:00:07. > :00:08.This is Business Live from BBC News with Rachel Horne
:00:09. > :00:16.Focus on female economic empowerment.
:00:17. > :00:19.from the world of business and politics gather in Berlin.
:00:20. > :00:37.Live from London, that's our top story on Tuesday April 25th.
:00:38. > :00:40.The event is known as W20 and will feature the likes of German
:00:41. > :00:45.leader Angela Merkel and the boss of the IMF Christine Lagarde.
:00:46. > :00:50.We'll be live in Berlin to find out what they hope to achieve.
:00:51. > :00:53.It's being reported that French prosecutors are investigating
:00:54. > :00:56.the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars over suspected diesel
:00:57. > :01:08.A strong open was pencilled for the European markets, continuing the
:01:09. > :01:11.rally sparked by the presidential elections, they have delivered but
:01:12. > :01:15.are they overconfident? We will discuss the matter.
:01:16. > :01:17.Making sure you hire heroes, not zeroes.
:01:18. > :01:22.We'll meet the man who says tech is the best way to vet new recruits.
:01:23. > :01:30.As a whistle-blowing engineer wins $1 million for reporting a cruise
:01:31. > :01:35.ship for dumping waste, we want to know, would the chance of the big
:01:36. > :01:42.payoff make you more likely to blow the whistle? Let us no.
:01:43. > :01:49.Some of the world's most powerful people from business and politics
:01:50. > :02:05.It's part of an initiative called W20 set up by 20
:02:06. > :02:08.So who's going and what's it all about?
:02:09. > :02:10.Attending the summit will be Christine Lagarde -
:02:11. > :02:13.the head of the IMF, Angela Merkel - the Chancellor
:02:14. > :02:15.of Germany and Ivanka Trump, daughter and special assistant
:02:16. > :02:16.to the President of the United States.
:02:17. > :02:18.The group wants to highlight the issue of women's
:02:19. > :02:20.economic participation and empowerment while reducing
:02:21. > :02:24.the gender employment gap by 25% by 2025.
:02:25. > :02:26.They've got a big task on their hands -
:02:27. > :02:30.because if you just look at Britain as an example - out of the bosses
:02:31. > :02:34.of the top 100 companies here - just seven are women.
:02:35. > :02:36.And the World Economic Forum says that economic
:02:37. > :02:41.inequalities between the sexes could take 170 years to close.
:02:42. > :02:46.between men and women - according to WEF - is now larger
:02:47. > :03:02.Let's go straight to Berlin, our owner Jenny Hill is there. Good to
:03:03. > :03:05.see you, Jenny commie of God Angela Merkel and Kristin the guard, but
:03:06. > :03:09.very powerful women, been in the light for a long time and it's
:03:10. > :03:15.interesting because some may say that they haven't done enough to
:03:16. > :03:21.reduce this gender it came back - pay gap. Now we've got Ivanka Trump
:03:22. > :03:27.going there I wonder if she could invigorate these issues? Perhaps so.
