29/06/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Susannah Streeter

Sky's the limit - will Rupert Murdoch's takeover plans

for the pay TV giant be cleared for lift off?

Live from London, that's our top story on 29th June.

With his control of 21st Century Fox, Sky and UK newspapers,

the fears are that Mr Murdoch wields too much power in the British media.

Also in the programme: Central Bank conundrum -

the end of cheap money leaves Mark Carney and Mario

Draghi lost for words, and the markets don't like it.

We'll get some clarity from an expert.

This is how the financial markets look on opening. The FTSE is

currently in positive territory. And it's been dubbed

the Uber of data science. We'll be talking to a new start up

which makes it easier for firms Today as a Cornish village

use their connection with horseracing to convince

a Dubai sheikh to help save their church hall,

let us know - what's your We start with a big day for this man

- media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. He may be 86 years old,

but his empire-building ambition Today he finds out whether the UK

Government will let him take over pay TV giant Sky -

or whether to order Mr Murdoch's 21st Century Fox

already owns 39 per cent of Sky. Sky is one of Europe's

biggest broadcasters, The deal has already been cleared

by countries across the region. But some claim it would give

Mr Murdoch too much control His company News Corporation

abandoned a 2011 bid following the phone hacking scandal

involving its newspapers. This year a new scandal -

sexual harassment allegations at Fox News in the US -

has led to calls for the latest deal Something our Media Editor Amol

Rajan asked Mr Murdoch about when he caught up with him

in New York last month. Report, BBC, are you worried about

off,? No. You should be worried about the BBC. Are you worried about

what might happen to this deal is in relation to off,? Are you worried

about what off, might say about Fox News? Fox News is getting record

ratings. So I'm not worried at all. And you don't think of, will

consider what is happening at Fox News? Nothing is happening at Fox

News. Nothing, OK? Bruce Kilpatrick, Head

of Competition, Addleshaw Goddard. Is he going to get this, do you

think? Today's announcement is an initial decision by Karen Bradley,

not a final decision. We still have our way to go. -- we still have a

way to go. What issues will should be thinking about? There are two mac

key public interest issues. All other regulators have given the deal

agreeing light. The first issue is media plurality, and the second is

whether Fox will be committed to editorial standards and

impartiality. That is interesting, because there also has to be a

public interest of Fox's record on broadcasting standards, and many

people have pointed to these sexual harassment allegations. Will these

have been taken into consideration? Off, will have prepared a report on

these issues, and we know that Karen Bradley received those about ten

days ago from com. I would expect those issues to have at least been

considered by off, in the report it gets the Karen Bradley. At the same

time, comms separately has to reach a decision on whether sky would

continue to be eight fit and proper holder of a broadcasting licence

under full ownership of Fox. And will it be to do with editorial

independence? That will be key. In terms of impartiality and the

editorial control that Fox may have, I think that today's announcement

could have opened the door to concessions or discussions around

the degree of editorial independence required in relation to sky to get

the deal through without a six-month review. Bruce Kilpatrick, thank you

very much for that. Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news. The biggest US banks have all passed

the second, tougher, The approval by the Federal Reserve

could give momentum to White House The Fed has signed off

on the firms' plans to distribute money to shareholders,

rather than keep it as a buffer India's Cabinet has approved plans

to privatise Air India. The airline - which has debts

of 8 billion dollars - has been struggling amid growing

competition from low-cost rivals. Privatisation plans have been

abandoned before, however, and unions have threatened

wide-ranging protests if ministers The US has unveiled tough

new measures to enhance security on flights entering the country,

but has held off extending a ban The new measures require

enhanced passenger- and electronic-device screening

across 105 countries. Some other news that is on the BBC

business live page, entitled the Italian job. That looks into BT and

PWC's behaviour. The last paragraph says that PWC, which had been the BT

or that since 1984, was replaced earlier this year by KPMG. So, a

development there, relating to BT and PWC.

