09/11/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News

with Alice Baxter and Sally Bundock.

Getting down to business -

the leaders of of world's most

important economies sign industrial

deals worth more than $250 billion.

Live from London, that's our top

story on Thursday, November 9th.

China's Xi Jinping and Trump shake

hands on $250 billion

of potential business deals,

including a pledge to buy 300

airplanes from US aviation giant

Boeing valed at $37 billion.

Also in the programme.

The malls chases the fox. Could the

changing global media landscape see

21st Century Fox sold to Walt

Disney? Will also have the latest

market movements. Another

record-breaking day on Wall Street.

In Europe a mixed picture. Will be

getting the inside track on the

construction industry and the boss

he says the sector need more women.

We'll be talking breakfast. Tiffany

's has got a brand-new offering

which will set you back $29 for a

coffee and a croissant. We are

asking you today, how much have you

ever spent on a coffee and

croissant? Don't hold back, use the

hashtag.

A warm welcome to you.

President Trump and his Chinese

counterpart Xi Jinping have said

they would work together to improve

trade relations on his

visit to Beijing.

In a departure from his recent

rhetoric, the US President said

he does "not blame China"

for the trade deficit

between the two countries.

The two leaders signed industrial

cooperation deals worth

more than $250 billion.

And China said it would buy 300

airplanes from US aerospace giant

Boeing valued over $37 billion.

Mr Xi told reporters that

the Chinese economy was changing.

Joining me now from Beijing is our

correspondent, Steve McDonell.

Covering every twist and turn of

this China leg of the Asian tour of

President Trump. Alice outlining the

fact they say they've done deals

worth something like $250 billion. A

few bits of information is trickling

in about General Electric proving to

be a winner, as is Boeing.

Absolutely. It's interesting, we

just heard about that reference from

Donald Trump where he said he

doesn't blame China for the trade

imbalance between the two countries.

He said that in front of a gathering

of business people from China and

the US. When he said that there was

a bit of a gasp of surprise around

the rim. It's obviously a different

tone from Donald Trump on the

campaign trail. That was hellfire

and brimstone, we are going after

China on trade. Here he is with Xi

Jinping and they are announcing all

these deals. Yes, there is talk of

them adding up to $250 billion I

think. It's going to be something

we'll have to have a look at

overcoming days and weeks. Some of

them are more in the memorandum of

understanding category. Not

necessarily actual contracts with

deliveries of units. And yet other

parts of these, some of them do seem

to be the real thing. Xi Jinping has

said that under Donald Trump, his

administration is ushering in a new

spirit, a new time of cooperation

between the two. They needed to have

something to show this. That's why

all these deals have been announced

now.

You have your" announceable"

you've been looking for. In terms of

what's going on now, US business

bosses want better access to China.

Some of the big corporate have

really struggled to operate and make

headway in the Chinese mainland

market, which is worth billions.

Yes, and Xi Jinping has said today

that that is going to happen. He

said there will be greater access to

China for US companies. The short

time ago the Foreign Ministry said

there would be a timetable for some

of these things, specific tax breaks

for the auto industry and the like.

We will see what comes of those

announcements. Whether or not it's

just all talk from Xi Jinping or

whether it's going to open up

sections of the Chinese economy to

foreign investment. Of course,

people who have tried to invest in

China will know there's certain

parts of this economy, as a foreign

entity you can't just buy a coal or

steel mill, there are certain other

parts of the economy you can only

engage in the Chinese economy as a

joint partner. For a long time in

the West and especially in the US,

they've been calling for greater

access to the Chinese market and Xi

Jinping says it's coming. We'll see

if it does.

Will watch this space.

Thank you.

The chairman of 21st Century Fox,

Lachlan Murdoch, says

the media giant is in good shape,

despite tough conditions.

Fox reported better than expected

figures for the three

months to September.

But the real buzz has been

about reports it's held talks

to sell off a huge swathe

of its business, most of its TV

and film business, to Disney.

The likes of Netflix,

Google and Amazon are now huge

players in the media business,

as more of us stream movies and TV

rather than watching cable channels.

That's led to millions

"cutting the cord"

with their cable provider -

five million Americans are expected

to axe cable this year,

twice as many as last year.

