06/03/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock

A European car colossus in the making.

France's Peugeot-Citroen is buying General Motors' European business,

including the Opel and Vauxhall brands, for $2.3 billion.

Live from London, that's our top story on Monday 6 March.

Two car giants come together but is today's deal

a sign of things to come for the European autos industry?

What does it mean for jobs and the choice of vehicles on the road? We

will be getting an expert view. China's Premier cuts the economic

growth target for this year. We look at the risks to the world's

second largest economy. And the European trading week has

begun. All the main markets are headed south. In Germany, Deutsche

Bank shares are pulling down that market.

We'll speak to the boss of a company bringing the likes of Hozier

and Bastille straight to your living room.

Today we want to know, as more car brands consolidate, does it matter

which badges on the back of your car? Is there enough choice in the

car market? Do get in touch with your thoughts

on this story. Our top story today. General Motors, as was widely

expected is selling Opel and Vauxhall

General Motors will sell Opel

the French company that owns Peugeot and Citroen.

As we speak, both companies are hosting a press

Buying GM's loss-making European operations will make PSA

the continent's second-biggest car maker after Volkswagen and ahead

Last year, PSA and GM Europe sold a combined 4.3 million

vehicles and posted revenues of $75.9 billion.

But the deal has already raised fears in the UK the jobs of 4,500

workers at Vauxhall's plants could be under threat.

In Germany, where two-thirds of Opel's 38,000 staff

are based the Government has been seeking reassurances

Opel had hoped to return to profitability by 2016,

but the slide in the value of sterling following the EU

referendum last June contributed to its 272 million

With me is Jim Holder, Editorial Director of Autocar.

So, is this a good deal for PSA given that GM has been losing money

there are a lot of questions because of the $15 billion loss since 2000.

