. Exactly. And going back to the issue

of cost and cash. Ryanair has big cash reserves which they put aside.

Which is unusual. Many airlines are weak with cash reserves in difficult

times. They need that as a buffer to make sure they have on place to go

if they get a revenue hit. -- a place to go. Other times of the

strikes they were expecting higher revenues at that time. It is OK to

be cautious. They still forecast profits to go up and stop they still

have the cost focus. And they can cut fares more, which they can

afford to do, because the fuel price will come down again which is a big

cost area for them. -- they still forecast profits to go up. Thank you

very much. Bayer, the German chemicals

conglomerate, has made a formal offer for Monsanto -

the US seed company. The transaction would create

an industry giant whose products include antibiotics,

genetically modified It would have a combined annual

revenue of more than $67 billion. Vietnam's VietJet agreed a firm

order of 100 Boeing 737s The deal makes it one

of the region's fastest The order comes as part

of President Obama's official Exports from Japan fell

by 10% in April compared It's the seventh

consecutive month of falls. The weak trade data

is thought to be mainly due to poorer demand from China

and other emerging economies. As Victoria touched on the start,

the FTSE 100 opening low, lots of uncertainty to kick off the week.

The website is dominated by the ongoing debate about the EU

referendum. Ryanair has been talking about the risk of Brexit. We have

touched on that with our guest, but also more talk about whether it will

cost jobs to the UK economy. This time coming from Radio 4's today's

programme. 400,000 jobs is the cost, apparently. But this will more than

likely be disputed by the other side in the campaigning towards the

referendum. That is the Business Secretary

saying that today. -- Shadow Business Secretary.

Japan's central bank governor has defended his controversial negative

interest policy which he first implemented in January this year.

He'd signalled that he's willing to cut rates even

Haru-Hiko Kuroda was speaking with our Asia Business

Correspondent, Karishma Vaswani, on the sidelines of the G7

We announced in January and actually implemented this new policy in the

middle of February. We are still early May. Although the impact on

the financial market is quite clear, and already made, but impact on the

economy and prices will take more time. But I don't say that it will

take one year, two years, or something like that, it will have a

clear impact on the economy soon. If we judge it necessary to have an

inflation target we can further ease our monetary policy in

three-dimensional 's. Quantity, quality and interest rate. We have

still enough room to do so. -- in three dimensions.

Asia markets traded mixed on Monday, with Japan's shares dropping

amid renewed strength in yen and fresh data showing the country's

This is how the session has opened up in Europe -

shares are lower in early trading - weighed down by losses

While Bayer slumped after making an offer for Monsanto.

Now - let's hear from Michelle Fleury in New York about what's

The US Federal reserve has long considered its June meeting as a

possible time to raise interest rates. But until last week investors

thought the probability of that happening was quite low. Some doubt

has crept in after several speeches by officials. The release of the

minutes from April's meetings. solid economic data. As policymakers

ponder whether the US economy is ready to handle an increase, one

thing they are looking for is signs of inflation. They may not get the

answer to that this week but there answer to that this week but there

are three reports which should provide more clues as to the direct

travel in the world's largest economy. The key report

OK, James, for now, thank you. I know you will come back with us to

talk about the papers. We speak to the boss of the business

aiming to bring domesticication to a generation that's always on the

move. The collapse of BHS will be back

in the spotlight today when MPs They want to hear from those

who sold off the retailer for just ?1 last year and whether they took

enough care when selling the firm. Maureen Hinton is the Global

Research Director at Verdict Retail. Maureen, what do the committee

hope to find out today? Well, I think that they want to find

out is who knew what when and whether there was enough diligence

to find out if they had the skills to run the company, but to finance

it and turn it around so it was profitable again. Considering Sir

Philip Green hadn't been able to do that was a tall order. We saw the

deal happen. Sold off for ?1, there were lots of questions about why BHS

got into this position and how it could be sold off for ?1. Why are

people only asking questions now and not at the time? I well, I think

because it went bust a month ago. That's why it suddenly came to

prominence with the public, but when it was sold, there was lots of talk

about it in the trade about who were these people that bought it and what

was going to happen to it? We have seen a ratcheting up in terms of the

war of words between all the parties involved in this. It makes you

wonder who is telling the truth here?

Well, I think the thing is that a Parliamentary Committee have made

assumptions primarily there was a lot of talk about the dividend and

whether the dividend was taken out when the pension fund was losing

money, but the dividend was taken out when the company was profitable

and it was only when the company started to lose money that the

pension fund went into deficit. So it's really finding out exactly what

happened. I think as more and more information comes out, it becomes

more clearer. Maureen Hinton, thank you. There is more online if you

need to stay up-to-date. The MPs set to question BHS directors and add

saOusors. -- advisors. The Business Live team

will stay across that story throughout the day as we hear

evidence about why it was sold off for ?1. What deals were done? And

crucially, the future perhaps for the 11,000 staff at those stores up

and down the country and crucially too, their pensions.

Ou're watching Business Live - our top story - Europe's biggest

Budget airline Ryanair has forecast a slowdown in profit growth.

The company says that terror attacks and increased competition

And now let's get the inside track on a business aiming

Marley Spoon are a global food company who deliver exact amounts

of ingredients to people who want to cook at home.

They were launched in Germany in 2014 and have since expanded

to the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and the US.

With the expansion of the West Coast US operations, Marley Spoon will be

The group also plans to expand its coverage throughout

the east coast of Australia, which it says will bring the service

Fabian Siegel, founder and CEO of Marley Spoon joins us now.

