28/02/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock and Rachel Horne.

The scandal engulfing Samsung has come to a head as the heir

to the business is charged with bribery, and three

Live from London, that's our top story on Tuesday, 27th February.

South Korean prosecutors have confirmed they will charge this man

Jay Y Lee, the third generation leader of Samsung,

The scandal has rocked South Korea to its core.

We'll have the latest from our team in the region.

One of the world's fastest growing economies gives

it's latest growth - the first numbers on the last

quarter since the cash crisis that caused growth to stall.

All of the market are headed higher -- markets are heading higher. And

we will have the latest Donald Trump pump. -- and we will have the latest

on Trump pump in Europe. And are you cycling enthusiast

but fed up with wearing lycra? We'll be speaking to the man

who is trying to revolutionize As the Samsung scandal

continues we want to know - do headlines like these

affect your shopping habits? If Samsung or people

associated with it are found guilty of bribery -

would it stop you Just use the hashtag bbc bizlive -

would you avoid samsung products. Apologies for saying it is the 27th

of February, it is the 28th of February today. We start with this

man behind Mika McGettigan making headlines for the wrong reasons.

After weeks of uncertainty one of the world's biggest companies is

seeing the man who is in charge indicted by South Korean prosecutors

on charges of bribery and embezzlement.

This is Jay Y Lee being taken in for questioning

earlier this month - it's part of a wide-ranging

corruption scandal which has seen the president impeached.

Prosecutors allege Mr Lee gave donations worth about $36m

to organisations linked to a close friend of president Park Geun-hye.

The prosecutors say this was done to get government support

for a controversial $8bn merger between two

At a parliamentary hearing in December Samsung admitted giving

about $18 million to two non-profit foundations but denies

seeking favours in return and any wrongdoing.

Four other Samsung executives have also been charged

Three of them have now resigned from Samsung's corporate strategy

office which oversees the activities of the dozens of Samsung companies.

Ashleigh Ngheim is in our Asia Business Hub in Singapore.

This story has been unfolding in more details at the last couple of

hours, bring us up to scratch. It all emerged after South Korean

prosecutors held a press conference confirming as you say, charges would

be laid against Samsung's boss as one of those four executives. Three

of whom you have now resigned. Essential to this case is the claim

that Samsung's boss, Jay Y Lee, met the South Korean president in a

private meeting just between the two of them. It's claimed that they

agreed Samsung would pay millions of dollars to the friend of the

president, who would then get South Korea's National pension fund to

bank a major restructure in favour of Mr Lee and to help the family

shore up their control of the company. Critics say that was the

one goal that was to come out of that meeting for the company. Thanks

very much. Geoffrey Cain is a journalist

who spent five years in Seoul and is now writing

a book about Samsung. He joins us from Yuma,

Arizona in the United States. Thank you for joining us this

morning. It's been a terrible year of headlines for Samsung. We had all

of the issues with the Note seven phone. If you could their share

price of the electronics company, it is almost 50% up in the past year.

What is the story of this company? This is a unique company in that it

has managed to split its business operations, the things that it

makes, the phones, the televisions, from the leadership, from the

dynastic, from the government's problems. It's interesting what is

happening because we have these smoking phones which just happened.