Malaysia could be seeing the signs of an economic turnaround as it

seeks to recover from the 1MDB corruption scandal Christine

An economic turnaround? It seems that way, or investors seem to think

so. The Malaysian currency is the second strongest performing after

the Chinese UN. -- the Chinese yen. Global environment and energy prices

are stabilising. The Government is expected to be focused on attracting

foreign investment. They have elections next year. The corruption

problems have not entirely gone from the Government and the economy is

still very depended on commodities, debt levels are still high, and the

fact that so much of its debt is still being held by foreign buyers

is also a risk for the currency going forward. Investors seem to be

focusing on the bright side at the moment, but there are doubts as to

whether the momentum can be sustained the launch -- sustained

beyond the elections. It seems that the period of easy

money might becoming to an end. The main indices in Asia were up on the

news, held by some steadying oil prices. Let's look at what is

happening in Europe since the open. The FTSE 100 and the other indices

are all up at the moment. The pound rose after Mark Carney hinted at a

potential interest rate hike. Joining the chorus of voices all

talking about tightening money policy.

And Michelle Fleury has the details about what's ahead

A few weeks ago Donald Trump said some very good numbers were coming

But which numbers was he talking about?

The latest reading on GDP for the first three

months of the year is due out this Thursday.

The first reading showed a lacklustre growth rate of 0.7%.

This final figure is expected to show the

economy growing at a 1.2% annual rate.

This doesn't mean the President is wrong, though.

Many economists are forecasting a stronger growth in the

Despite this anticipated acceleration, that

didn't stop the International Monetary Fund this week from cutting

its growth forecast for the US, casting doubt on the Trump

administration's ability to deliver tax cuts and spending on

infrastructure that will boost the economy.

In corporate news, US meal kit company Blue Apron is expected

to make its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

And Nike, the apparel maker, is due to report its

Joining us is Lawrence Gosling, editor-in-chief of Investment Week.

Hello. The big talk at the moment seems to be about four central banks

think the future holds. We have had all these warnings about increased

interest rates and less quantitative easing. Do you think this is going

to be coming sooner rather than later? A UK rate rise, I would say

there is a reasonable chance of one before the end of this year, if you

follow the tea leaves of the members of the MPC. There is definitely a

split, and we saw Mark Carney saying one thing, slightly contradicted by

what John Cunliffe had said earlier the same day and then Mario draggy

saying something that the market since it -- interpreted differently.

All around the world, you're getting these inklings about rates. And

rates have gone up in countries further afield than those main ones.

