15/01/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live,

from BBC News, with Ben Thompson

and Sally Bundock.

The construction giant Carillion

goes into liquidation.

Shares in the company have been

suspended and tens of thousands

of jobs are at risk.

Live from London, that's our top

story on Monday, 15th of January.

Carillion fails to reach

an agreement with its creditors

and the UK Government may be forced

to step in to secure

jobs around the world.

Also in the programme: Drama

in Jakarta - the floor

of the Jakarta Stock Exchange

collapses, injuring dozens

dozens of people.

We'll cross to Asia for the latest.

And a new week, and markets

remain in buoyant mood -

we'll talk you through what's moving

the numbers higher.

Those are the numbers at the moment

and we will have all the details

later. After strong grazes on

European markets and especially in

the United States. But that is what

is happening in Europe right now. We

will have the details for you.

We will have the details for you.

And there might be 'white-collar'

and 'blue-collar' jobs,

but what about the booming market

for 'no-collar' workers?

We meet the woman cashing

in on recruiting top talent

to the creative sector.

And given the scale of Carillion's

activities and number

of staff it employs,

should the government step

in to rescue the firm?

Let us know your thoughts.

Use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

And you can join the debate this

morning. It is a story which will

affect many thousands of people )

and the world so let's know your

thoughts on Carillion.

The UK's second largest

construction firm, Carillion,

is to go into liquidation,

threatening thousands of jobs.

The firm is involved in major

projects like the HS2

high-speed rail line,

as well as managing

schools and prisons.

Carillion employs

43,000 staff worldwide.

That is why it is of such

significance.

Including 20,000 staff in the UK.

The moves comes as the company

failed to reach an agreement

with its lenders and the Government.

Despite this, Carillion's

public-sector services will still

continue to receive funding.

Sally. Thanks very much.

With me is our business

editor, Simon Jack.

What do you know? Carillion is not a

household name but about 200 years

worth of British construction

history. Tarmac, McAlpine. Wimpey.

All that stuff. This is a very major

company. And very significant. It

had too much debt. Ever since July

last year when it did not... It gave

a profit warning, we knew it was

struggling, but it continues to win

government contracts. A lot of

eyebrows were raised and tough

questions for the Government as.

Today, we learned they are going

into compulsory liquidation. That is

a different term to Administration.

They are doing that because the

Godman to continue to pay public

service staff and they could not

just put it into a pot to be shared

up by the creditors, it had to be

aimed at the hospitals and the

schools and the prisons where people

were employed. It is a big political

question about whether it is a good

idea to award these vital public

service contracts to private

companies. But first, people will be

concerned about their jobs. 20,000

in the UK and another 23,000

elsewhere around the world. The

Government has said if you are an

employee of Carillion, you should go

to work today because the Government

will pay your wages. What I think

will be the biggest impact

ultimately of this will be on the

Army of subcontractors. Often,

Carillion is the lead contractor and

they have dozens of smaller and

medium-sized companies working for

them. They have not paid them, but

they usually pay their suppliers of

four months and a lot of those

people will not get paid and that

could have a big knock-on effect.

A

lot of criticism that it has got too

big, too quickly. By buying up all

these firms around the world.

Is

there any truth in that? Sometimes

rapid growth can make a company

exposed. It is a risky business

contracting and you take on a big

project and you promise to deliver

on time at a price. If there are

problems coming you have to take the

cost of those. Carillion had a

couple which went bad in the UK and

they were in the habit of

recognising revenue from these

contracts before they knew how the

contract has gone and they are being

investigated for that. They are also

being investigated about how weak

they knew the company was when it

made certain statements to the Stock

Exchange.

Two separate

investigations. You say difficult

questions for the Government with

regards to Private Finance

Initiative and that kind of thing.

But also, Carillion got really big

and very lucrative contracts with

the Government after they had issued

profits warnings and many will be

asking that question.

A lot of

people will ask that question. Chris

Grayling the Transport Secretary,

who was Transport Secretary at the

time, he will say, we built these

contracts in such a way so if one of

the three partners went bust, the

other two could cover it. Other

people will say what the Government

was doing was giving it contracts

help it out a bit because basically,

it knew it had a lot of debt and the

banks do not want to throw more good

money after bad. If we give them the

contract, structure it in such a way

that if they go bust, it does not

matter, can they take that to their

bank and they will say, we can give

you more money because you have

revenue coming in?

Just briefly, as

far as the UK is concerned, the

Government said, go back to work and

we will ensure your salaries. But

what about those who work overseas?