Now we are having these problems with Jay Y Lee, the heir to the

Samsung throne, who is now in jail awaiting trial most likely. We are

seeing a complete disconnect. Investors have confidence in

Samsung. Consumers still like their products. Its profits and shares are

still quite high. This is a company that goes a lot of the business

wisdom out there. If Jay Y Lee this found guilty, what could this mean

for Samsung? Because he was being groomed to take over. Samsung

probably will be fine. The share price is pretty high as you

mentioned. It looks like it is still going up. Galaxy eight is slated to

be released sometime soon. This is a company that does have a good future

ahead of it when you look at the products and all of the lines it

makes. The thing Jay Y Lee is, -- the thing is Jay Y Lee made a

sweeping change. It is looking like the company will be shaking things

up a bit. It isn't very clear how this will trickle down to the people

in the field, to the officers themselves, but it looks like most

of these offices are able to run themselves regardless of what is

happening up top. Looking ahead for the company, to their future, you

mentioned they've been successful in separating their business. Investors

don't seem bothered about the issues with the phones all the scandal. Do

you think the future for Samsung is still quite possible? Overall it is

quite positive. Samsung is a diversified conglomerate. It makes

everything from chips to chips. A lot of success rides on the fact it

doesn't just make phones. If you are Apple and a flagship product fails

you might be in trouble. If you were IDM -- IBM Microsoft and Windows

fails, there could be problems. But the phones will decline and then the

sum -- semiconductors they make my debate in the second quarter. You

have this floating effect where one product rises and another falls, and

it goes through the cycle over and over. It is a cycle Samsung has gone

through four decades and they've always come out of it despite the

conviction of the current chairman. He was convicted twice of

white-collar crimes. He was pardoned by two a separate presidents. The

founder of Samsung had trouble. Yeah, I think the company itself

will be fine. Thank you for joining us this morning.

A senior engineer has left ride sharing company Uber just

Amit Singhal failed to disclose that he faced accusations of sexual

harassment in his last job at Google.

His departure comes days after Uber promised to investigate separate

claims of sexual harassment at the company.

Greece is holding yet more talks to try and get to the next stage

Inspectors for the European Union, European Central Bank

and International Monetary Fund are in Athens trying to finalise

reforms with the government so that it can be given the next

chunk of money which will help it avoid bankruptcy as it continues

to struggle with more than $300 billion of debt.

Lots of stories on the website, including this one about space X.

Two tourists have put their place to travel 3000 miles -- 300,000 miles

to the moon and back. -- SpaceX. If I put my children and that rocket

I would make amazing childcare savings.

Where am I going to day mummy? To the moon and back.

CHUCKLES In a few hours time we'll find out

how the Indian economy is faring. Could the world's second most

populated country become the engine This is really important data, isn't

it, coming out today? It's the first time we will get a look at October,

November and December for India which is when the cash crisis kicked

in. That's right. Very crucial piece of data that will be released later

today. These figures are for the period from October to December 20

16. The government put a ban on those notes starting December. --

starting November. You'll get a first picture of how that move

impacted the economy on the ground. And how much time will it take for

the recovery. India was the fastest growing economy. It surpassed China

over the past few quarters. Most economists now expect this latest

figure will be somewhere above 6%. Many think it could be lower. It

will lose its tag as the fastest-growing economy if it is in

that range. Thanks very much. One story in town today as far as the

markets are concerned. The Dow Jones closing for 12 days in a row at a

record high. The first time it's done that for some 30 years. And it

is all about President Trump. What will he say later today when he

addresses both houses of Congress? Many are expecting a 10% boost to

defence and different stocks are doing well. Let's move on to the

European markets if we can. London... Bae up around 2% on the

FTSE 100. We cannot bring you the figures for some reason. We will do

it in a moment when we look ahead to the European markets.

Michelle Fleury has the details about what's ahead

Wall Street will be paying close attention when Donald Trump

addresses Congress later this Tuesday. What are they looking for

from his speech? More details on the Budget and how he plans to move

forward on tax reform and infrastructure spending. While the

president is popular among investors he has historically low approval

ratings among voters. The US conference board 's confidence index

will view confidence in him. Economists are forecasting a dip.

And how Americans feel can affect their spending habits. Will that

help or hurt retail targets which reports fourth-quarter earnings this

Tuesday. There has already been an early warning that the holiday

season was disappointing. Thank you.

Joining us is James Hughes the Chief Market Analyst from GKFX.