We are in a period now where interest rates are beginning to take

up because the global economy is in not bad shape. In Europe, it is

picking up quite nicely. We have economic data out later today which

signals the easing of easy money, as you might say. Consumer data

numbers, consumer confidence and mortgage lending, both are expected

to be reined back a little bit. You can see there is caution in the

market. Is that why the markets are up this morning? The FTSE is up two

thirds of 1%. Partly that, and partly the US big bank stressed test

-- stress test. But the banks like higher interest rates? Yes, because

that is how they make their money. They lent to us at a higher rate

than they take our deposits. That is the business model. We will look at

the stress tests and whether banks are holding enough in reserve. For

now, Lawrence, thank you very much. Still to come: We'll be talking

to a new start up which makes it easier for firms to hire the hottest

tech talent - we're talking You're with Business

Live from BBC News. Britain's second biggest

airport, Gatwick, has just The 12 months to the end of January

was the busiest in its history, with over 44 million passengers

passing through its gates, Revenues and profits

were also up strongly - and the airport is planning heavy

investment. Theo Leggett is in our

business newsroom. It seems as though the verdict went

again them -- against them, as it were, when they were competing with

Heathrow for an extra runway, but life seems to be getting better. We

will talk about Heathrow in a moment, but Gatwick is doing well in

terms of passengers. In a more recent measure to the end of June,

it has breached the 45 million passengers mark. That is an awful

lot of people, and it means that revenues are increasing, but in

terms of profits, things don't look quite as good. They fell in the year

to the end of March from ?140 million to 132 million, so it is a

mixed bag. Costs are rising as well. And also, let's talk about

expansion, because Gatwick really is bursting at the seams, isn't it? And

it has kind of lost out to Heathrow. Has Gatwick said anything about this

in reporting these results today? That is the problem it faces - it

only has one runway. An awful lot of major airports have two, three or

even format. -- or even foul-mac. Heathrow has tried to persuade the

Government to allow it to build a second runway. It hasn't, and it

seems the Government are more keen on building at Heathrow. We never

said we don't want another runway, and we are prepared to build one. We

continue with that offer to the Government. What happens at Heathrow

is a matter for them and the Government. We would like to build a

runway because we are nearly full and we are operating a runway at

nearly full utilisation. That was the CEO of Gatwick.

One interesting story here about Greenking. My local brewer. They

have been drinking too much of their own beer! They said: They are doing

frightfully well but they don't think things look very good. Revenue

still rising a bit. You're watching Business Live -

our top story: Media tycoon

Rupert Murdoch hears whether or not his takeover plans

for the pay TV giant Sky A quick look at how

markets are faring. Since the opening in Europe, as you

can see, it is a sea of green across the screen, very different yesterday

when the FTSE 100 in London was down following those hawkish comments by

mark Carney about possible interest rate hikes. It seems those banking

stress tests in the US cheered the financial sector in particular.

Now, a new start up which makes it easier for firms to hire

Our guest today started her career as an astronomer.

But she thought her true calling was as an entrepreneur.

So why not combine the two, science and business?

The result, Pivigo, a firm that acts as a kind of storefront

It offers education in the field as well as job opportunities.

Dr Kim Nilsson, co-founder and chief executive of Pivigo.

Thank you for joining us. How did you swap stargazing for number

crunching? They are very much connected to each other, of course.