:03:28. > :03:31.There are suggestions that Ivanka Trump herself is committed to these
:03:32. > :03:36.aims. It is worth pointing out that a powerful women like Christine
:03:37. > :03:41.Lagarde and Angela Merkel have not been able to entirely progress this
:03:42. > :03:46.issue while they have been in their positions, one wonders how easy it
:03:47. > :03:50.will be for Ivanka Trump to do so. It is worth saying that Germany is
:03:51. > :03:57.president of the G20 this year and has been looking at this issue. The
:03:58. > :04:01.W 20 was set up in 2014 to address these issues. There's been a lot of
:04:02. > :04:07.talk. You have to wonder how much has been done in that time. Germany
:04:08. > :04:11.is led by a woman. There was a move last year, a law was passed which
:04:12. > :04:16.means the 30 oh so companies registered here have to have a 30%
:04:17. > :04:22.quota of women on their supervisory boards. I am told that has been by
:04:23. > :04:26.and large mat is a voluntary code. Other moves are afoot, the families
:04:27. > :04:32.Minister is keen to look at the issue of equal pay and so on. Are we
:04:33. > :04:37.much further forward? Not really. Look at the aims of the W 20 and
:04:38. > :04:42.there's been a great deal of talk, today, I am told that members of
:04:43. > :04:46.various German women's organisations, having met many times
:04:47. > :04:50.are due to present to Angela Merkel some ideas for heads of state and
:04:51. > :04:55.demands about how to move forward. We must see what comes of that. As
:04:56. > :05:00.you say Ivanka Trump is here. She is due to take part in a panel
:05:01. > :05:05.discussion focused on female entrepreneurs and how they can best
:05:06. > :05:13.be supported. Perhaps we will find out later what kind of key demands
:05:14. > :05:19.the W 20 can make of heads of states around the world. Jenny, looking at
:05:20. > :05:23.one of those issues we mentioned, saying that the gap in economic
:05:24. > :05:30.opportunity between men and women is now larger than at any point since
:05:31. > :05:37.2008, why is that? I'm guessing it is to do with financial crisis. My
:05:38. > :05:40.understanding is that when it comes to women in the workplace is a
:05:41. > :05:44.logjam at the top. They get to a certain point and then don't
:05:45. > :05:49.progress which is why in Germany the focus has been on boardroom quotas
:05:50. > :05:53.trying to get more women into higher managerial positions and if you
:05:54. > :05:57.can't solve that it's hard for that to trickle down. The financial
:05:58. > :06:01.crisis may have had an impact. It will be interesting to see what this
:06:02. > :06:08.group of powerful women says today. The W 20 has been in existence for
:06:09. > :06:12.three years or so. It will be interesting to see whether Angela
:06:13. > :06:17.Merkel, who has herself come under fire for not doing more to progress
:06:18. > :06:22.women's rights across the board, she's got four or five women
:06:23. > :06:27.ministers in her Cabinet but she isn't really known for her female
:06:28. > :06:30.friendly agenda. So it will be interesting to see what she comes
:06:31. > :06:37.out with and whether Ivanka Trump can invigorate that discussion. Will
:06:38. > :06:43.talk to you soon, thanks for the update. Do you know the pay gap
:06:44. > :06:44.between CEO women and CEO men can be a difference of about 35%?
:06:45. > :06:54.Outrageous. Let's take a look at some of
:06:55. > :07:00.the other stories making the news. The French car firm PSA
:07:01. > :07:02.Peugeot-Citroen is under investigation by French prosecutors
:07:03. > :07:05.for cheating diesel emission tests, The Reuters and AFP news agencies
:07:06. > :07:09.say they have been told by judicial sources that the company
:07:10. > :07:12.is being investigated for breaking PSA says its vehicles have never
:07:13. > :07:17.been fitted with software to let its diesel engines
:07:18. > :07:27.deceive pollution tests. The founder of Wikipedia
:07:28. > :07:29.is launching a service aimed Jimmy Wales says his new website
:07:30. > :07:38.will provide politically neutral journalism with an agenda driven
:07:39. > :07:41.by its readers. Wkitribune is intended to be both
:07:42. > :07:43.ad-free and free-to-read, so will rely on supporters
:07:44. > :07:51.making regular donations. General Motors has lost a legal bid
:07:52. > :07:54.aimed at protecting it from lawsuits The US Supreme Court,
:07:55. > :07:59.will not hear the carmaker's appeal, which argued that its 2009
:08:00. > :08:01.bankruptcy protected The Supreme Court decision exposes
:08:02. > :08:05.GM to potentially billions more damages over the switches,
:08:06. > :08:07.which have been linked And Alitalia workers have rejected
:08:08. > :08:16.a restructuring deal from the company's management
:08:17. > :08:18.and unions to save the ailing carrier, according to
:08:19. > :08:20.reports in Italian media. More than half of the employees
:08:21. > :08:31.taking part in the vote rejected the deal, which involves 1,700 job
:08:32. > :08:34.losses and a 8% salary cut. The government says that there
:08:35. > :08:41.will be no alternative. So we could have more problems with
:08:42. > :08:45.the carrier and possibly more strikes.
