21/02/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News

with Jamie Robertson

and Sally Bundock.

The boss of the world's biggest

mining firm Glencore has

said that 2017 was a stellar year

as a strenghtening global economy

boosts demand for raw

materials and commodities.

Live from London,

that's our top story

on Wednesday 21st February.

Glencore says profits for 2017 came

in at $14.76 billion -

that's 44% more than a year earlier.

Also in the programme....

South Korea signs trade deals

with central American nations.

Is this a back door

to trade war with the US?

That is how the market started off,

all of them down.

The Asian markets

were looking healthy earlier that

they are taking their cue from the

US, which had a bit of a

City life can be high on excitement

but low on community spirit.

We'll be meeting the man who's

putting the community

at the core of social networks.

Today we want to know:

Do get in touch.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

The boss of the world's biggest

mining firm Glencore has said that

2017 was its best ever.

It follows strong results

from its rivals BHP

Billiton and Anglo-American

earlier this week.

All of them are benefitting

from the improved global economy.

Glencore says its adjusted profits

for 2017 came in at $14.76 billion

that's 44% more than a year earlier.

Shareholders will be pleased to see

that the company is recommending

that they get $2.9bn in dividends.

That's way above the minimum.

And rising commmodity prices

also helped net debt

fall

31% to $10.67 billion.

That puts the company in a stronger

position for the future.

But challenges lie ahead.

The Democratic Republic of Congo

is key to Gelncore's position

as a key supplier of metals

to the electric car industry.

But the Government is looking

at new laws limiting how much

of profit these firm can take

out of the country.

With me is Paul Renken,

senior geologist and mining analyst

for VSA Capital Ltd.

Well done for getting here. Thank

you for being on the programme.

Glenn caught coming out with a very

familiar tune, it would seem. A bit

of a sweet spot for them at the

moment. Profits are up with a nice

increase in dividend and they are

reducing their debt.

What would you

make of their figures? They are

pretty good figures from what I was

able to review. A little bit better

than expected, I would say, at this

point in time. It was definitely the

right time to have curtailed some of

that production from Africa during

2015 and 2016 in order to make the

market balanced in those

commodities.

Touching on the issue

of the Democratic Republic of Congo

and a new law which could affect

their business. Nothing was said

about that. I guess it is difficult

to comment when they do not know

what the Government may decide.

There have been comments by other

companies which also have issue with

the Government on this particular

situation about potential changes to

tax rules. That would be changes

which would be retro active, even to

agree the contracts that were signed

years ago.

We are definitely

concerned. Give me an idea about how

cool this is to the mining industry

generally and Glenn caught in

particular?

Cobalt is something that

is crucial to the battery chemistry

is, particular with having a long,

charge life.

You are talking about

electric vehicles there. The car

industry is so headed in that

direction. Do they see that as being

a really important part of business

in the next few years?

They have

geared to their business in

particular for these battery

materials. It is not just cobalt,

within Glencore you see a lot of

zinc production and copper

production. All of this is part of

the electrical vehicle revolution.

We all know with commodity markets,

they are very cyclical, and good

times do come to an end. How long

are they in this window enables the

expansion profits going up question

does that mean now is the time for

them to really invest?

It is. If the

auto industry is right in its

prognosis as to how quickly

consumers will pick up electric

vehicles. That will depend on

individual nations, as well as

individual auto-makers as to how

well the vehicle fell.

Thank you

very much indeed. Thank you for

coming in. That is my concern. Stuck

in the countryside in the UK with

nowhere to plug in. I do not have an

electric car yet though. Maybe you

could just stick it into your mains,

couldn't you? If you need one. You

have your own electricity supply, I

presume. If you are on a journey,

say going to Scotland or something.

Anyway, let's move on, shall we?

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

Shares in the world's biggest

retailer Walmart has

seen its biggest one day fall

in more than 30 years.

Shares closed down more than 10%

at just over $94 after the company

reported disappointing online sales

figures for the Christmas period.

Walmart says it going to try

and drive more traffic to its main

website as it tries to fight off

competition from Amazon and others.

Sydney Airport says profits are up

as more people than ever

are using the transit hub.

Profits for 2017 came

in at just over US $940m.

A record 43.3m passengers used

the airport with the number

of international passengers up more

than 7% thanks to strong demand

from China and India in particular.

The government announced

plans to build a second

international airport for the city.

The battle to control the market

for the computer chips which power

smartphones is heating up.

America's Qualcomm has

increased its bid for Dutch rival

NXP Semiconductors to around $44bn.