Disney is launching its own

streaming service in 2019

and pulling its first-run movies off

Netflix.

Buying Fox's studios would give it

access to much more content.

Disney and Fox also each own around

25% of streaming service Hulu,

another growing platform for content

if there was a deal.

Still, Netflix is a streaming

stalwart and boasts 109

million global customers.

Media analyst Richard

Broughton is here.

Good morning, Richard. Sitting in

patiently as we read that long

intro. It's quite a tale. Give us

your take on Fox. Earnings fairly

robust but we all want to know what

it's going to do next.

Fox as a

business is in pretty good shape.

The story is more political and

financial I suspect. There are two

be components to this for them, one

is the ongoing Sky saga in the UK.

Fox controls 39% of pay TV broadcast

on Sky and has been trying to buy

the remaining stake. That has been a

bit of a regular Tory hot potato and

there is some suspicion it may not

go ahead -- regulatory hot potato.

Fox may reconsider its strategy of

reintegrating businesses and use the

cash to do something else.

Simultaneously there has been some

concern over the departure of a key

shareholder who controlled about 6%

of Fox. That doesn't sound like a

lot but when you consider the

Murdochs hold 39% it makes a

difference in key votes.

We've got

James Murdoch the son of Rupert,

trying to get that deal through pass

the UK regulatory authorities. And

the Prince, who sold the 6%, is the

one who's been imprisoned in Saudi

Arabia.

It's a complex family and

friends story here. The easy part of

the story is why Disney might want

to buy Fox. It's an attractive

business and will complement the

core Disney business with all of the

titles and media assets that Fox

controls.

The background is this

great change on the media landscape.

This move away from cable networks

in the States, more on Main Street

streaming.

Yes, and second quarter

this year for US pay-TV was one of

the worst on record. People have

been shifting to services like

Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, but also

to this new trend of virtual cable

companies. Services like Sling TV

which have a smaller package of

channels for a lower cost.

Thank you

so much. There is a lot to discuss

there. If we say on that subject,

because the top story in our

round-up today, the Chief Executive

of AT&T has said he never offered to

sell CNN and has no intention of

doing so. US regulators reviewing a

planned $85 billion merger between

Time Warner and AT&T.

Reports have suggested

they are demanding a sale

of assets such as CNN

as a condition for approval.

A familiar tale.

Former top executives at Yahoo

and Equifax have apologised

at a Senate hearing for security

breaches that exposed billions

of customer accounts.

Politicians are threatening

greater intervention

in tech firms' business.

Talks over the possible sale

of the film production company

co-founded by Harvey Weinstein have

fallen through, the BBC has learned.

The Weinstein Company had entered

into a preliminary deal with US

private equity firm Colony Capital.

There's more detail on this story on

our website. Remember the page is

always updating with the latest

business news as it is breaking. On

days like today when there's a lot

of corporate stories around, dig

deep into the page.

Let's look at markets and some

choppy trading over in Asia

where stocks stayed closed

to a decade-long peak

on Thursday following another

record-breaking day on Wall Street.

Japanese shares ended the day

in the red on Thursday

after dramatic intraday swings took

the Nikkei and Topix indexes

to multi-decade highs -

with the Nikkei breaking the 23,000

level for the first time

since January 1992, as financial

and securities shares rallied -

only to later plunge

in the afternoon on profit taking.

Those swings on equities

lead to the the dollar

slipping against the yen -

investors appetite for risk clearly

taking a bit of a dampening.

Meanwhile here in Europe stocks have

opened slightly down.

And we have the details about what's

ahead on Wall Street Today.

To media giants will be reporting

earnings on birthday. First up Walt

Disney. Their theme park will be a

big driver of growth for the

company. But, in the movie

department, Disney hasn't had any

real blockbusters. So that's going

to be looked at as a negative. Next

up the Rupert Murdoch owned

Newscorp. Analysts are expecting

some growth in revenue. But an

ongoing decline in demand for print

-based advertising is affecting the

company's biggest source of revenue.

Also reporting earnings, Equifax.

This will be their first earnings

report since a massive hack in which

the data of 145.5 million Americans

may have been stolen. And finally, a

slew of department stores will also

be reporting results including

Macy's, and Coles.