The US markets have had almost a 30 year winning streak. Trump is

talking tonight. What are we expecting? We can expect anything

because it is Donald Trump. Interestingly we expected fiscal

policy today. That's the information we wanted. However yesterday, Trump,

as he likes to do, randomly come out and speak, he said yesterday that he

isn't going to mention anything about potential tax cuts today. That

is something we've all been waiting for. That is one of the big reasons

why these markets have been rallying, particularly the Dow

Jones, because we've seen strong rallies. There have been good,

corporate performances but it has all been on the back of potential,

very bullish fiscal policy, which is very stimulant to the markets, to

the overall stock markets. We are still waiting for that news? Donald

Trump said yesterday he wouldn't say it, but that does not mean he won't,

because he will say what he likes. The fact we have Trump at the moment

really dictating the markets means that the way people are trading is

completely different to how it usually is. Looking at the European

markets, we have the numbers now, edging up slightly. In Europe we

have that meeting with Greece and Finance ministers, we've already

mentioned that, but is everybody just really focused on the US later

today? And also this fourth-quarter GDP number coming, the second

estimate, which will give us an idea of how well the US economy is doing

right now. Absolutely. It is difficult to look at anything other

than Donald Trump and everything coming out of the US. We don't just

have Trump, but we have the Fed ramping up for a rate hike. Europe

is an important one to look at. Especially with a discrete mass. We

know that the IMF and the ECB are having talks about the fact that

Greece won't meet any of their targets. Yet we will keep pumping

money in regardless. That is what happens every time we get this

situation with Greece. It will continue to happen until Greece

finally does go bankrupt or the euro falls apart. There is a focus on

that. What is different to any other time was that with Donald Trump in

the White House we are far more focused on the White House and what

comes out of it, more than we ever would be. We don't normally care

about politics. But with Trump in the White House it is the

uncertainty which causes so much movement. With Trump in the White

House it changes the way traders work, you said, how has your job

changed since he has become president? We are looking at twitter

all day long instead of the markets. Those things are driving us. Your

daily could be quite regimented. You would look towards the economic

calendar, what is coming out of the US, out of Europe, but now, we know

Trump wakes up because he sends a tweet first thing. From there until

the end of the trading session, or until he goes to bed, we know that

anything can come out. At the moment markets are latching onto everything

he says. Does that make your life more interesting or more stressful?

Both. Thanks very much. Now a look at some of the stories

from around the UK. The telecoms regulator, Ofcom,

says it will take action to cut the bills of those who only

have a landline with BT. Theo Leggett joins us from

the Business Newsroom with more. This sounds like good news. Fill us

in. Well, this is because a lot of us get our broadband and our phone

lines and things like that as a bundle and those of us who do, which

is most of us, get a good deal because there is a lot of

competition in the market, but a substantial minority of people still

buy just a land line or they get things separately so they'll have a

land line contract and a broadband contract and what Ofcom are saying

is those people get a pretty rough deal. Whereas prices have fallen for

other people, for anybody who is just buying a land line contract,

the price of the contract in real terms, so stripping out inflation

has gone up between 25% and 40% over the last six years. Now that doesn't

sound great, but what's worse according to Ofcom is these are some

of the most vulnerable people, elderly people who may never have

changed their phone contract. This was what Sharon White the Chief

Executive of Ofcom had to say a short while ago. Our concern is

there are about two million elderly and vulnerable people, most of whom

have been with BT for decades, have never switched their telephone

provider, and they have seen their bills rise by about a third while at

the same time, BT's costs have fallen by a quarter.

So that was the Chief Executive of Ofcom. Now, what they're planning to

do there, is a consultation, but they say they want to reduce the

monthly price of a land line by about ?5. It doesn't sound a lot,

but ?60 a year if you're on a fixed income as many elderly people are,

that can have a big impact. This is a consultation. It will carry on to

May. Ofcom will take a final decision around the end of the year.

Thank you. We have got a story about the

triple-lock. It is about the pension triple-lock where the state pension

increases either by inflation, or wage increases or 2.5%, whichever is

higher. It was introduced in 2010 and it is something that's very

expensive and there is chat about scrapping it, but a former Pensions

Minister said scrapping it would be a bad idea.

Our top story, South Korean prosecutors have confirmed

they will charge this man Jay Y Lee, the third generation

leader of Samsung, with bribery and embezzlement.

He's been accused of giving donations in exchange

The lycra clad cyclist is a familiar sight in many

But not everyone looks great exerting themselves

In fact the British have an acronym for it.

MAMIL, meaning Middle Aged Men in Lycra.

A sight often seen on a Sunday morning.

But our next guest aims to make things a bit

more comfortable - and stylish -

He's Nick Hussey, the boss of cycling clothing company Vulpine.