:08:46. > :08:51.It might have been a strike at a shopping mall in Dubai when the
:08:52. > :08:55.lights went out yesterday, did someone forget to pay the bill? One
:08:56. > :09:01.of the largest shopping centres in the world was plunged into darkness
:09:02. > :09:05.two hours. Shoppers were forced to use the screens of their
:09:06. > :09:11.smartphones! To navigate their way at! I reckon they went on shopping.
:09:12. > :09:19.That's the hard-core shoppers. When you are in Dubai you want to spend.
:09:20. > :09:24.This Chinese liquor company which makes the popular grain spirit
:09:25. > :09:27.Baijiu is toasting some impressive results.
:09:28. > :09:39.Good to see you. Have you tasted this, it's a grain spirit. I know
:09:40. > :09:44.you, I am sure you have drunk your share! You need a steel stomach to
:09:45. > :09:49.drink Baijiu. It is very strong. I've only had it once or twice. It
:09:50. > :09:56.will go down really easily for investors because they had good
:09:57. > :10:00.profit numbers. To give you more background, the company that makes
:10:01. > :10:06.National liquor company. It reported National liquor company. It reported
:10:07. > :10:11.a 25% jump in that profit to $886 million for the first quarter. That
:10:12. > :10:16.beat its own forecast. Because of those numbers we saw shares rallying
:10:17. > :10:21.by more than 4%. This comes after a tough period for the company because
:10:22. > :10:25.they were affected by China's anti-corruption crackdown. Basically
:10:26. > :10:29.officials were not allowed to buy these $200 bottles of alcohol. Now
:10:30. > :10:32.it seems it is doing just fine. Thank you.
:10:33. > :10:39.Asian stocks hit an almost 2 year high overnight -
:10:40. > :10:41.investors feeling more encouraged to take risks following the results
:10:42. > :10:43.of the first round of the French presidential election.
:10:44. > :10:46.On Wall Street, all three major indexes jumped more than 1 percent,
:10:47. > :10:51.with the Nasdaq closing at a record high.
:10:52. > :11:03.European markets were pencilled for a strong start -
:11:04. > :11:06.yesterday France's CAC 40 jumped 4.1 percent to post its biggest one-day
:11:07. > :11:09.gain in almost five years - with todays trade just 35 minutes
:11:10. > :11:14.And we have the details about Wall Street.
:11:15. > :11:25.America's number two wireless carrier AT, Coca-Cola, McDonald's,
:11:26. > :11:30.Eli Lilly and the Pentagon's number one weapons supplier Lockheed
:11:31. > :11:34.Martin, outside of earnings there's still a lot happening, including the
:11:35. > :11:38.conference board that will be releasing its latest consumer
:11:39. > :11:43.confidence index. Is expected to have dropped compared to the month
:11:44. > :11:48.before, new numbers will show you that home sales slipped last month
:11:49. > :11:51.and finally the chairman of the chief executive of Citigroup will
:11:52. > :11:57.speak to shareholders and also take questions about the strategy at the
:11:58. > :12:00.company's annual general meeting. Let's stay with the markets.
:12:01. > :12:02.Joining us is Simon Derrick, Chief Markets Strategist,
:12:03. > :12:11.Always good to see you. Let's kick off at this. I'm annoyed with the
:12:12. > :12:15.markets because I think they are overdoing it with the French
:12:16. > :12:20.election result. They are being so smug because they are going, you
:12:21. > :12:24.know, this Macron a man is going to win, Marine Le Pen could not
:12:25. > :12:33.possibly win. Well, Brexit, people couldn't leave the EU and Trump
:12:34. > :12:39.couldn't be President! Last year we were hit by a lot of issues, the US
:12:40. > :12:43.election, Brexit, the Italian referendum, so at the start of this
:12:44. > :12:50.year, everyone will be on the sidelines. We won't know the issues
:12:51. > :12:54.that are coming. By the end of the first quarter when things didn't
:12:55. > :12:56.appear quite as bad, confidence came back and then they saw the story
:12:57. > :13:04.yesterday and that was another little box ticked, one less thing to
:13:05. > :13:08.worry about perhaps. A wall of money out there looking to invest and
:13:09. > :13:13.looking for good returns. Are they being overly confident? Your point
:13:14. > :13:22.is right. That was only the first round. And while the odds are
:13:23. > :13:26.against Mr Macron losing, if he makes some kind of mistake along the
:13:27. > :13:31.way of course things could go and from that perspective may be
:13:32. > :13:36.investors are being overconfident but I think that's just the stories
:13:37. > :13:41.since mid to late March that the confidence has come back and maybe
:13:42. > :13:47.it is blinding people to some of the issues and there. About President
:13:48. > :13:51.Trump, we are awaiting some tax announcements from him, some
:13:52. > :13:56.investors hope it will cut corporation tax down, how likely is
:13:57. > :14:00.it that he could get that through? He's certainly been talking about it
:14:01. > :14:04.and the Treasury Secretary has been talking about tax changes and
:14:05. > :14:12.markets would love it if he perched corporate tax rate down, no question
:14:13. > :14:16.of it. The problems are that there are lots of fiscally conservative
:14:17. > :14:19.Republicans there to get these points past. We will be hitting the
:14:20. > :14:24.debt ceiling for you as borrowings of this is going to be an issue.