That is a really difficult question

because some of their problems came

from overseas. One of their biggest

customers will Saudi Arabia, a lot

of work in the Middle East. When the

oil price fell, people started

tightening purse strings and a lot

of that money did the dry up. I

cannot give you a definitive and

about what happens to stuff

overseas, but I understand it is a

very worrying time for those people

and people in the UK.

Thank you for

your time, Simon. There is much more

on the website and we will show you

that later.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

Sales of Volkswagen cars rose

to a new record last year thanks

to rising demand in China

and the Americas.

Despite the emission

cheating scandal.

The company overtook Toyota

as the world's best selling

carmaker in 2017.

It's on track to retain that spot.

The French dairy company Lactalis

says it will pay damages

to the families affected

by its contaminated infant formula.

Authorities reported that around 35

children became ill after consuming

baby formula made by the company.

More than 12 million boxes

of powdered baby milk have now been

recalled in 83 countries.

Japanese tech giant Softbank

is planning to list its mobile phone

business in Tokyo and overseas,

according to the Nikkei newspaper.

If it goes ahead, the listing

would be one of Japan's biggest ever

initial public offerings.

A floor has collapsed

at the stock exchange

in Indonesia's capital,

Jakarta.

Pictures posted online show

the ground at the exchange

covered in debris.

Karishma Vaswani is in Singapore.

I was looking at those pictures

earlier, pretty dramatic of what has

happened in Jakarta.

Yes, it has

been chaos and confusion. Ever since

that collapse took place around

lunchtime, local time. In the last

few minutes, we have received

confirmation from our bureau in

Jakarta that Indonesian police are

saying as many as 72 people have

been injured as a result of the

collapse that took place at the

building that houses the Jakarta

Stock Exchange. And a number of

other offices including the World

Bank and some small embassies and

oil and gas companies. What we

understand to have happened is that

the mezzanine walkway connecting the

two towers of the building that the

Jakarta stock exchanges in, that is

the part of the building that

appears to have collapsed. Police in

Jakarta have ruled out any

suggestion there were terrorists or

militant networks involved in this

collapse. They have not found the

cause of how this occurred and why

it happened. We also understand that

in the last hour, people have been

allowed back into the building, but

they are not allowed at the level,

the mezzanine walkway level, where

this damage has taken place. The

Jakarta Stock Exchange itself has

resumed trading in the last hour and

one of the spokespeople has told us

that the reason for that is that all

of the employees of the Stock

Exchange appear to be safe and none

of them have sustained any injuries.

But a sizeable number of people

injured. 72 as I said earlier, and

they are being treated in hospitals

around the centre of the city, where

this collapse took place. Remember,

it is an extremely busy part of the

Indonesian capital. The building

itself is one of the most

prestigious across the financial

landscape in Jakarta. It stands

right opposite a busy shopping

centre in Jakarta, an area which we

understand now has been cordoned off

by police and ambulances.

Thanks

very much. I know you will stay

across that story as it develops.

For now, thank you.

US markets continued to go

from strength to strength last week,

building on those strong gains

of last year.

Stronger corporate earnings

and a strengthening US and global

economy boosting optimism.

This is the picture in Europe, not

echoing what we have seen in the

United States. Starting the session

a little lower. Concerns about the

strengthening euro and that would

hit their earnings overseas.

The FTSE100, though,

got a boost from that move

upwards in oil prices.

But starting a new week following

the events in Europe.

Thank you.

Joining us is James Bevan,

from CCLA Investment Management.

Nice to see you, James. It is nice

to be here. In London, some of the

competitors of Carillion are doing

quite well today. Balfour Beatty,

their shares are up. Kier group. We

talk about the disaster of

Carillion, it will have a huge

impact on many jobs and parts of

government, but there are already

share prices on the move upwards.

Such is capitalism, I'm afraid this

is a destructive process. But plenty

of companies will pick up the

contracts Carillion has had. We do

not know the ripple of the failure

of Carillion in terms of the

suppliers and contractors.

We will

have to wait and see.

What you make

it all? For a very long time, there

have been lots of signs that

Carillion has been in trouble, so it

moved to delay the payment of money

to its suppliers. Some years ago.

People were saying, this is a sign

of a company that is in the first

stages of significant trouble. A lot

of people said, no, that cannot be

so. Look at the scale of its

contracts. But they were on wafer

thin margins, a lot of cross

subsidy. Business did not generate

enough money to pay the debt. And we

have to have a really worried

concern about the pensioners.

Because part of the deficit

Carillion has is 600 million in

deficit to its pensioners.

