11/01/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock

Donald Trump gets ready to tell us how he intends

to separate his business interests from affairs of state,

but can he really avoid conflicts of interest?

Live from London, that's our top story on Wednesday, 11th January.

The billionaire has business interests around globe.

He'll try to reassure the world that they won't

We will talk you through what's at stake.

Also in the programme, the heir to the Samsung empire

faces questioning over South Korea's

We'll be live in Seoul for the latest.

Markets in Europe look like this. All down just a touch, but let's not

forget, they have been going up and up for days it would seem. We will

talk you through the winners and the losers.

We'll meet the man who bought a failing factory and turned

into a thriving business feeding babies around the world.

Plus a new device has been launched to muzzle noisy phone

It is called a Hushmie and it can't be used by presenters I'm told!

In the last few hours we've heard President Obama's farewell speech

with just over a week left in charge of the world's biggest economy.

Today his successor Donald Trump will give a long

awaited press conference, his first since winning

There are still questions about how he will separate himself

In his latest disclosure the president-elect revealed

These have had dealings in least 25 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa,

Democratic Party politicians are amongst those to express

concerns this could influence his policies towards some

He derives much of his income from developing real estate

and also operating golf courses in the US, Britain, Ireland

But he also makes money from licensing the Trump name to property

Some of those projects have been engulfed in controversy.

However, it should be noted that as president he is legally allowed

But previous presidents have put their businesses into blind

trusts to prevent conflict of interests or the

With me is Stephanie Hare, independent political risk analyst.

This is all about trust. It has been such a divisive election campaign.

What he says and what he does now is going to be crucial, isn't it, in

regaining the trust of half the US population? Exactly. This is a

question about perception. So, as we just heard, he is legally allowed to

run those businesses. However, he is already looking likely to run foul

of a clause which is part of the US Constitution. Something like his

Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, he's going to be in

violation of the lease terms on that which says he can't as an elected

official hold the lease on that hotel. If he doesn't divest himself

of his assets by 20th January, which looks highly unlikely unless we get

a surprise announcement today, he will be in a position where it could

look as though he might be able to manipulated or influenced or could

himself seek to manipulate or influence based on his global

holdings. And if he puts members of his family in key positions, that's

going to have a big implication as well, isn't it? They too will have

to show that they have divested to show that they have divested

their interests? The purpose of a blind trust is that he would sell

his assets and hand over the money to an independent administrator who

runs that fund for the time that he is president. He would have no idea

what's in the fund. That's not what we're seeing. We're seeing that he

is proposing his two adult sons run the Trump organisation. Now, he

knows what's still in his investment portfolio. Everyone knows what's in

his investment portfolio in terms of what is public and he is going to be

having a relationship with his two sons. The potential for conflict of

interest there is very high. We have got Rex Tillerson who said he's

going to sell off his share options and interests in Exxon mobile. He

was CEO. Is that enough in regaining trust? That's easier. It is easier

to sell shares than it is real estate. Everybody knows that there

is the properties. They know who is the owner. There is few people who

can afford to buy the properties whereas shares are easier. Rex

Tillerson's divestment process is more straightforward than the

president-elect faces. Stephanie, thank you.

When the conference starts, we will be across it here on the BBC.

Volkswagen's management and supervisory board are expected

to meet later on Wednesday to sign off an agreement with the US

A draft settlement has been reached for a $4.3 billion fine

which would draw a line under the emissions cheating scandal.

The German car-maker also said it would plead guilty

The company has admitted cheating test on its vehicles

and already agreed $15 billion in other settlements.

Prosecutors in the United States have charged three UK based former

currency traders with trying to rig foreign exchange rates.

They worked at JP Morgan, Citigroup and Barclays.

In 2015 the three banks as well as RBS paid $2.5 billion

in fines after pleading guilty to conspiring to rig

Lawyers for each of the three have denied they did anything wrong.

The UK authorities decided not to bring any charges after looking

The Turkish lira has hit new lows against the US dollar.

During Asia's morning trade it fell another 0.5% to reach

It's one of the worst performing currencies in the world

The economy has suffered because of continuing conflicts

with Kurdish militants and so-called Islamic State.

On Tuesday Turkey's central bank took action to try

Some breaking news on our BBC Live page. There is a story about food.

The UK company Whitbread apologised over its beef lasagne. Apparently

there were reports that its beef lasagne included pork which some

people don't eat for religious reasons. Whitbread said some menus

had not been properly updated. It issued an apology for that. It is a

big player in the UK. It has many outlet including brewers fair and

Costa Coffee chain. It is quite an interesting story.

Prosecutors in South Korea have said in the last couple of hours that

Lee Jae-Yong who is the de facto head of the Samsung is now

a criminal suspect in the corruption inquiry that has already led

to the impeachment of the country's president.

Steve is in the South Korean capital. Steve, tell us more, this

is pretty major in terms of the developments on this story. The

allegation is that Samsung paid $18 million to a fund in Germany

controlled by the best friend of the president of this country. And the

allegation is being investigated that in return Samsung got the votes

of the national pension fund for a big restructuring of the company. In

2015, the ruling family wanted to merge two bits of Samsung. Outside

shareholders said that's only so you can strengthen your hold on the

company. It is not in the interests of the shareholders. But so the

allegation goes. The national pension fund put its votes behind

the family. The prosecutor now thinks that that maybe because it

had given money to the friend of the president in the first place so.