:14:25. > :14:28.Remember how hard he found to get health reform through? This could be
:14:29. > :14:32.the same story. If he does get through them the question is where
:14:33. > :14:36.does the money come from because quite clearly whilst he's hoping
:14:37. > :14:40.that it will be revenue positive over a decade, in the short term he
:14:41. > :14:45.still has to borrow the money and that will push interest rates higher
:14:46. > :14:50.in the US. Simon, thank you for your time. Short and sweet, we always
:14:51. > :14:56.appreciate it! We will meet the man who says this type of computing is
:14:57. > :14:59.the best way to vet potential recruits.
:15:00. > :15:09.You're with Business Live from BBC News.
:15:10. > :15:11.It's one of the biggest privately owned property
:15:12. > :15:13.groups in the world has just published its annual results.
:15:14. > :15:16.The Grosvenor Group, owned by the Duke of Westminster,
:15:17. > :15:18.is one of the UK's largest property owners and made profits
:15:19. > :15:25.Mark Preston is the CEO of the Grosvenor Group.
:15:26. > :15:32.Mark, it is always good to have you with us. Thank you for coming in.
:15:33. > :15:36.You're a good bellwether for the global property market. But let's
:15:37. > :15:40.start with the UK. We hear mixed reports and you Brits love your
:15:41. > :15:44.property prices, but we hear mixed reports about the UK property
:15:45. > :15:49.market, it's up, it's down, it's going to be impacted by Brexit.
:15:50. > :15:53.What's your take? As far as Grosvenor is concerned, our UK
:15:54. > :15:56.business which is over half our global portfolio is concentrated
:15:57. > :15:59.heavily on London so where a particular segment of the market,
:16:00. > :16:03.but over the last year or two, it is not news that the market has been
:16:04. > :16:07.cooling and in particular, on the upper end of the residential market
:16:08. > :16:10.and we have quite a bit of exposure to that in London, it has been
:16:11. > :16:14.cooling for a while and in particular with the rises in stamp
:16:15. > :16:17.duty and the Brexit chilling effect last year, we have seen those
:16:18. > :16:21.returns come down and we had anticipated that to a large degree
:16:22. > :16:25.and sold quite a bit in anticipation of that in the UK to fund future
:16:26. > :16:30.development projects in the UK and elsewhere over the next several
:16:31. > :16:35.years. Let's talk about elsewhere. Globally, what's hot, what's not,
:16:36. > :16:41.where are you going in or where are you leaving or getting out? We have
:16:42. > :16:46.been investing overseas. The strategy of diversionification is
:16:47. > :16:51.one that we have carried on. We are in North America and Asia and
:16:52. > :16:58.Australia. We're well diversified and that's the deliberate policy of
:16:59. > :17:01.ours. Have you been getting out of regions or countries around the
:17:02. > :17:06.world? No, on the whole, we have been trying to enter new markets
:17:07. > :17:11.tarking the view that by being more broadly spread over the long-term we
:17:12. > :17:15.will balance out our returns. If you look at 2016, the UK results were
:17:16. > :17:19.poor, but our overseas results were good and when flattered by the
:17:20. > :17:25.depression of sterling last year, we came up with an overall return of 8%
:17:26. > :17:33.which is pretty good. Mark Preston, thank you very much for joining us.