Joining us is Jane Foley, Senior

Currency Strategist, Rabobank.

Good morning. Alice, Samir talking

about some of the stories in the

markets. What caught my attention

today is Japan, partly because of

the Aaron wake. Japan seems to be

creeping higher and higher in the

background.

If you include

September, Japan has had the longest

spate of recovery since the Second

World War.

You mean share market

recovery or economic recovery?

The

growth of the economy has been

growing for more months than before.

It had a really strong... In fact

it's been one of the global success

stories of the year, Japan.

Is that

slow incremental growth? Nothing

that headline grabbing.

We haven't

noticed. But there has been this

economic expansion. Part of it is

related to the yen. The value of the

yen is relatively soft and that has

obviously helped them. Japan is a

big exporting nation. China great

has been good this year. Global

growth is quite strong this year

which has helped Japan. Oil prices

have been cheap. They don't have

natural resources, they import a lot

of their energy particularly since

the nuclear crisis. That has helped

them too. Oil is creeping up and

given them a inflationary boost.

Thank you. We'll be back to talk

about the business papers. No time

to talk about Brexit negotiations

because time is ticking. But we are

going to be discussing breakfast at

Tiffanys!

Will also be talking about the

construction industry where B ask

one company boss why so few women

joined the building profession.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

It's a really busy day for corporate

stories. We've heard from the likes

of Sainsbury's and so on. We also

want to mention this story.

Regional airline Flybe has reported

a 47% drop in adjusted pre-tax

profit to £8.4 million.

The firm attributed the decrease

to a "previously announced one-off

onerous IT contract provision

and the impact of increased

aircraft maintenance costs,"

as well as the drop in sterling.

John Strickland, aviation

consultant, can explain more.

That is definitely management-speak.

We need him to help us make sense of

that! What does it mean?

They are

trying to make it more relevant to

the space of the market they operate

on. They had some space to try to

improve reliability of operation.

Flybe, many viewers will know, is an

important regional carrier in the

UK. Not so active in London but came

back into Heathrow earlier this

year. Importing for Southampton,

Birmingham, Manchester, and up in

Scotland, and they are really not

competing with the likes of easyJet

and Ryanair, but with others. A new

management team this year and trying

to make progress. In some ways they

have been dealing with challenges

from the past.

A lot of changes for

Flybe, has in there?

Yes, and you

CEO came in in January -- a new CEO

came in, with a lot of experience

from city Jet and Air France and the

experienced in the industry. The

fleet they have got is actually too

big for the job and they have many

new aircraft previous management had

ordered some years back and they are

trying to digester that and indeed

get rid of some of those aircraft.

They have had to sell almost at any

price to sell the seats inherited

and RSS are getting much better grip

in terms of prices. The revenue

story today is very positive. We

have seen revenues rising.

Will have

to leave it there, John Strickland,

thank you very much. Let's mention

Sainsbury's. Profits falling by 9%,

£251 million, that is the 28 weeks

until the 20th of September. The

boss of Sainsbury's has been talking

to BBC breakfast and you can read

more about him on our website. --

until the 28thth of September.

You're watching Business

Live - our top story:

Getting down to business - the

leaders of the world's biggest

economies shake hands on some $250

billion worth of deals.

A quick look at how

markets are faring.

Following a bumper session in Asia

you can see flat to down in London,

Burberry shares down quite a bit on

the back of their earnings as well,

as you can see.

Now, let's get the inside track

on the construction industry -

and the particular challenges faced

by high security projects.

Gilbert-Ash is a firm based

in Northern Ireland and London,

with more than 180 staff.

It specialises in construction

and renovation work,

and has delivered British,

US and Polish embassies

in dozens of countries.

Joining us now in the studio is the

boss of that company, Ray

Hutchinson, the managing director of

Gilbert-Ash. Thanks for joining us.

Good morning. Looking at your

company in a bit more detail is

actually quite fascinating, to see

what you do, building embassies all

over the world, in very challenging

environments in some cases.