Most people are realising that PSA seems to have a very good deal on

their hands. If they can leverage the scale they are going to create

through this deal, they could turn the business ran very quickly. It

was on the cusp of making a profit last year and think they can make a

proper bishop was it could turn into a very good deal very quickly. Will

it be a good deal for workers? Could be factories right across Europe

under this group. There have been real concerns about jobs. In the UK

it has been stated jobs might be more safe following a post Brexit

world. There are around 20 factories in all Europe, two in the UK. They

all need to prove their competitiveness. They are all

underperforming and are being underused as they will have to

rationalise what they have. In a hard Brexit situation, where there

to be tariffs on goods, he could gain an advantage by having a

factory here. Certainly the market share of Peugeot, such in and

Vauxhall would be around 400,000 cars and could keep a factory

running very effectively. -- citron. Would there be less choice for

consumers? In all likelihood, probably not. There will be more

choice of engines and body stars because they would utilise the same

parts in different cars. They will have different bodies and different

badges on the cards, much like the Boxall group has done very

successfully for many years. What has happened regarding pensions? GM

has effectively agreed to carry on but burden of the pensions. Those

that transferred to it is agreed to put in 3 billion euros as a payment

to cover them. PSA comes away without any real liability for the

pension transfer. Very briefly, why did GM want to off-load this group

if PSA can see a bright future for it? They are talking very clearly

about agility. Opel was a small part of it. It was constrained. PSA sees

a way of unleashing the potential, investing in and making something of

as a result. Thank you a much for talking to us. It is all about the

timing. The Geneva motor show gets under way in earnest and so these

two companies wanted to make that announcement ahead of that. We saw

live riches of the ongoing press conference in Paris. Let's go onto

other news. Deutsche Bank plans to raise

about $8.5bn by issuing new shares. The share sale by the troubled

German bank is part The bank will partially

float its asset management business and retain Postbank -

the retail banking business it had Deutsche will be reorganised around

three divisions: private banking and wealth management,

asset management, and corporate Germany's biggest bank is trying

to reshape itself after grappling with huge losses and nearly

$16bn in legal fines imposed The US is suspending a fast track

service often used by technology companies to recruit

foreign skilled workers. The H-1B visa is issued to tens

of thousands of highly skilled Currently, companies can pay

extra to get the visas But starting in April,

this process will be That is following some of the

changes made by President Trump. Aberdeen asset management and

standard life have agreed terms for a merger. It will create one of the

UK's largest fund managers with assets of $810 billion. Let's talk

about China. China's national people's congress

convened this weekend in Beijing's Great Hall

of the People. The 3,000-strong event is staged

each year by the party, and is a forum to rubber stamp

legislature for the year ahead. But China's economy is struggling,

and in Premier Li's annual report he gave some clues

about the year ahead. He talked specifically about growth

in China. That is really a key factor that many market watchers are

keen to find out just how well, or not so well, China is performing.

That is right. 6.5% would be the kind of growth rate many economies

elsewhere would die for. You are right. In the Chinese context, it is

another sign of slowing growth. We are a long way from the era of

double digit economic expansion. To some extent this is all planned, all

to be expected. China is supposedly going through this economic

transition, weaning itself of the old, government-sponsored growth

based on investment and exports to one based on a consumer economy,

consumer spending. The real worrying thing is it has not yet shown any

sign of being able to wean itself off the large amount of borrowing

that is still needed to grow this economy. In fact, as the economy

grows by 6% to 7% year, debt is growing by double that amount. That

is very troubling to some observers. In the opening address to the

parliament, we heard the premier talk once again about tackling state

owned enterprises, cutting overcapacity, and we have heard the

finance ministry took that getting on top of local government

borrowing. All of these thorny issues. They have spoken about all

of these things before and they are proving very difficult promises to

fulfil. Thank you indeed. That news out of China was so important for

markets in Asia today. Also what was happening when the smart kits that

is the markets was -- these markets work trading where the missile

tests. We had the chief of the US Federal reserve, the central bank,

talking late yesterday for that many were reading between the lines as to

what it means regarding the Fed meeting next week. Most believe we

are looking at a rate rise in the US next week is all that was going on

in the Asian trading session. Let's have a look at Europe right now put

as I speak, we are watching press conference in Paris. The boss of GM

and PSA group, all talking to the press. The Peugeot shares are up and

up. Deutsche Bank shares are down some 6% of the back of their news. A

lot for investors to die just. We will talk more about these stories

in a moment. And Michelle Fleury has

the details about what's ahead There is expected to be an interest

rate hike in March. Only the third since the height of the recession.

The next meeting is in a week and a half. Between now and then, the big

economic report is non-farm payrolls. It is unlikely to change

the outlook on the economy unless it is really bad. Most expect the

latest snapshot of the labour market to show employers added 186,000 jobs

in February for the given the recent surge in business and consumer

confidence, as well as a rise in inflation, the Fed is accepted to

raise interest rates sooner rather than later. Wall Street is now

wondering how many more rate increases to expect this year. As

for the rest of the calendar, the economic calendar this week, Monday

sees the release of data on factory orders while the earnings front is

relatively quiet. Joining us is David Buik

from Panmure Gordon. Thank you for coming in. Let's first

of all talk about Deutsche Bank. It is going to try and raise billions

through a new rights issue. Do you think these new shares will be

attractive to investors, given the trouble is that Deutsche Bank has

been facing? You would like to think the chief executive has shaken all

the skeletons out of the cupboard. There are plenty of them. If you go

back eight years to 2007, just prior to the financial crisis, Deutsche

Bank shares worth 120 euros each will stop them down now to 17 and a

half after the fall. That is enormous. Deutsche Bank has always

been where it required Morgan Grenfell, after they shared the

asset management business, they were the biggest traders or investment

bank in the world in terms of derivatives. Not like Goldman Sachs.

The trouble is they got too big and forgot what a bank is really four,

which is to have money from deposits and to lend money. As things have

unfolded since the financial crisis, they have had one catastrophic

problem after another. As you alluded to, I cannot remember which

one of you it was, 15 billion euros worth of fines, whether it is for

foreign exchange, gold, cross frontier bond dealing, this is the

problem. He has shaken the trees and is selling the asset management

business. I think that is a mistake. He is going to do what he should do,

which is take the emphasis away from investment banking and more to

domestic. The same is happening with Barclays on a much smaller scale.