It comes as Qualcomm tries to see

off a hostile takeover bid

from fellow US firm Broadcom

which is worth an estimated $103bn.

South Korea has signed free trade

deals with five central

American countries -

Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras,

Nicaragua and Panama.

The deals aren't worth a huge

amount, but could offer

an alternative route to trade

with the United States,

Dealings between the US and South

Korea have not been back great

lately.

First, Leisha Santorelli

is in Singapore.

Just explain the logic of this deal,

please.

It will open important new

markets for South Korea and its auto

sector and electronics sector all

stand to benefit. Talks have been

going on for a while. The trade

packs will eliminate duty on about

95% of all goods and services traded

between South Korea and these five

countries. The South Korean

government also forecasts it will

give a big boost to economic growth

over the next decade and create at

least 3000 jobs, important given

they have a very young population,

all looking for jobs and it is a

political problem for them. Seoul

has said it is an important avenue

for them to a given concerns over

increasingly protectionist trade

policies.

Thank you very much

indeed. Let's

have a look at the markets. That is

the Australian market. The Hang Seng

is moving up but the Dow had a

slightly weak day. Let's have a look

and see what the details are about

what is going on. That is how we

have opened. All of the markets are

down a little bit. Let's see what is

on Wall Street today with Joe

Miller.

On Wednesday, the Federal

reserve will release minutes from

its last rate-setting meeting held

at the end of January. At the time

the committee decided to keep the

rates steady at 1.5%. The central

bank is widely expected to raise

interest rates again in mid-March.

But the language in the minutes will

be closely scrutinised by Wall

Street and any signs of increased

enthusiasm for further or higher

rises in 2008 teams could send the

stock market spiralling again.

Elsewhere, satellite television

company dish network is expected to

report a drop in revenue and profits

and it is increasingly suffering

from the popularity of streaming

services like Netflix, to which

younger, cash-strapped consumers are

flocking.

Joining us is Jane Sydenham,

Investment Director,

Rathbones Investment Management.

We are talking the markets. It has

been really dominated by the big

mining companies were saying what we

expected, they are having a really

good time right now and making lots

of money. We would expect that. A

lot of them are listed in London on

the FTSE 100 and a lot of them are

very attractive to pension fund

managers.

Some of the dividends are

quite substantial, so that is

attractive. To a large extent, they

are reflecting the fact that world

economic growth is good. Demand for

basic commodities will be higher

when there is more economic

activity.

Everyone has been telling

us, the global economy is set for a

good year in 2018. I have been

reading quite a lot of people are

saying, actually, we are not going

to get that smooth round we have had

for the last 18 months and things

will be more volatile, even though

we have the gross.

There is often a

mismatch between economic growth and

stock market performance. That's

move upward trajectory we had was

exceptional. Markets are usually

much more volatile. It lasted a long

time. It lasted an incredibly long

time. It is natural to see more

volatility. We have seen a change in

terms of an increase in inflation

and rising interest rates. There are

more questions that investors need

to resolve which will probably make

markets more volatile.

What are you

watching in particular right now? I

feel like we are in February, having

had that massive volatility very

recently. People are repositioning

themselves a little bit.

I think it

is all about where there is value,

relative to the growth is that

investors are looking for. There are

some areas that have performed so

well they are very expensive. That

is where investors were thinking,

perhaps I need to take money out of

those areas. There are not that many

areas that have been growing

strongly and there is always a

trade-off between strong growth and

a high price for that growth. That

is what everyone is trying to

resolve at the moment.

Do stay

around for that we'll be talking

about the newspaper headlines at the

end of the programme.

Still to come...

Drawing communities together.

We meet the man who's on a mission

to build up neighbourhood spirit -

via his social network.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

Lloyds Bank has posted pre-tax

profits for last year

of £5.3 billion, up 24%.

That is the first year as a fully

private enterprise.

Joining us now is Laith

Khalaf, Senior Analyst,

at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Just tell us, are we now back on

track? Is this back to the good old

days of Lloyds from precrisis days?

Lloyds has been on a long recovery

but it has recovered quite strongly.

As you say, a landmark achieved last

year, which is back in private hands

finally, after the Government

bailouts during the financial

crisis. The numbers are all looking

pretty good. Income rising profits

rising, and costs under control. A

bumper pay-out coming to

shareholders as well post a lot to

like with the numbers.

There are

still bills to pay for PPI. Is that

anything as we should worry about in

terms of extraordinary costs?

