Browse content similar to 08/04/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Marriott and Starwood look set to tie the | :00:00. | :00:19. | |
knot in their mega merger - creating the world's biggest hotel chain. | :00:20. | :00:25. | |
Plus a gift in the post for Chinese manufacturers | :00:26. | :00:27. | |
as Beijing slaps new taxes on foreign goods bought online. | :00:28. | :00:39. | |
Andy tells me I have nine minutes, so there is the deal. That is all I | :00:40. | :00:58. | |
ask for, and I will give you a snapshot of all the news in business | :00:59. | :01:00. | |
and money. Also coming up: We'll be talking to | :01:01. | :01:02. | |
a lawyer who says offshore shell We start in the US, | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
where in a few hours' time, shareholders of the Marriott hotel | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
chain and luxury rival Starwood Hotels and Resorts are expected to | :01:11. | :01:12. | |
vote through a merger to create a Marriott has seen off rival Hyatt, | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
which was also trying to buy Starwood, | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
as well as Chinese insurance firm Anbang, which threatened to cut | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
in on the deal - but it now looks The combined firm will have | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
a stock market value of this - It will control over 5,500 hotels | :01:28. | :01:38. | |
worldwide, including the Marriott, Sheraton, St Regis and W chains, | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
which add up to more than By all those measures, | :01:46. | :01:48. | |
it will be the world's biggest hotel firm, leapfrogging | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
the current leader Hilton. Will it dominate the industry, | :01:56. | :02:02. | |
though? Starwood's boss has described | :02:03. | :02:04. | |
the hotel market as "extremely The merger with Marriott will give | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
them less than 15% of the US market. The industry is now red-hot with | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
merger speculation - with Hyatt, Intercontinental and Carlson, | :02:17. | :02:24. | |
which owns the Radisson chain, But what does this one mean | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
for you if you are a regular guest at Marriotts or or | :02:27. | :02:34. | |
any of the Starwood hotels? With brands like the courtyard, | :02:35. | :02:52. | |
Marriot has 4200 hotels worldwide including a convention and resort | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
business. It wants to add the luxury and personal service which Starwood | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
offers its guests. It has 1300 hotels under prestigious rands such | :03:02. | :03:09. | |
as these: Starwood is popular amongst business travellers for its | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
preferred guest scheme, which has 21 million members. They are offering | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
late checkouts, room upgrades and personal travel ambassadors to make | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
their bookings. Marriot has 54 million people in its loyalty | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
scheme, however it is not as generous. Starwood's regular | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
customers are worried there it was of privileges could be watered down | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
following a merger. The proposed tie-up between Marriot and Starwood | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
is seen as just the first of several in the pipeline of hotel chains like | :03:40. | :03:41. | |
Hyatt also looking for mergers. Let's return to the big story | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
of the week - the revelations about the offshore | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
financial arrangements of the rich The so-called Panama Papers, | :03:49. | :03:50. | |
more than 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
Fonseca, have sent out shockwaves from Argentina to Iceland and Russia | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
to China - not to mention here in Britain, where the Prime Minister is | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
facing relentless questions But how much will | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
they really change? Stephen Arthur is a Barrister | :04:06. | :04:17. | |
at Temple Tax Chambers. He used to work for HSBC in Geneva, | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
where he used Mossack Fonseca to Great to have you in the studio. | :04:21. | :04:34. | |
Thank you for coming at this ungodly hour. Interesting stuff. I believe | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
you are about to tell me something we haven't heard from a lot of | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
guests and experts this week. You are going to argue the case that | :04:43. | :04:52. | |
there is a case for offshore structures like we're talking about. | :04:53. | :04:55. | |
Certainly there is. They provide anonymity in a legal way for anyone | :04:56. | :05:01. | |
who doesn't want that personal financial affairs to be open to | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
public scrutiny. Like journalists. So there is nothing wrong with a | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
financial hiding place was Mike to the average layman it sort of | :05:10. | :05:16. | |
doesn't leave a good taste in one's now. -- hiding place? All of the | :05:17. | :05:25. | |
anti- laundering money legislation that one has to adopt, there are | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
very few hiding places if any left. It is a way of providing anonymity | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
for your investment activities. Certainly it seems a few politicians | :05:35. | :05:42. | |
may be criminals and have cracked the system, but the majority of | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
people are acting lawfully. So you are saying not necessarily invading? | :05:48. | :05:53. | |
Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is legal. Correct. But you | :05:54. | :06:01. | |
don't even necessarily getting to tax avoidance, it is just a question | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
of preventing the land Registry in the UK from knowing you personally | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
own six properties in Kensington. I wish! I work for the BBC, mate. All | :06:11. | :06:18. | |
across the press in Britain today, we have lots of pictures of David | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
Cameron saying that he did have money offshore. We have seen the | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
fall of the Icelandic Prime Minister. The Argentinian leader | :06:30. | :06:38. | |
also under pressure at the moment. They have not done anything wrong, | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
you would say? Not at all. I don't see any difference between David | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
Cameron having an investment in offshore funds, and a lot of retired | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
people buying an apartment also. It is a foreign investment. They have | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
to declare the profit when they sell it. Is there any difference between | :06:57. | :07:04. | |
Panama and British Virgin Islands, Delaware, Wyoming and Jersey? The | :07:05. | :07:12. | |
only difference is that in the US, the regulatory treatment is far | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
lighter than in all of those other offshore jurisdictions you | :07:17. | :07:19. | |
mentioned. It is far easier in Wyoming, I believe, to get a driving | :07:20. | :07:28. | |
licence, to open a company, then to ghetto drug licence. I'm out of | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
time. -- then to get a driving licence. Thanks for coming. | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
Let's go to China now, where shoppers wanting to buy | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
foreign goods online will find them more expensive as of today. | :07:43. | :07:44. | |
New policies mean foreign goods bought on e-commerce websites will | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
be treated as imports and subject to various tariffs and | :07:48. | :07:49. | |
The Chinese government says the changes are intended to put | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
foreign and domestic products on an equal footing. | :07:55. | :07:56. | |
Some industry experts, though, say they are designed to give | :07:57. | :07:58. | |
a boost to "made-in-China" goods as part of a plan to encourage | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
Let's talk to our correspondent Robin Brant in Shanghai. | :08:02. | :08:13. | |
Good to see you. On the surface of this, and as a layman, you look | :08:14. | :08:22. | |
foreign goods will be more expensive? This surely does not put | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
them on an even footing as made in China goods, because that is what | :08:30. | :08:32. | |
Beijing want you to believe, right? I think the government's defence of | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
this is that it has not been a level playing field and they have been | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
many companies here in this hugely burgeoning e-commerce sector who | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
have made a really competitive edge of selling goods from Japan, Korea | :08:47. | :08:52. | |
to Chinese people knowing that the tariff, the duty they will pay on | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
those goods, is considerably lower. That is what the Chinese government | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
is trying to address. At the same time, I think there is no doubt it | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
is trying to produce shimmer is -- consumers here in an economy growing | :09:07. | :09:16. | |
to buy more Chinese goods. The issue is quality. The reason people want | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
to buy from Japan and Korea is because it tends to be higher and | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
stuff. They think those products are better. The change is going to be | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
significant. A lot of these goods coming from abroad are subject to | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
about 10% parcel tax. That will go out the window. A VAT will now be | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
applicable, possibly a slice of consumption tax as well, taking up | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
to 17%. That is a near doubling of that 10% tax. It will have a | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
significant impact on some of these goods coming from abroad. There are | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
some retailers here really concerned and see this as an attack on their | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
business model. Others say they are selling luxury goods and this is a | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
small rise in tax. There are think it will have much of an impact or | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
what the consumer he wants. Thank you. We appreciate your time. | :10:06. | :10:13. | |
US telecoms giant Verizon is poised to make a bid for Yahoo - according | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
It says the offer for the struggling internet business | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
could come next week, and would also involve buying Yahoo's share | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
Bloomberg suggests Google is also considering a bid - | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
however all three companies have refused to comment. | :10:27. | :10:34. | |
Don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
I will be back with James to look at some of the papers from around the | :10:38. | :10:49. | |
world. See using. -- see you soon. | :10:50. | :10:51. |