Another story which has been out there over the weekend and confirmed

today, standard life Aberdeen asset management teaming up. Quite a bit

of money coming together. Your thoughts? It makes a lot of sense. I

should think Nicola Sturgeon is smiling like a Cheshire cat. That is

the head of the Scottish National party just in case people are not

familiar. The chief executives, a top man and another who is at the

forefront of the media. Putting the two of them together, and their

basic emphasis on where they are strong makes a lot of sense. Both

shows are at between 8% and 10% this morning for the Eid think the market

likes the idea of the merger. A busy day. A lot of news going on. We will

see you again in about five minutes. He will return. Still to come...

We'll speak to the boss of a company bringing the likes of Hozier

and Bastille straight to your living room.

It is relieved to discourage people from using their smartphones and not

giving the respect to bands are used to do. We will have that discussion

in a moment. It's National Apprenticeship Week

and a new report out today says 1.5 million degree level

apprenticeships are needed to boost The Chartered Management Institute

are calling them the "missing middle" and are calling employers

to use higher level apprenticeships to improve gender diversity

Petra Wilton is from the CMI. How should this be done? How do we

encourage more women to achieve those positions? It is a wonderful

coincidence that we have got coincidence that we have got

national apprenticeship week and international women's day.

Apprenticeships go up to the highest levels. There is Masters being

developed and at degree level we see a chartered management degree ablend

tisship which out of the 250 early starts half of those are women which

is really encouraging progress. As you led, we need 1.5 million female

managers at that middle by 2025 if we're going to get a better balanced

workforce and have gender parity. What needs to be done? Companies

need to invest better in promoting women through the ranks in their

organisations. We see a classic pyramid. Women enter the workforce

equal to men, so they're 50/50 so but thee peter out. And single

digits when we look at the number of female Chief Executives at those top

companies. But that's to do with the pregnant pause, isn't it? That's to

do with women having children? That can have an impact, but for many

women they are not taking much time out and apprenticeships which are

all age means it can give women the confidence and the route back into

the workforce. Why should women not have a career after having children

and coming back in? Apprenticeships can be used used an all-age

programme to upskill the women and give them the confidence to rejoin

their organisations and take their careers forward. Petra, thank you

very much. No doubt there will be more information about that National

Apprenticeship Week. We're covering that deal, PSA to buy GM's Opal

business. There is a lot of reaction on the Business Live site. Lots of

speculation about what is going to be happening to jobs. Thousands of

jobs at stake. We will be following that story. You're watching Business

Our top story, General Motors will sell Opel

and Vauxhall to PSA Group, the French company that owns

The deal is worth $2.3 billion and will make PSA the continent's

second biggest car-maker after Volkswagen and ahead

Now let's get the inside track on a business which is hoping

to return music back to its most stripped down form.

In the age of streaming and social media, it's easy

to become disillusioned with the commercial music industry.

One company hoping to change this is Sofar Sounds.

It provides small-scale gigs in secret locations such

as converted warehouses and even people's living rooms.

They're in over 300 cities around the world

The company's co-founder Rafe Offer joins us in the studio now.

Hello there. Thank you for coming in to talk about this. The whole

concept of this was started because you got fed-up with the way people

were disrespecting bands at concerts that you went to. Tell me what

sparked the idea? The co-founder and I were in a bar in London and trying

to listen to music, a band called the Friendly Fires. There was a

moment when we realised that half the room were talking or texting and

you could hear the beer bottles clanging in the background from the

bar. We thought there must be a better way to enjoy music. We said,

"Let's get out of here." Rocky Start is the name of your partner. That's

ironic when you're trying to start a new business. Was it a rocky start?