It was launched in 2012 and aims to provide clothing that

doesn't look like you've just cycled to work in it.

raising more than ?1 million, about $1.25 million

in a crowd-funding drive in 2015 - around double the target.

It's a purely online operation with most

of its sales here in the UK - but the company plans to crack

Where did this come from. I am assuming you were a committed

cyclist? I was a racing cyclist in the 80 and I have seen cycling turn

into something completely different. What hasn't kept up is cycling

clothing. You think of tight, bright, smelly Lycra and that's what

MA MI Ls wear. I also work and I go about my daily life and there is

nothing I can wear for that, so I created the company to use

performance fabrics that look stylish. You can ride in it, feel

good in it, you don't have to carry a rucksack and go to the gym and

have a shower and wet wipe yourself down. Everything you've got on,

you've got bits and bobs, some of the gear that you sell. Just explain

if you pull those out Nick so the viewer can have a look, just explain

the science behind this fabric because you're saying you do still

sweat when you cycle... We all do. It doesn't smell and it doesn't

affect the clothes. You wore your clothes for weeks on end. I wore

wool and it didn't smell. How does it work? Is it the bacteria? It is a

naturally antibacterial fabric. It is pure wool. It is expensive stuff,

but it lasts extremely well and it performs wonderfully well so you can

wear it will all day and not be paranoid. It is expensive. The

jacket is ?300 compared to a cycling jacket for ?50. Why would somebody

pay that much more? Because they pay for quality and they pay for that

performance, that long lasting thing that they will have for years and

years and they can use it for their entire life. They can wear it for

years for everything they're doing in their lives. 68% of your sales

are in the k, but you have got overseas sales and you're looking to

increase those. How are those overseas sales come about. Have you

been targeting them? All we have done is concentrate on the UK and

put our resources in there. We are a small company and now, today, we're

launching a new range and we are starting to talk to international

markets. 32% of that international revenue has just come organically

and that's promising. That comes from Germany, the US, South Korea,

Japan, Finland, strangely, and we're not trying. So now we're going to

try and we expect that to expand quickly. How are you going to manage

that. Your turnover is more than ?1 million. You raised quickly on a

crowdfunding website the money you required. You're just ten people and

yet it seems to be snowballing. You and your wife are running this.

You're both working full-time. You have got a four-year-old and a

one-year-old, how are you going to pull all this off? It sounds

stressful. A lot of coffee and support. I have a great group of

staff who are very committed and also great shareholders, we have 600

shareholders now who are easy manage and extremely helpful. They are also

our customers, that's an important aspect of crowdfunding and really

our biggest problem is not having stock. We need cash for stock.

Interestingly, something that's maybe relevant to you guys is HSBC

fund our invoices which means that we can afford to buy more stock. All

right. We'll keep an eye on it. You don't look like many of our

coalition who come in in their sweaty Lycra to the BBC!

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You have been getting in touch about Samsung. We asked you is what

unfolding at Samsung affecting your shopping habits. A viewer says, "I

think quality and innovation of their products matter most other

than a corporate scandal." Ray, "I'm likely to avoid a product if I don't

agree with the company and its leader's politics." So mixed

opinions out there by Samsung. Dominic requested he would like to

do SpaceX, is that because you've got a ticket? No, I haven't got a

ticket. I'm fascinated by it. It is interesting the idea that a private

company would take people to the moon. This is Elon Musk, SpaceX, he

is not planning planning land anybody on the moon. It is a private

company that's doing this. You would think it would put people off? If

you go on YouTube you can see spectacular explosions with SpaceX

rockets that exploded. This is with Nasa's approval? The US Government's

policy has to get away from Government control of the space

programme and really subcontract subcontract it to private companies.

The consumers products that Silicon Valley pioneered are funding the

next phase of space exploration. Do you think they have travel

insurance? I'd like to know what the product is! There was another

article in the Times today about Mighty the caretaking outsourcing

company. There has been a lot of talk about getting workers on to

boards. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, before she was made Prime

Minister talked about worker representation on boards, but she

walked away from that. That's not going to happen. Mighty are going to

go ahead and do it. We will keep an eye on it. Do you think they will

get much input or will they be there? It depends on who will be

representing the workers. I will see you tomorrow for