13/03/2018 BBC Business Live

Hello, this is Business Live on the

BBC.

The blocking of the deal, President

Trump says no to a huge US tech

takeover.

That is our top story on Tuesday,

the 13th of March.

Computer chips are in most of our

smartphones and the US is worried

that the $140 million deal would

have harmed its national security.

Also coming up in the programme, a

UN report leaked to the BBC alleges

that North Korea is believed to be

evading international sanctions by

using Asian companies. As ever, we

keep a check on the markets, let's

have a look across Europe. In

London, invest -- investors waiting

to see the Spring Budget.

And from the farm to your fridge, we

will hear how one food box for can

get your dinner ingredients to you

in 24 hours and what difference it

makes the house of Britain but my

biggest sporting stars behind the

brand.

Also, we would like to know about

you today, Goldman Sachs' most

likely nest box is more than one

string to his bow, he is also known

as a DJ, so what do you moonlight

as? Get in touch and use hashtag.

A very warm welcome to Business

Live. Yes, let us know what your job

on the site would be. A tie-up

between QUALCOMM and brought come

would be the biggest of the

technology sector has ever seen. But

the company whose chips are most of

our smartphones has been told no by

Donald Trump. He said it threatens

to impair US national security.

Singapore -based broad, wanted to

pay something like $142 billion or

QUALCOMM, which is one of the

leaders in the race to develop five

G technology. But in a statement,

programme says it strongly disagrees

with President Trump is my

reasoning. If you want to know what

the investment think... It taken

nearly $4 billion of the company's

values. Qualcomm's importance is

underlined by the sheer number of

its chips. More than a billion

iPhones and android handsets are

powered by them.

We have got Andrew Walker with us,

part of our team in the business

unit, one of economics

correspondence. You have been

looking at the detail, fill us in on

a bit more.

The order President

Trump has signed its pretty

straightforward. The proposed

takeover of Qualcomm by there is

prohibited. So is any substantially

equivalent transaction. The results

of an instruction that the

purchaser, Broadcom, shall

immediately abandoned the proposed

takeover. One additional point is

that the order also bans 15

individuals who Broadcom were

seeking to get onto the board of

Qualcomm, they are banned from being

candidates, Qualcomm is banned from

accepting them as candidates to the

board. These are the people Broadcom

hoped would get onto the board and

produce a board that is more

favourably disposed to this proposed

takeover.

And a pretty swift

manoeuvre on the part of the White

House to block all of this. When

they say national security concerns,

what are they?

Well, it's quite

striking. It's mainly about research

and development. They fear that

because of the nature of the deal,

partly because they say it would be

a private equity style deal, with

$100 billion of debt financing, they

think that would restrain the

capacity to invest in new

technology. They are particularly

concerned about five G wireless

technology, they think that Qualcomm

will have a central role in

developing that in the future, and

in a report, an interim report, not

an President Trump's order but done

by the committee on foreign

investment, they were concerned that

anything restraining Qualcomm might

create space for China to get a

stronger position in the development

of a wireless technology that will

be very important for national

security in the future. Some

important to have US control on the

development of the technology.

Interesting, and you very much

indeed, Andrew Walker. There is a

lot more detail on our website so do

take a look as and when you have a

moment.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

Apple is buying the magazine app

subscription service Texture

for an undisclosed amount.

Texture offers US-based users

unlimited access to more than 200

titles for a monthly fee of $9.99.

It is currently owned

by Next Issue Media,

which is backed by magazine

publishers including

Conde Nast, Hearst and Time.

Germany's EON says it will cut up

to 5,000 jobs as part of a deal

to take over Innogy -

a move that will shake up

Germany's energy sector.

The deal values Innogy

at $27 billion and will leave EON

focused on regulated energy networks

and retail customers across Europe.

These are the images

of a flying car, backed

by Google founder Larry Page,

that's been secretly

tested in New Zealand.

The creators of Cora, Kitty Hawk,

hope it will become an airborne taxi

service in years to come.

That would be great in London!

It

would be great anywhere.

The BBC has seen a leaked draft

of a United Nations report

which accuses two Singapore

companies of violating sanctions

against North Korea.

If the claims are proven,

this potentially raises questions

about just how common and

widespread this practice is

in the rest of Asia.

The final report, which has

been submitted to the UN

Security Council, is expected to be

published later this week.

Both companies deny any wrongdoing.

Our Asia Business Correspondent

Karishma Vaswani has been

looking into this and joins

us from Singapore.

So, just fill us in on the details.