That's the allegation. The herir to the company and his father has been

told to appear at the prosecutors office at 9.30am on Thursday

morning. So it is a very serious turn of events and potentially very

damaging for the company. All right, at the end of what's been a very

damaging time for them. We'll talk to Steve on Thursday, I'm sure, as

that unfolds. In Asia they had a good day. Japan

and Hong Kong up. Let's look and see how Europe is faring. We've got VW

shares up in Frankfurt. It is a big day for Volkswagen. In

dominating. Lots of news coming from dominating. Lots of news coming from

the big retailers in the UK about how they fared over Christmas.

Sainsbury's shares up 3% and Morrisons shares up 4%. We'll talk

about that in detail in a moment. That's a dominating story this week

for the UK retail. Lots happening in the US. We've mentioned Donald

Trump's press conference. Let's hear some more from Michelle on what Wall

Street is watching. As well as Donald Trump's press conference

where he is expected to discuss the future of his businesses, the coppic

of conflict of interests is likely to pop up. Rex Tillerson. Rex

Tillerson released a 38 page financial disclosure filing.

Senators will want to probe his stance on Russia as well as his

relationship with Exxon mobile the oil giant where he served as Chief

Executive until this year. Just to give you an example. If the Trump

administration lifts Russian sanctions Exxon mobile would be able

to move forward with deals worth billions. Lawmakers will want to

make sure Rex Tillerson is working in the interests of the US people

and not for his former people. Former company.

Joining us is Richard Fletcher, Business Editor of The Times.

What impact has there been on the dollar? We have seen the dollar

strengthen in the last few weeks and months, overnight, we saw it full

back against a basket of currencies, but not against the pound. The

market will have one eye on trump today. The expectation for the US

economy, the market appears to have concluded many of his policies will

be good. It is a boost but, there is the fear about protectionism and

what it means for trade and what it means for the US relationship with

China. It is quite interesting the World Bank global outlook was out

today and that outlines the real uncertainty about the US and what

impact it will have on the global economy, but interesting what

Michelle said, I think, for the first time, more than ever, not for

the first time, but more than ever, we have got this issue of business

interest and being in that senior position and it is not just as

Michelle said, Donald Trump, it is Rex Tillerson as well, head of Exxon

mobile. Although we have had lots of announcements on Twitter, we haven't

had many public announcements, we haven't had a big conference. It

will be fascinating for the markets. Algorisms are really having to adapt

to the tweets, aren't they, that policy seems to be indicated by

Donald Trump's tweets and they are having to adopt to that, like we

have with news wires in the past? There is a pause between the first

tweet or the second tweet. He is either slow at typing or keeping us

in suspense. UK retail, a big week? We had Next last week which was

disappointing and Morrisons yesterday which was good.

Sainsbury's today which was good and tomorrow we get Marks Spencer's

and Debenhams and Tesco. At the end of tomorrow we conclude whether in

the UK it was a good Christmas or bad Christmas for retailers. Reports

that Wall Mart in the US is trying to restrict ture.

-- restrict ture. Richard will be back in about five

minutes. He's not done yet. We have got some good stories to discuss

including the Hushmie! We've got a story that comes out of

a movie. Our next guest is feeding babies

around the world. The supermarket Sainsbury's said it

had a record Christmas week as it The company said it saw

30 million transactions Theo Leggett is in our

business newsroom. So a good Christmas then,

but was it all good news? Well, if you look at the market

reaction, investors are certainly impressed. I like having a

spectacular graph. Look at this one. Sainsbury's shares up nearly 8.5% so

far this morning because analysts were expecting the figures to be

worse. On the surface, as you said, they're good. ?1 billion worth of

sales, 30 million transactions. Dig into the figures a little bit more

and it is not quite so rosy. If you look at like for like sales, so

sales that are comparable to the same period last year, they were up

just 0.1% and overall sales, only up 0.8%. Not a spectacular performance,

but think about it, this is a sector which is involved in a price war and

there are all sorts of uncertainties and pressures like the fall in value

of the pound which is likely to push up prices. So it will have come as a

relief to Sainsbury's and other retailers that the Christmas period

seems to have been pretty good. The British Retail Consortium were

telling us yesterday that the last week before Christmas, with

Christmas falling on a Sunday, so Christmas Eve being a Saturday was

better than expectedment so overall, there is optimism even though if you

look into the figures, they're not actually that spectacular. No what

about the year ahead? The big thing hanging over Sainsbury's like other

companies is the decline in the fall of the pound. Pushing up the price

of imported products. Buying in pounds becomes weaker. Sainsbury say

they are prepared. They say the market remains competitive. The

impact of the devaluation of sterling remains uncertain, but they

are prepared. Can you think of anyone who might need a Hush Me? No

idea what you're talking about. MIT world? -- am I too old? Is a lot

more on the website about Sainsbury's, Morrisons, how we are

faring in the UK. You're watching Business Live -

a reminder of our top story: Donald Trump is getting ready

to unveil what steps he intends to take to make sure his business

interests don't conflict Let's take a look at the markets.