Away from

Carillion, what else are you looking

at? US markets still continuing an

upward spiral since the end of the

less year. European markets are not

following the same path.

The

long-term market is in place because

as you have identified, we have

relatively synchronised global

growth which is stronger than

anticipated. Inflation remains low

and bond deals remained low and

people needs companies that have

solid and sustainable growth, many

in the United States.

We will watch

closely and I am sure we will talk

again.

For now, thank you. James Wilby back

soon.

Still to come:

A labour of love!

We'll be speaking to the founder

of a company which helps creative

professionals find their dream job.

You're with Business

Live, from BBC News.

Driverless cars are quickly

becoming a reality.

But how can we make sure the UK's

roads are ready for them?

A new competition is appealing

for ideas and offering winning

entrants £30,000 to develop them.

Anna-Marie Baisden, head of Autos

at BMI Research, joins us now.

It is nice to see you. What you make

of this idea?

It is a very good idea

to get as much input as possible. It

is certainly a big issue that will

be deeply the most difficult period

when you have driverless and human

driven cars on the roads. To get as

much input as possible, I think, is

a great idea. Because it is

something that is very new to the

industry, nobody is used to it, so

why not get as many ideas as

possible?

As you say, it is great to get as

many ideas as possible from as many

sources. The question is, how do

they pick the winner? It is an

attractive price, it is going to be

difficult!

Absolutely, there will be

a range of criteria we will be

looking for so safety is going to be

key. You will be having autonomous

and manually driven cars and it is

really important they can work

around each other in terms of speed

limits and knowing what other cars

will be doing. Also, one of the

biggest challenges that came up in

the brief about the competition is

that you need solutions that can

work on both small presidential

roads and motorways. So there are a

lot of big challenges.

And before

you go, let me get your predictions.

They may be putting you on the spot,

but wait you think we will be seeing

driverless cars on the road?

If you

are looking for fully autonomous, it

is probably a block further down the

line than people think. We are still

facing big challenges about how to

get them working and we will have

that transition period. You could be

looking at 20 years or more tap

fully autonomous, if it comes at

all.

It is always good to see you,

thank you for your time. Interesting

competition with £30,000 up for

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of you

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of you getting

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of you getting in

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of you getting in touch

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of you getting in touch about

grabs. Get your ideas in!

A lot of you getting in touch about

the news that Carillion is in

liquidation. We asked should the

Government step in given the scale

and scope of the firm? Your

responses are no. You make the point

that other businesses have been

allowed to fail so this one should

be no different. Keep your comments

coming in. You can use the hashtag,

BBC Biz Live.

You're watching Business Live.

Airbus saying it booked 1109

aircraft orders last year and saw a

record number of deliveries of 718.

There is a close rivalry between

Airbus and Boeing. So, the two going

head-to-head in terms of who can

make the biggest sales. Who can book

the biggest number of orders. 1109

for Airbus overtaking arch rival

Boeing, booking, we say just, 912

orders. Expensive big planes at

that.

You talk about the rivalry and

in term of delivery which is another

way of measuring this, the finished

planes, Boeing was in the lead. We

must give them acclaim. 763 aircraft

delivered to customers last year.

Which is the most important.

I think

it is new orders for what's coming

up.

Our top story:

The UK's second

largest construction firm,

Carillion, is to go

into liquidation, threatening

thousands of jobs.

There are full details on the

website.

If you're in the market

for a new job, many people will head

online to use the employment

service LinkedIn.

That's if you're a traditional

"white collar" professional.

But what about those working

in creative industries?

There are an estimated 80 million

professionals working around

the world in so-called "no collar"

jobs and matching the right

creative jobs with the right

people is a business worth

$15 billion a year.

So to cash in, Pip Jamieson founded

The Dots from her houseboat

on Regent's Canal in London.

I want to ask you about the

houseboat!

Her business is a job finding

platform for the creative

industries, catering to a new class

of "no collar" professionals.

This year, Pip hopes

to connect a million creative

professionals and freelancers,

and she recently competed

a $5.5 million round of funding

which should help her do so.

Joining us is Pip Jamieson, Founder

and Chief Executive for The Dots.

The name, is it about joining The

Dots? Is that about where that came

from?

Join The Dots and then connect

The Dots.

Tell us about this, this

is a two year project on your part.

You started yourself and one other

on the houseboat and now, it has

grown very, very rapidly?

