17/03/2014 World Business Report

headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest financial news with

Sally and World Business Report. As Crimea votes to join Russia,

markets await international reaction, including potential

sanctions by Europe and the United States. Chinese e-commerce giant

Alibaba confirms plans to list its shares in America, in a bid to

become a more global company. Welcome to World Business Report.

I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme: We look at the next

destination in the search for rare earth minerals - the deep ocean.

First, the people of Crimea have spoken. Following a much disputed

referendum, an overwhelming 95.5% of voters have supported joining

Russia, according to officials. So what happens next? Well, US

President Barack Obama has warned Russia it rejects the result and is

ready to impose sanctions on Moscow over the crisis. And EU foreign

ministers meet today to consider their next steps. At the moment, the

sanctions discussed only target individuals through asset freezes

and travel bans. But, the West could eventually move to sanction Russian

companies. So who will be most disadvantaged? Europe ranks as

Russia's biggest trading partner, accounting for around 41% of all

trade. Exports to Europe are dominated by crude oil and gas. In

fact, European countries import 84% of Russia's oil exports. In 2012,

Russian goods and services exported to the EU totalled $317 billion. In

return, European companies sold $210 billion of goods and services to

Russia in 2012. So, can either side afford to lose the other as a

trading partner? Nina Schick is an analyst at Open Europe, which is an

independent think tank. Good morning. It is the result we were

expecting. What do you expect the foreign ministers of the EU to talk

about today? Already last week, before the referendum went ahead,

the EU and US made very clear that it would be illegal and further

steps would be taken. We are now talking about targeted sanctions

against individuals. We don't know who they will be. But there are some

suggestions that they could be targeted at people close to Mr

Putin. But President Putin himself and the Foreign Minister will

probably not be on that list. We are talking now about these freezers and

asset bands but not economic sanctions on Russia, the country as

a whole. -- visa bans. Not only to the Russian economy but also to the

links between the EU and Russia to the EU. The US is saying similar

things. To what extent has this hurt President Putin? The US has already

taken targeted sanctions on Russian individuals. The EU will move into

that today, I suspect, when the foreign ministers meet in Brussels.

To this extent, it is still largely symbolic. Where it will start

hurting Russia is if they start hitting some of the oil and gas

companies on which Russia is so dependent. In the short term, I

would say the EU and US have a limited amount they can do it with

regard to sanctions. But if this becomes a more prolonged conflict,

and I think the tipping point would be if Russia decides to move its

troops further into eastern Ukraine, but if it stops short and Crimea is

the tipping point, I think all we will see is individual sanctions,

targeted sanctions, at Russian individuals. If Russia was to go

further west or into eastern Ukraine and stop Crimea, do you feel that

what Russia has gained is greater, in terms of that access to the Black

Sea and all of that? That is more of a benefit to Russia than the loss of

face politically on a international level and the sanctions? Of course

Crimea has always been important politically to Russia. It has

belonged to Russia for many years. Even the ethnic population is

actually majority Russian. So, if Russia were allowed to get away with

Crimea, as it were, if it became a de facto Russian state, then Mr

Putin would clearly have 'won' in this instance. Thank you for coming

in. We will keep a close eye on events here. And we will keep you

up-to-date. Let's talk about some corporate stories and the time it --

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has said it will float its shares in

the US. It says it will make it a more global company. It is the

biggest technology offering since Facebook in 2012. Ali Moore is in

Singapore. It is finally confident, what we thought for some time. Tell

us more about what it means. For those not familiar with Alibaba, I

should point out how big it is. The group is the world's largest online

retailer. We are talking 500 million customers and some 800 million

product listings. Absolutely enormous. It is expected to raise

$15 billion, which would make it the biggest IPO since Facebook. A-League

club has turned its back on Hong Kong and it has done that for a

simple reason. -- Alibaba has turned. Its top executives will be

able to retain control of the company in New York. Even after

listing, they can nominate the majority of the board. That wouldn't

happen in Hong Kong. It has a very strict one share, one vote

principle. They did speak to officials and regulators but

ultimately the talks went nowhere. The real problem for Hong Kong is it

is walking a fine line that when keeping up its reputation and

potentially being perceived at changing -- as changing the rules.

That doesn't mean there won't be changes because the Chief Executive

issued a statement today, saying the exchange does need to find ways to

make its market more competitive. He says the listing committees work on

shareholding structures didn't start because of Alibaba and it won't end

because of it. So, even though the exchange does get most of the

listings by mainland Chinese companies, the fast-growing

technology companies are clearly too big to ignore. Thank you. Other

stories, UK telecoms giant Vodafone has reportedly reached a deal to buy

Spanish cable operator Ono. According to various media reports,

the deal is worth 7.2 billion euros, that's $10 billion, and could be

formally announced today. It would mean that an initial public offering

by Ono, which was approved last week, would not go ahead in Madrid.

Ono is Spain's second biggest provider of broadband internet and

pay television. Rare earth minerals, used in all

sorts of electronics, from flat screen TVs to smart phones, are in

great demand, which has put a strain on existing supply chains. But now

there's a new frontier in the rush for valuable minerals - the bottom

of the sea. In the future, vast quantities of gold, copper and rare

earth metals will be extracted from the seabed of the world's oceans.

Prospecting operations are planned in the Pacific, but the actual home

of the organisation with the task of controlling the new industry is in

the Caribbean. Nick Davis reports from Jamaica.

Making a living from the sea isn't new, especially for people in this

part of Kingston. But beneath the waves, some are calling for a much

bigger catch. On the seabed, rocks have many precious minerals come up

which are essential for the electronics that are part of

everyday life. Now, high-tech engineering will be used to harvest

parts of the seafloor, using giant machines that act like vacuum

cleaners, drinking and sucking at rocks thousands of metres

underwater. Much of the survey data we have was collected in the 70s and

80s. It's really the commercial dynamic that has changed and the

technical dynamic that has changed, that starts to make this look like

an attractive option. The UN international seabed authority is

based in Kingston and controls who gets exploration rights. Since 2001,

they have given out 13 mining licences are there has been a rush

of late, with another seven ready to be issued. Those interested and who

can put together the resources, finance and technology will be able

to get as much of it as they want. These are the remains of a famous

pirate city in the 17th century. Now, a Burmese are hoping to use the

latest in technology to see what spoils they can creep around the

world. -- now people are hoping. Government organisations have bought

the licences, from countries like China, India, Russia, Japan and

South Korea. Exploration in the Pacific, mid Atlantic and Indian

oceans. Because this area of the ocean is controlled and managed by

the UN through the international seabed authority, it takes away some

of the political aspects that are much more commonly associated with a

-- with terrestrial mining. The surge in mining for gold and copper

and China taking much of the market is encouraging the boom. But will

damage seabed ecology? That's World Business Report.

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