Good morning to you and welcome to the programme. Thank you for having

me. Now, reading your background is really interesting. You're from a

tech background and you are seeing this business as a tech business and

not a food business, explain how that works. Our company has a DNA.

We love food and eating. While in the end we deliver products to

customers. There is a lot of software that people don't see when

they see the boxes coming to their home, but there is a lot of

technology that goes into getting the food to the customer's home

straight from the farm to the customer. So forgive the bluntness

of the question, but why would I use this? Why would I not order a

take-away? Why not just order a take-away? I think there is both. I

have a family. I have got three kids and sometimes we want a take-away,

do I want to feed pizza to my kids every day? I want to cook and bring

something healthy to the table and sit with everybody around the table

and have some community. Cooking is something that people just do, but

the way that supermarkets serve cooking is poor. I run into the

supermarket and I have to pick the stuff and in the end I end up

cooking the same stuff. Steak and broccoli every time, the same, you

know. I feel we want to have some change and this is something like, I

have a bamboo aloo here and I wouldn't cook that otherwise if

Marley Spoon didn't bring it to me. I'm going to open this and see if it

was something I could do. I want to talk about the cost of this.

Because, of course, this is not the cheapest way of cooking.

Particularly if you were a large family for example, buying in bulk

from a supermarket has got to be more cost effective for a family

than using one of these? Well, the interesting thing is cooking with

Marley Spoon is not more expensive than the supermarket. Why would that

be the case? Well, the thing is supermarkets, they throw away a lot

of food. There is more than 100 million tonnes of food thrown away

in the European Union. More than 30% of the fresh products thrown out by

the supermarket because it is perishable. Who pays for that? You

pay for that by the price. When you need celery and you need two sticks,

what do you do with the celery? You throw it away. It is not more

expensive to cook with Marley Spoon than the supermarket. OK, so the

idea is so eliminate food waste and therefore, reduce the costs to the

consumer. I'm chucking out less from my fridge? Right. I'm wondering

whether where this leaves the supermarket shop, is this an idea of

the past that we go to supermarkets or is so far into the future that it

is cyber? Customers that use Marley Spoon they replace the supermarket

for the cooking part which is 40% of the market is for cooking and 60%

other stuff. People that use Marley Spoon, they don't have to go to a

supermarket, they still have to buy the milk and the cereal. I think in

the end, does it make sense to have prime real estate on the high street

just to be there for perishable goods lying around and going to

waste? Yes, we replace the supermarkets for the part of cooking

and there is online retailers that do you a pantry. This looks great. I

would love to have this delivered. It is simple ingredients, how much

of them is a mark-up of the service you're offering? The trick here is,

the reason why we can offer this for the same price as the supermarket is

the supermarkets throw away 30% of their fresh products and they price

that in. You pay for that. This is our margin. We can offer this for

the same price as the supermarket which starts at ?3.75 per portion,

?3.75 per portion for a fresh home cooked meal. I think it is a more

sustainable way to cook at home without actually paying more and you

get the great recipe card. You have six simple steps. And everybody can

cook with these six simple steps a delightful meal. What people say

that use Marley Spoon, they try it out once and then specifically

customers with structured lives like families and empty nesters, people

who have a structured life, they actually really like to have a box

coming to their home once a week and the cooking has just been taken care

of. It looks very nice. And it smells amazing. We will put that to

the test. I will bring that in tomorrow.

Thank you. The world's largest insurer, AXA,

is to ditch its investments in the tobacco industry,

worth nearly $2 billion. It says investing in the sector

makes no sense, given that smoking kills some six million

people a year. Imogen Foulkes sat down

with the firm's new Chief Executive and asked him

about the new strategy. We are a large provider

of healthcare insurance and what we have seen more and more

that obviously chronic diseases We need to invest more

into prevention in order to prevent the chronic diseases

and we want to really support that and not invest in something

which creates more chronic diseases. You are a health insurance,

it is more than 50 years since Government officials first

warned about the dangers of tobacco? Yeah, but you can only see really

now that particular interbuckle that it has turned from a lethal

disease into a chronic disease and you see now the effects or now

is the right time to do it. Now is also the time

where the public awareness Let's see what other

stories are being talked James Quinn is back with us. Let's

start with this story in the Huffington Post. We have had a

couple of tweets. Ryan says his peeve is when people were too much

Cologne or perfume. By beggest bugbear at the BBC, we have eight

floors and it is people who go one floorment that's what the stairs are

for, is it not? I think so. One of the factors was small talk. People

you don't know asking you what the weather has been like today or how

busy your day is? Isn't it about everybody else listening to your

conversation? Different radio stations are playing and you can get

into the radio-free list. The danger with that, Radio 1, the lifts are

glass and everyone can see you when you're dancing! Let's turn our

attention away from lifts to Saudi which could do with a financial

lift. I see what you've done there, Ben! So cheesy! Contractors face

being paid in IOUs, that's astonishing that one of the world's

richest countries could be having to pay contract contractors with an

IOU? Saudi facing tough times. An article in the Telegraph pointing

out that IOUs are a real likelihood and workers will be paid in those

and what the impact will have on the population will be significant.

Yeah, one we'll watch closely. Jails, the time is against us today.

But that's a really interesting one and one we'll follow closely. James

There will be more business news throughout the day

on the BBC Live webpage and on World Business Report.

There. Hello there. Good morning, it was a dry and bright start