I started out with a dream to become an astronomer since I was 13 years

old and it was a straight pass from third to my Ph.D. Before I finally

accepted I wasn't enjoying my work that much, I wanted to get out and

meet with people and organised things and plan things. It must have

been very difficult. It was very difficult to accept that a dream I

had for so long was not quite right for me. But it was the best decision

I ever made to transition. How did you do that? I ended up coming to

the UK to learn about business, the UK has the best business schools in

Europe and I wanted to figure out what this thing cold business was

and what my place in that could be. When did you realise there was this

niche in the market for a kind of gig economy for data scientists? It

has been something that has evolved with time. The first thing I

recognise is that we have fantastic talent in our universities. People

with my type of background really struggled to make the transition out

of academia. And on the other hand we have companies crying out for

analytical talent, saying they cannot find it. There is a mismatch

in these expectations and communication. We wanted to do

something in that space. How important is the NBA in making the

jump from having been an academic towards getting into business? The

MBA gave me the confidence that I could do this, I went into it

thinking I'm a scientist, I don't understand this. But I understood

from the MBA that business is about intuition, logic and working with

people. It gave me the confidence that I can be an entrepreneur and I

can start a business. You work a lot with so-called big data, companies

sitting on piles and piles of personal data, shopping habits, but

they do not know what to do with it and that is what you are trying to

draw out. We see companies hesitating about how to get started

with data and it is hurting the UK economy, they are losing out on

profits, revenue, efficiencies, and they are less competitive than their

US competitors who are already using the data. We want to help the

companies to understand what they can do with the data, what the

return on investment can be, and how to find the talent they need to do

it. You're getting the data scientists to do the number

crunching, is it were, the analysis. What do you do? Do you just link

them? We make the connection, we help companies first of all

understand what they can do. Many of our clients are SME companies who

have no clue what to do with their data. We help them understand what

they can do. Then we help them understand what kind of people they

need, what skills they need, how to vet them and how to find them and we

connect them with our global community. Very briefly, how do you

think Brexit will affect your business? I think, we are worried

because I estimate something like 50-60% of this community in the UK

is European. We are worried about access to the international talent

which is critical to the success of this industry and we are keeping our

fingers crossed that Theresa May recognises that and will make

efforts to improve the situation. The kind of businesses you are

talking about, surely people don't have to come to the UK, or go to

Australia to do this, you could do the whole thing online. We are

passionately telling companies to consider doing projects remotely

because then you get access to the best people in the world. You want

the best people in the world working for you. Brexit shouldn't affect

that. There is another opposing force which is that a lot of

companies are worried about data security and they are worried about

data leaving the country, or that alone their premises. Lots of

companies want the talent to be in-house. How do you charge for

this? Do you charge both sides? Get a double fee, charge the scientists

coming in and the company? Not at all, this is an opportunity for

academics and scientists to get work. You do not charge them? These

are academics who might feel that their skills are not valued? Yes,

they are struggling to make the transition to show the skills they

have from academia are useful outside of academia as well. What is

the market like? Are you the only people there? We have a number of

competitors, of course, in this space of various different flavours

and types and it is a market that is growing fast. We have been doing

this for a Foyle years and in that time already lots of conversations

have gone from what is big data to how do I do it? That is the great

promise we see in the industry. Dr Kim Nilsson of Pivigo, thank you.

In a moment we'll take a look through the Business Pages but first

here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us.

The business life pages when you can stay ahead with the day's business

news, we will keep you up-to-date with the latest details with

insight, analysis from the BBC's team of editors around the world. We

want to hear from you. Get involved on the BBC Business Live web page at

BBC .co/ business. On Twitter we are @ BBC business and on Facebook at

BBC business news. ABC business news on TV and online whenever you need

to know. Lawrence Gosling, editor-in-chief

of Investment Week, is back with us. We did mention this before, it has

lifted the markets, the US stress tests, first of all, explain the

stress tests and why they are significant. They are complicated

but the six biggest banks in the US have enough money, in the opinion of

the regulators, to see them through what we all cool -- call a limb and

brothers moment. I have enough cash to start paying back in terms of

dividends or buying back their own shares. -- they have enough cash. --

Leeman brothers. It comes at a time when a number of European banks have

had to be bailed out so is there a big difference? The US banking

sector is six or seven years ahead of continental European banking

sector and the UK has done a lot of what the US has done so the UK is a

couple of years behind. The European banks, stress tests in Europe are

different from the ones we do in the UK and also the US. They are, two

Italian banks have been bailed out this week alone and we saw a Spanish

bank taken over a couple of weeks ago. In the Trump administration the

rules are being softened. Would that mean they don't need the kind of

capital reserves these kind of tests demand? It depends how they break up

them, the rules. They are very complicated at the moment in terms

of how much they have to put aside for each part of their business. We

would have to see before we can tell you that. In the Financial Times,

PWC pay women 14% less than male employees, this is part of a drive

to create more transparency through big corporations. It shows there is

a lot of work still to be done. In fairness to PWC they have been

publishing this data for a couple of years. It does not look that

impressive but as you see through it, looking at a number of levels,

at the most senior partner level there is considerably less women at

the partner level and there are men. That is not good, middle ranking

functions are a little more even. Unfortunately lots of the women are

employed at the junior support level and the pay differentials are coming

up, they are getting better. It is the maternity get, raising children,

the company say they are trying to put projects in to ensure that women

return to work. They call this returnee chip, making it easier for

women to come back into the workplace. Are more companies doing

this kind of self-examination? Saying, look, we have to sort this

out. Are they getting to grips with this? I think they are because it's

about hanging onto your talent, that is the bottom line and it is hard to

find talent, particularly in an economy that is near full

employment. This Cornish village has found some talent, they were trying

to save its village hall and they went to the local Sheikh to ask for

the money. They share the Godolphin Main. Anybody who knows anything

about racing, they have the Godolphin horses going back 250

years -- Godolphin named. The Godolphin family was responsible for

the name of this Cornish village. They were ?100,000 short to save the

village hall and they thought, who has got a bit of money? They didn't

think it would work. They tried it and sent of those

letters, what a success. Fundraisers up-and-down the country in village

halls will be thinking I wish I had that. Thank you for joining us.

That's all from Business Live. More business news throughout the day.

Goodbye. Good morning, we have another soggy

start of the lay across many