Slight drop across the board. In Europe anyway. Follows on from a

record winning streak, particularly for the FT-SE 100. Nine straight

sessions in a row where there was again. Well above that 7000 mark.

Volkswagen shares in Germany, repercussions that they are settling

$4.3 billion with US authorities. When our next guest came

across a factory in northern England making baby formula-

it didn't seem like Business was slow -

so slow, in fact, that its owners But he was able to see the potential

and managed to secure Next followed a deal with China -

which was just recovering from a scandal over

contaminated infant formula. China now makes up one third

of the company's business. The raw materials are

all sourced locally - using 220 farms in the region

to provide the milk. And the business is expanding -

it's now branching into And Ross McMahon, the boss

of Kendal Nutricare joins me now. How did you manage to get into

China? The holy Grail. What did you do? How is the approach different to

getting into the UK supermarkets? I researched the market for five

years, a lot of the research done before I bought the facility. I work

with the state-owned company, Orient International. I met Mr Chang, a

great man, working closely with him over the years. Waiting patiently to

buy the facility. Launching the product in August, in 4000 stores,

by February in 6000 stores, 90% of China. When you were in discussion

with the Chinese business people, China was coming out of a terrible

baby milk scandal. Chinese made baby powder was causing babies to be

extremely unwell, some actually died. That had an enormous impact on

the thinking of every mother in China. Tremendous loss of confidence

in Chinese domestic product. Really looking all over the world. Britain

has the best quality milk on its doorstep. I would imagine other

countries would counter that! Australia importing a lot of

product. We saw the opportunity to put natural raw materials back into

the product. Multinationals were putting in oils, using skimmed milk.

It is much more natural to use the full cream of the whole milk. A

natural milk fat. This was a real gamble. The factory you bought was

failing. What did you see when you went to visit that factory? What

were your thoughts about turning it around? Festival, a world-class

facility, built by Glaxo 55 years ago, the staff have tremendous

knowledge. Absolute privilege to lead them. They have such a bank of

knowledge. We share a vision, everybody excited about going all

over the world. Representing the brand name of the town. All of the

products we launch, now Kendal Adult. The whole town is

behind us. Now there is more demand for baby milk products. The way the

family is working, now grandparents are looking after babies. In the UK,

you have not had that much success. The market is dominated by

multinationals. They dominate the market. We are the only one using

milk fat. We are getting fantastic feedback from consumers,

testimonials from families across the UK. Better provenance, better

sleeping patterns. People are embracing the quality of the

product. The quality of the products, competitively priced.

Supermarkets are ringing us up. In meetings and discussions with them,

hopefully it will be available in the UK market by the summer. Good

luck. Thank you for coming in. In MA meant we will get the stories in the

business pages. Including the Hush Me, we will explain what it is. Many

people getting in touch with that story. First, here is how to get in

touch with us. You can stay ahead with all the day's breaking news on

the Business Live page. We want to hear from you, too. Get involved.

On TV, and online, whenever you need to know. We will explain what the

Hush Me is now. Well we're looking at the papers. Phone gadget shuts up

the office loudmouth. Sounds like a gift. It does rank as one of the

strangest devices to come out of the CES conference in Las Vegas. Great

amusement when we were discussing it at the Times. You strap it across

your mouth, and it stops colleagues being annoyed by loud conversations.

They think you should have won at the Times. You strap it on, you can

have a conversation on the phone, very loud, no one will hear you. You

get Bluetooth through your earphones. You can still hear what

the other person is saying. It plays music over your conversation, even

if colleagues are very close, they will hear coming music. Sounds

fantastic. Joe says can they hand this out on trains? I'm not sure I'd

want to use somebody else's. Simon says, really I get frustrated when

the office resembles a library. I need an atmosphere. I do get that.

Max, it has to be snoring. Where it at night. Would there be breathing

issues? A whole list of things, so noisy keyboards, people cooking

fish. People talking with their mouths full of food. I have to say

somebody could kippers down here, I could not function that day.

Financial Times, Deutsche Bank scowling social media to find

talent. We know about the fact that when you apply for a job they will

look you up, find out what you have been saying on Facebook, social

media. The bank actually looking for people on social media, approaching

them. Deutsche Bank are worried people are not applying to the bank

that they would like to employ because banking has not got the

reputation it once had. And they have had bad headlines. As well as

encouraging people to apply they are searching out for graduates are

searching social media profiles, Twitter, what clubs they are a

member of. This is a bit like you're uncool bank turning up at the

graduate party waving a brochure, feel slightly creepy. It is a

reminder to all of us, what is on social media may come back to bite

us. It is a gift for LinkedIn. If you were on Twitter, not quite as

happy about your bank seeing your feed. Thanks for coming in.

There will be more business news throughout the day on the BBC Live

web page and on World Business Report.

We will keep you updated on that press comments from Donald Trump.