Yes, I

used to work at MTV and I realised I

was surrounded by friends who were

working in a very different way that

the traditional white collar

workforce so we were creatively led

and freelancing and adopting

portfolio careers and LinkedIn was

not working for us, I wanted to

develop a different way for being

able to help creators promote

themselves online, but connect with

opportunities.

What are the

differences? Why doesn't something

like LinkedIn work for cre avetive

people?

On the white collar you had

that traditional CV-based career, it

would be very much of a job ladder,

but the people I'm surrounded with

are working on multiple projects.

The way The Dots work, you post a

project on the site and you tag the

teams around the projects. That

means we find it good in terms of

the trust data we get being able to

match employers with people, but

people with each other.

That means

everybody on the project gets a say

as it were or gets their name

attributed to it and that's really

important for freelancers, isn't it,

often the freelancers don't get on

the credits?

Absolutely. If there is

an advertising campaign, freelancers

rarely get credit. Juniors never get

credit.

Talking of top senior

people, you have got Sir John

Hegarty on board, he is the chairman

and he put in quite a bit of his own

money. Tell us who he is and why he

is significant?

John Hegarty is one

of the grandfathers of the

advertising industry. He started BBH

which he sold and having someone of

that creative calibre as part of The

Dots has been incredible.

He has not

only put his money in the pot, but

he is mentoring and hands on?

He is

hands on when I need him to be!

LAUGHTER

He is probably watching. I wonder

what your business tells you about

the changing way we work as well.

There is a tendency to think that

all creatives are freelance and can

work on the fly. A lot of

traditional jobs are going that way

as well, aren't they?

It is

interesting you chatting about

driverless cars. We are about to see

mass automation of lots of careers

and it started with blue collar

working, but white collar working is

not immune to this. One of the

hardest things that machines can

auto mate is a human's capacity to

be creative. A So a lot of the big

companies, PWC is one of our clients

and they look look for more creative

talent.

You are looking for other

cities. I can imagine you could see

growth, how will you meet that

challenge. When a company grows

really, really quickly, it is

difficult to run?

I have hired past

employees at LinkedIn who were part

of the scale up process. The reason

I put people like John Hegarty

around me is to prepare for the

scale. London is the biggest

creative cluster in the world. It is

bigger than New York. London, there

is the highest contentration of

creators and we think about creators

in cities. If you look across the

US, there is more creators across

the US, but in terms of clusters,

London is the biggest cluster.

And

it is where the houseboat. Tell us

about the houseboat! You were

looking out the window at the swans?

It is the most amazing place to

start a business. Branson started a

business on a houseboat. Every time

I tried to get a complicated

meeting, if you invite them to your

houseboat they always say yes. It is

the best business angle I can have.

We should do this show on a

houseboat. Nice to see you, Pip.

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.

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Business Live on TV and online,

what you need to know,

when you need to know.

James has joined us again.

We are looking at some of the other

stories out there in business. There

is a really interesting article in

the Guardian about Oxfam.

Oxfam are

saying people bring us lots of stuff

and we might to optimise the money

that we make. We're going to send

some stuff off to Eastern Europe or

Africa, but otherwise we're going to

make as much we can and redistrict

some of the property to branches

that need to sell stuff instore.

Doing it online as well. It is not

that you are going to have to go

through the doors, they are going to

put it online?

What is important

about online is the capacity to

charge a sensible price for great

products. You can go on the online

site and find a scar of for £199.

You wouldn't get £199 in a store.

Two members on the board not looking

for re-election.

Cheryl is the

leading light of Facebook and Jack

is the leading light at Twitter.

The

founder of Twitter?

These are big

names. It says that Disney is

getting on to their turf competing

directly and indeed we've had lots

of news that Disney is going to get

into streaming of media.

It's doing

that. It is kind of pulling away

from a lot of relationships like

Netflix because it is having to

compete with these people that it

has been teaming up with?

There is a

change in US legislation that makes

it possible for them to do so

economically. So that's really

important.

Let's look at cars,

driverless cars we touched on

earlier, GM says its driverless cars

won't have steering wheels or pedals

or any human control.

That's a

scarry indeed, isn't it? Lots of

people have said so we can have cars

that are going to do their own

thing, but the capacity for a human

being to override if necessary. GM

are saying we are going to make this

a crash-Free Zone. I will be really

interested to see if it works.

Scary.

Exciting.

Definitely. I feel

like a dinosaur!

So do I James,

you're not alone there, I have to

say. Thank you for coming in today.

There is always space for dinosaurs

on this show. We will have more

coverage of the events at Carillion

and what it can mean for people in

the UK and around the world. We will