:17:34. > :17:37.A story on Costa and their owner being punished by shareholders for
:17:38. > :17:45.caution over consumer demand. Both of them seeing share prices falling.
:17:46. > :17:51.Leading women from the worlds of business and politics
:17:52. > :17:54.are gathering in Berlin to find ways of boosting female
:17:55. > :18:07.Germany's Angela Merkel is attending as is IMF chief, Christine Lagarde.
:18:08. > :18:09.The American first daughter is attending as well.
:18:10. > :18:13.A quick look at how markets are faring.
:18:14. > :18:18.We were expecting a strong start following on from the rally after
:18:19. > :18:22.the French Presidential elections over the weekend and they're doing
:18:23. > :18:24.well. Not up too high, but all in the green.
:18:25. > :18:26.There isn't a business or organisation in the world that
:18:27. > :18:29.doesn't have to get involved in recruitment at some stage.
:18:30. > :18:32.So let's get the Inside Track on how to find the right people.
:18:33. > :18:44.Many companies turn to the HR or human resources industry
:18:45. > :18:46.which is worth around $453 billion worldwide according to
:18:47. > :18:49.One reason it's growing is because of the apparent trend
:18:50. > :18:51.for people to change jobs more frequently.
:18:52. > :18:54.LinkedIn found US workers who graduated college between 2006
:18:55. > :18:57.and 2010 averaged nearly three jobs in their first five years of work
:18:58. > :19:07.compared to 1.6 for those who graduated 20 years earlier.
:19:08. > :19:12.It means companies have more time consuming reference checks to do.
:19:13. > :19:15.Australia based XRef says it has the answer
:19:16. > :19:22.Lee-Martin Seymour is one of the men who came up with the idea
:19:23. > :19:38.Lee Martin thank you very much for coming in this morning. Explain to
:19:39. > :19:43.us how your company works and how it is dimp... More the dummies, me!
:19:44. > :19:46.Well, if you think about the traditional process of collecting
:19:47. > :19:51.references, it's done over the phone. It is an arduous process.
:19:52. > :19:55.Many recruiters and HR directors just don't like doing it. It takes
:19:56. > :20:00.days to collect feedback on potential candidates and when we are
:20:01. > :20:06.short of skills we need tools like XRef to be able to reduce that time
:20:07. > :20:12.to hire and help with things like attrition. Myself and the other
:20:13. > :20:16.co-founder basically took the manual, arduous process, that's
:20:17. > :20:22.existed for hundreds of years, and decided to awe mate it in the Cloud.
:20:23. > :20:26.And what happens now is that the process is centred around the
:20:27. > :20:30.candidate. So instead of an employer making phone calls over days to try
:20:31. > :20:33.and collect this feedback, they simply go to XRef and they enter the
:20:34. > :20:38.candidate details and in 15 seconds and that's their job done until they
:20:39. > :20:46.collect the feedback back. The candidate adds the reference details
:20:47. > :20:50.into the application and the referees then get an e-mail to give
:20:51. > :20:55.that feedback back to the employer. Because we're constrained by time
:20:56. > :21:01.here, you went public, you took the company public in 2011 to expand and
:21:02. > :21:05.go overseas, but the companies that pay you the money, this is how you
:21:06. > :21:08.make money, but they have been doing this for hundreds of years. You said
:21:09. > :21:12.it yourself, so you have got to change that mentality for them to
:21:13. > :21:22.rely on this new technology? Yeah, to correct you there. We listed at
:21:23. > :21:27.the start of 2016. We started in 2011. We had five years and three of
:21:28. > :21:30.those years were an education process. Pounding the pavement,
:21:31. > :21:34.hitting the fond, trying to convince HR directors that the way they were
:21:35. > :21:38.taking references in the traditional way wasn't helping with privacy,
:21:39. > :21:43.discrimination, fraudulent references. It took us three years
:21:44. > :21:49.to get to our first employee and then another two to get to five
:21:50. > :21:54.employees. So it was a long mission to get to that point of going on to
:21:55. > :21:58.the XRef. You're based in Australia. You have an office in London and
:21:59. > :22:05.Toronto. It sounds like it's going well. You listed on the stock
:22:06. > :22:10.market, 20 cents per share and you're at 50 cents. It hasn't been
:22:11. > :22:13.easy sailing, has it in When you move from a local start-up, despite
:22:14. > :22:19.the success we had in Australia, we knew that we had a repcable model.