How did it begin? The two of you were there. You thought this is not

great. We think it is disrespectful. How does it become a company? We

connected with a third person at the beginning who is no longer involved,

but helped us get started called Dave Alexander. Rocky and I can't

play or sing, you wouldn't want to listen to us! But Dave is a good

musician and we went to his front room and we asked people to just

come and listen as you said, shut their phones off and just focus on

the music. Eight people, you could hear, his grandfather clock in the

background ticking and we had never been in an environment that was so

quiet and that was the first one and it has grown since then. You tapped

into a real need for music lovers to go somewhere that they really think

they have no other distractions, but to listen to the music. How have you

managed to grow it so fast because it is big now, what you're offering.

Doesn't that scale present difficulties? Yes, it kept us up

many sleepless nights. How could we scale and keep it small? We went

from London to Paris and New York and Melbourne, Mumbai, but each

place we had the same rules in place which was be quiet, keep it under

100 people in some sort of intimate space or most often a living room

and just ask people to respect the music and that was a way we grew.

The second way was through social media and YouTube and ampifying it

that way. You're in over 60 cities. In seven of those you have got paid

staff. There are so many gigs you need staff. Richard Branson has

invested in your company. How do you take this forward? In many of those

cities it is voluntary people and people approach you to say, "I want

to be the musician on offer in the front room." When Rocky and I

started, it was just one event a month, hobby, easy to do, in cities

like New York and Los Angeles and Oslo, we said could we do more than

one a month? Could we do one a day? That was the divide. That was where

we went from paying someone a full-time salary and getting enough

money to support the artists and pay the people a full-time salary. All

the other cities are that light touch with the hope if they're

interested, in converting from being basically a volunteer hobby to a

full-time job. We've run out of time which is a

real shame. There is so much more to say. Well, you must come, both of

you. Thank you very much. You're not going to be in my living room. I've

got a dog and three boys under the age of 11. It would not go down

well! In a moment we'll take a look

through the Business Pages but first here's a quick reminder of how

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and you can find us on Facebook Business Live on TV and online,

whenever you need to know. We have been talking about the deal

and wondering whether it will lead to a contraction in the number of

brands on offer. Do you really care what badge is on the back of your

car, David? I'm not really a petrolhead I have to be honest with

you. If it has got four wheels and an engine and I can get into it

without crippling myself, I'm happy. I think it will do. This is becoming

a highly competitive business. You've got so much variances with

foreign exchange, the euro value and the drop in the value of sterling

and dollars and managing to equate this means the margins will be

greater and therefore, volumes and making the public accept a smaller

number of ranges seems very sensible. I think that might it is

appoint a viewer, he says, "Of course, it does matter what badge is

on your car. How else can one show off in front of their neighbours?"

Oh dear. Some people it is all about brand! Let's look at the stories in

the papers. In the UK here, Sir Philip Green making it into the

weekend papers. No big surprise. It was a big week last week. This is

for our international viewers, this is the retail tycoon who did own

BHS, sold it for ?1, it then collapse add year after it was sold.

There is a pension deficit issue and all sorts. It has been a very

emotive story. In fairness to Sir Philip, this was never a legal

issue, it was a moral issue and he stepped up to the plate with the

?350 million towards the black hole in BHS which affected 19,000 people.

We've got another thing. Arcadia, he owns companies like Topshop and

Dorothy Perkins, there is supposedly a black hole in that of about

?180,000 and there is a general speculation that rather than being

asked he realises his responsibility and he will actually have 20 to did

it. Sales were down over Christmas by 6.5% which I think nos not the

order of the day at that period of time. A pensions deficit is

across-the-board, isn't it? The deal between General Motors and PSA

Group, PSA Group is not taking on the pensions deficit? It is across

the spectrum. The problem that hasn't helped we have had zero

interest rates for a long period of time which means bond yields are

hopeless. We are living a lot longer, but there is an area of

people sticking their head in the sands like ostriches, it isn't going

away. Even somebody like BT, a well run company, ?5 billion black hole.

Incredible. David Buik, thank you. Thank you for all your information

as usual on the markets. We will see you again tomorrow. Bye-bye.