Indeed,

that is right. We are very proud of

our record thus far and what we have

done around the world, we have

worked in 43 countries around the

world, and as you say each of those

countries is very unique and

challenging in its own particular

way. What we bring is a very

proactive approach to that, and I

think one of the most important

things from our perspective is the

fact we immerse ourselves in the

country of each of the country's --

in the culture of each of the

countries we work on, and we embrace

the people locally and embrace the

culture and I think that benefits

everyone and is why we have been so

successful so far.

One of those

challenging environments was Nepal

after the earthquake. Her

challenging was that?

Very

challenging. In 2015 the earthquake

sadly killed 9000 people and in the

immediate aftermath of many

organisations look to strengthen

their buildings and Commonwealth

office strengthening a number of

their embassy buildings, so that was

hugely challenging.

That must be

difficult in a place like Nepal

which is incredibly poor, and I know

since that earthquake they still

have so many infrastructure

challenges. They have not got the

money to fund fantastically strong

buildings, get you are in the middle

of all of that was lots of money

from the UK Government to build a

very robust building for British

ambassadors?

Yes, but the important

thing from our perspective is it is

not just a simple case of us showing

the people in the countries and the

places in which we work how to do

things, but we learn from that as

well. It is sharing ideas and

practices. In Nepal for example we

used a lot of the local workforce,

we employed a lot of local

companies, so they have benefited as

a result of us being there are every

bit as much as we have done so by

being there.

Something else you push

is gender equality. You have 50% of

the workforce female, incredible?

It

is remarkable, and I think Nepal had

suffered a lot because many of the

local construction force had left to

work in the Middle East, and in the

immediate aftermath of the

earthquake there were huge labour

shortages and they address that by

employing more women into the

construction industry. As you say,

we had 50-50 male and female

balance. Remarkable.

And that is not

just in Nepal but something you are

trying to push throughout your

project?

Indeed. Certainly from our

perspective it is very high on our

agenda, the diversity. Our

organisation, other 21% of our

workforce is female, which might not

seem particularly high, but relative

to the sector, it is about 11%

female, so we are very good in

respect of that and it is something

we are continuing to try to promote,

to get more females in the

construction.

You are a company

based in Northern Ireland and here

in London. Tel us about Brexit,

because it is impacting the

construction industry generally

speaking in a massive way and will

do in the future. What impact will

it have in your country given that

you work all over the world and not

just in Northern Ireland and the UK?

We are planning a number of things

the minute. Like any business there

is an uncertainty around it but we

are trying our best from our

perspective to try as blessed we can

for every contingency that might

come around. There are a number of

areas we are conscious of, for

example migration, very important

from our perspective -- we are

trying our best to prepare for every

contingency that might come up. Many

of our products are from the UK so

we need to make sure imports are

friendly.

And many company bosses

listening to you are saying, yes, we

need that as well! Ray Hutchinson,

thank you for coming in. Good to

have you on the programme.

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 Live page

is where you can stay ahead

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Business Live,

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whenever you need to know.

What other business stories has

the media been taking an interest

in today?

Jane Foley is joining

us again to discuss.

Good morning. Good morning. I am

feverishly

typing here! You carry

on!

Reading vulgar, what I do with

my time!

We asked viewers to tweak

in about the most expensive

breakfast they had ever had. As

reported, from Friday in New York at

Tiffany's you can now buy a copy for

$29 -- a coffee. Justin has had a

rubbish hamburger in Dubai Airport,

not very good.

Is that breakfast,

hamburger?

For me it is

airports,

you know you were to eat because you

won't get any food on the aeroplane,

and you reluctantly have to part

with too much money for a very small

breakfast.

Would you like to have

breakfast at Tiffany's?

$29 is a

little pricey for me. It would have

to be a birthday or some kind of

celebration. It is quite

interesting, in Vogue, perhaps a

representation of the audience,

because they see Tiffany's is going

towards a younger audience. $29? It

does not sound that affordable to

me, for coffee.

And doubling female

members on their walls...

Yes, the

FTSE 100, the figures on women,

progress, but still work to be done.

We will be saying that for a while

but still time to make progress.

Going in the right direction. Thank

you for your time today. And thank

you, too, for your company. I

imagine people tucking into their

coffee and cry song as they watch.

We will do that right now! See you

soon. Thanks for watching -- there

coffee and croissant.