:22:20. > :22:23.XRef offers its clients huge return of investment. Our clients love
:22:24. > :22:27.using the product because it takes away the thing that they really
:22:28. > :22:33.don't like doing. But it knows no global bounds. So, you know, for us
:22:34. > :22:38.as a team, as a family, at XRef seeing the growth over time is
:22:39. > :22:44.fantastic. But I think it doesn't come without its challenges. And I
:22:45. > :22:50.think sometimes you have to make the hard decisions and with listed on
:22:51. > :22:54.the ASX, we needed a capital vehicle that would help us grow globally. We
:22:55. > :22:59.knew we had a global product on our hands and you've got to go all in
:23:00. > :23:03.and as we know, reward is directly proportionate to the amount of risk
:23:04. > :23:08.that you're prepared to take and I think, you know, the first five
:23:09. > :23:13.years we earnt our stripes and it was lovely to list as a product with
:23:14. > :23:17.revenue, with clients with a successful part of the planet and
:23:18. > :23:23.use the capital raised to progress globally. If you can come up with a
:23:24. > :23:29.programme that can give, a 30 minute TV programme, an extra ten minutes,
:23:30. > :23:32.we will abuy that one. Good luck with everything.
:23:33. > :23:34.Here is how you can keep in touch with us.
:23:35. > :23:36.The Business Live page is where you can stay
:23:37. > :23:38.ahead of all the day's breaking business news.
:23:39. > :23:40.We'll keep you up-to-date with all the latest details,
:23:41. > :23:43.with insight and analysis from the BBC's team of editors
:23:44. > :23:48.Get involved on the BBC business live web page, bbc.com/business,
:23:49. > :23:50.on Twitter @BBCBusiness and you can find us on Facebook
:23:51. > :24:03.Business Live on TV and online, whenever you need to know.
:24:04. > :24:16.He's going to give us his insight into the business stories. We asked
:24:17. > :24:20.you for your tweets after the story of the whistle-blower who exposed
:24:21. > :24:25.Carnival Cruises for dumping oil into the sea and got $1 million.
:24:26. > :24:28.Richard said he would do it. Nick said he would whistle blow for half
:24:29. > :24:34.that amount of money. Lots of reaction. Thank you for those
:24:35. > :24:40.tweets. The UK has a new whistle-blower regime. But it is
:24:41. > :24:45.nothing as generous as in the US. This is a British engineer, he got
:24:46. > :24:52.paid the money from the US fine. The US Coastguard went to the
:24:53. > :25:02.coastguard. He takes home $1 million. They said he has no career?
:25:03. > :25:07.No, he quit. He saw this going on. Took footage with his mobile phone
:25:08. > :25:14.and quit as soon as the ship got into Southampton. He made money out
:25:15. > :25:25.of it. Peugeot Citroen, could we have another Deysel-gate? They
:25:26. > :25:33.supply to everybody. Everybody in the car industry. So always defied
:25:34. > :25:37.belief that Volkswagen might be the only ones doing something about
:25:38. > :25:41.emissions and tests that go back years and years and it is hard to
:25:42. > :25:45.think that Volkswagen are the only ones affected. Peugeot and Citroen
:25:46. > :25:48.say they have done nothing wrong. They don't use computer cheating
:25:49. > :25:50.software, but they are under investigation by the French
:25:51. > :25:55.authorities. You've left us with six seconds,
:25:56. > :26:11.Dominic, what are we going to do? Cheers, mate. Bye-bye.
:26:12. > :26:12.Hello. Wherever you started the day, it was marketedly