PPI is

the main one. That has been ticking

over for a long time. What we had

last year, a new deadline was

introduced of August 29 and that has

prompted more people to claim. There

was a campaign fronted by Arnold

Schwarzenegger, run by the SCA,

which has also encouraged people to

claim more and Lloyds has had to put

more money aside. As we move towards

the claims deadline in August of

2019 they will probably tweak back a

little bit. The other thing is the

UK economy. It is so plugged in that

any shocks to the UK will be keenly

felt by Lloyds. Things are plain

sailing at the moment because we

have record levels of employment and

loans are not going bad.

Thank you for that. This is the boss

of Lloyds. He told the Today

programme on Radio 4 that Lloyds

came through with a strong recovery

over the last few years will do it

pointed out his base salary has

climbed to £1.2 million and his

remuneration package increased by

some 11%, to £6.42 million. Is he

worth that? He has brought Lloyds

back to normality. Send us your

thoughts.

You're watching Business

Live - our top story.

Boom time for the mining sector.

The boss of the world's biggest

player Glencore says

2017 was a stellar year,

as a strengthening global economy

boosts demand for commodities.

A quick look at how

markets are faring.

That is how things are standing

right now.

Let's get the inside track

on a social network which aims

to bring neighbours closer together.

Nextdoor aims to encourage

social interactions

with those in your community.

It is now actively used

in more than 185,000

neighbourhoods in the US,

UK, Germany, and the Netherland.

The start-up now has a valuation

of over a billion dollars

but will it end up as the next

Facebook or the next Myspace?

Our colleague Rachel Horne met up

with the CEO and co-founder,

Nirav Tolia, and began by asking him

how it all got started?

The founders of the company had

heard of these amazing experiences

growing up in neighbourhoods that

were strong and supportive and

really felt like communities, a as

we became adults and we got older

and thought about buying homes and

starting to have children, we

realised that while technology had

improved our lives in so many ways,

we didn't feel close to the

communities in which we lived, we

didn't know our neighbours. In fact

when we started the company in

America, almost 30% of Americans

could not name a single neighbour by

name. So, this notion of bringing

back a sense of community to the

neighbourhood and using technology,

which is a thing that we are so

passionate about in Silicon Valley,

that was an easy match to make and

we were lucky that no-one had done

it before.

How does it work?

It is

easy to use and it is free, come to

the Nextdoor website and download

the Nextdoor app and you enter your

address and before you know it you

will be connecting with your

neighbours and making the

neighbourhood better for everyone

involved. There are some things

about Nextdoor which make us

different from other social

networks. When you join you have to

verify your address, we need to make

sure that you actually live in the

neighbourhood and we need to make

sure that the conversations that

take place are happening between

real neighbours. This is not a place

for fake news or fake accounts, it

is a place for real neighbours to

make genuine connections and to talk

about the things which matter in the

real world. The other big difference

with Nextdoor is that the

conversations are private. The

things you talk about you will not

find them indexed in the Google

search engine, you won't be sharing

them on social media.

Is free for

users but how do you make money on

it?

We think there is a huge

opportunity not just to connect

neighbours to each other but also to

connect them to small, local

businesses, so ultimately there will

be kinds of advertising on the

service, but the kind which helps

neighbours and support those local

businesses which make their

neighbourhoods vibrant.

What about

the figures, how many people are

using it?

We came up with the idea

in the summer of 2010 and it took us

quite a while to launch nationally

bubbled even in the United States,

that was at the end of 2011. Fast

forward since then and we have over

80% of American neighbourhoods using

the service. In late 2017 we had

launched in the UK have about six

months before that we launched in

the Netherlands and recently we have

launched in France and ultimately we

believe that globally there will be

Nextdoor for every neighbourhood.

Today, almost 185,000 neighbourhoods

worldwide are using the service, and

we feel like we are just getting

started.

What do people actually use

it for?

All of the things you would

imagine neighbours talk about. You

can ask for help to find a lost pet,

you can get a recommendation for a

plumber or a baby-sitter. But what

really inspires us is when there are

examples of true human connection

and community. Folks who may be

lonely are forming social clubs so

that they can get together and feel

connected.

How do you define a

neighbourhood, is it a whole city or

is it smaller areas?

It turns out

that we have a set of technology

tools that allow the neighbours to

help us define their areas and name

their neighbourhoods. Typically it

ranges between 500-1000 households.

A lot of social networks have issues

with people being abusive online -

how do you prevent that happening?

It is actually not for social things

in general, it is the utility, it is

coming together with your

neighbours, it is for asking for

help and providing help. Because you

have use your true identity and

because of the community context, we

don't get a lot of abuse, we don't

have fake news, we don't have a fake

accounts.

Who polices the sites?

The

great thing about Nextdoor is that

neighbours feel like these are their

neighbourhoods. They feel like it is

their toll. And so we don't police

these things, we don't read their

content. These are there spaces, we

are using the technology for them.

Because these neighbours care deeply

about their neighbourhoods, they

ensure that the conversations stay

civil.

Are you making a profit yet?

Not yet but in the United States we

are Gary generating revenue. We

started that in early 2017 and it

has gone very well.

Do you use it?

Hang on a minute, let me just

reintroduce Jane Sydenham, and I

don't use it but I am the odd one

out because you both do?

Yeah, not

enormous amounts but the other day

we were going to take my daughter on

the school run and somebody said a

tree had gone down across the

road... I never found out whether a

tree actually HAD gone down!

Why do

you have to do that just to check

the trees and do you see what I

mean?

Why not?!

And you?

I was

looking for a cat sitter.

And did

you get one?

I did, actually, it was

really good, really useful. A local

friend got in touch and the number

of members is expanding.

I am not a

Nextdoor person but apparently it is

child-care, nannies... But there is

lots of local social media sites,

actually. Local Facebook pages and,

but then that is Facebook and we are

back to the big giant.

So, this is a

kind of formula. They're probably

going to sell it off eventually. He

had a company which he then sold on

to shopping.com, so the chances are

this is going to get sold on to

somebody bigger. So, it may look as

though he is a small and cosy but

actually, it's not, he is part of a

bigger one...

Let's bring in the

viewers. Bags for your tweet, you

said... Big social media companies

like Facebook are censoring free

speech, behaving like Big Brother,

isolating you from your real-world

friends.

Not a fan! This one says...

We should do more off-line.

Jane

Sydenham, we said we would talk

about this story which BBC online

has got, but it is also a letter in

the Times newspaper today, 62

members of the Conservative Party

saying to Theresa May, the Prime

Minister, hard Brexit or no

Brexit...

Yeah, from an investment

has republic this will worry

investors again. -- from an

investment perspective. The

consequence might be more weakness

in sterling as we get closer to it

being done or not being done!

In

some ways it is not so much whether

they get their way, or whether

Theresa May gets her way, it is

actually how long we go on having

this fight within the Conservative

Party, isn't it? If we say, OK we're

going to go for a hard Brexit, that

is a certain form of clarity and one

might be able to do something about

it?!

Yes, it is the uncertainty and

the constant fluctuation and

investors' perceptions of where we

are in that. And it looks as though

that is going to continue for quite

some time.

In the meantime another

really interesting story in the

Financial Times, the chief executive

of Lloyd's of London, who has been

on this programme, I interviewed her

in Davos, talking about, it says

here, partnerships skew the gender

pay gap data - what does she mean?

What she's referring to is the

partnerships, the law firms, the

accountancy firms, where Hartness

are actually technically owners of

the business rather than employees.

And so this is really about the

gender pay gap...

So, their

remuneration is not included in the

data collected by those

organisations and yet they're

probably the highest-paid and could

well be white men, I'm guessing?

Absolutely.

And therefore this data

which is being collected, which are

soon companies in the UK will have

to put forward, will not be a true

picture?

I think so. It is going to

give as an incomplete picture. Some

of these law firms pay their top

partners substantial amounts of

money, and that is the concern, as

you say. But I think it is early

days for the gender pay disclosure.

So, all of this is going to come

out, I suspect the rules will be

refined as time goes on.

Can I just

ask you about whether the rules

about disclosure gender pay gap is,

is it having an effect hammered it

is obviously getting a lot of

coverage but is it actually changing

behaviour?

I think it will,

gradually. I think the fact that

companies have actually got to think

about it, research it, look at the

data puddle more transparent. They

have got to be accountable to their

employees, so overtime, yes, I think

it will.

And also, I can speak for

myself and my colleagues, people are

feeling more empowered to talk about

it.

Yes. That makes such a

difference.

And actually feel they

have a reason to bring it up.

Just

knowing that other people are

thinking about it which you feel, I

am right to be worried about it,

too. Yes, and you can talk about it

openly published is on the publico

gender.

I think it will make a huge

difference over time.

It has been

great to have you on the programme,

thanks the coming in.

Let's say

goodbye, because we haven't got any

other time!

Very polite! We are back

tomorrow, see you then!