Well, the bleached UN draft report

that I've seen alleges that the two

Singapore -based firms supplied a

range of luxury goods to North Korea

including wines and spirits, and

that is until as recently as July 20

17th and stop the draft report also

claims that these companies received

funds in Singapore for doing

business in North Korea. Under UN

sanctions, it has been illegal to

sell luxury items to North Korea

since 2006 and in fact sales of

these items have been banned for

several years. The Singaporean

companies deny or on doing but the

draft also alleges the two companies

had long-standing close ties,

including ownership ties with a

North Korean bank. That was put on a

US sanctions list in 2017. The

Singaporean companies have said they

had no interest in the bank and have

been speaking to their lawyer he has

confirmed to me that the companies

are under investigation by Singapore

authorities but insists they do not

have any current financial links,

interests or any sort of

relationship with North Korea. I've

been in contact with Singapore's

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it has

told me it is aware of these cases

and has said that where there is

credible information of offences

committed on -- under Singapore law,

authorities have undertaken

investigations.

And does the draft

report say anything about how

widespread this is?

Yes, it

certainly does suggest that this

might be a potential problem in the

future, if indeed the claims in the

draft report are proven. I've been

speaking to North Korea watchers, if

you will, but these alleged cases

and what else has been alleged in

the draft report. William Newcomb, a

former member of the UN panel of

experts, has told me that North

Korea often uses these complex

ownership structures as a way to

evade sanctions. That means that

potentially if the contents of this

leaked draft report are proven, this

could be happening all over the

world, not just allegedly here in

Asia, as this draft report suggests.

In the leaked draft report, the UN

points out it is the responsibility

of member countries to make sure

they properly investigate who is

opening bank accounts, the monetary

authority in Singapore has told us

that it would take stern action

against any financial institution in

breach of sanctions.

OK, thanks very

much for that.

Let's take a look at the markets.

Asian investors moved cautiously

Tuesday as the recent

global rally sputtered,

while trade tensions

returned and markets look

ahead to the release

of crucial US inflation data.

A strong jobs report

on Friday and Donald Trump's

decision to meet Kim Jong Un helped

fuel a surge in global equities

at the end of last week,

overshadowing US tariffs

and fears of a trade war.

The Dow and S&P 500 each fell,

though the Nasdaq ticked up

to another record high.

Europe's main stock markets steadied

at the start of trading on Tuesday,

as investors in London awaited

a spring UK budget update

from the Government.

And Kim Gittleson has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

Villa on Tuesday, all eyes will be

on the latest -based data from the

United States.

Most analysts expect

the overall rise in prices in the UK

leisure in the US to have muted as

increasing by supposing met in

January. The key reason investors

are paying such close attention to

inflation data is that it offers a

crucial insight into what the

Federal Reserve might do during its

next meeting in a week's. The

consensus is that the US central

bank will continue its process of

slowly raising interest rates. But a

surprisingly high inflation figure

could increase the possibility that

these rate rises will happen faster

than expected. That would put

pressure on the profitability of

some US companies who have got

pretty used to be able to be -- to

borrow cheaply to fund their

operations.

Jeremy Cook is Chief

Economist at World First.

Good morning, lovely to see you.

You're also going to watch that very

closely, I would imagine anyone in

financial markets today is watched

that report.

It is properly the most

important report we have this week,

to be honest. A big addition to the

jobs market, 313,000 jobs, but which

is still remaining quite damp.

The

markets wanted to hear that, didn't

they, weirdly?

We wanted to see a

little bit of wage crashes, because

that continues the narrative we have

at the moment, but obviously equity

markets will run high if they

believe the Federal Reserve will not

be in raising interest rates any

time soon. So you have to watch out

until this afternoon.

Jeremy, the

Spring Budget update from the UK

Government, it has become such a

small thing, do you think investors

will pay any attention?

A little

bit, because we are still doing

Brexit in the UK, there may be some

updates around the deficit and

growth, but the signals from the

Treasury have been no new taxes, no

new spending, that will come in the

Budget. Everything will be coming

around the edges.

And there is a

Brexit figure?

The office of budget

responsibility will release later

today what they estimate the UK will

pay as part of its Brexit

settlement. It's meant to be around

35 to 39 billion, but those

estimates are from 25 to 37 billion.

Jeremy will return later. There is a

lot to watch out for today.

Still to come: Farm-to-fork.

It's the new mantra

for improving the nation's diet

and tackling obesity.

So can the small and lean

independent suppliers beat the big

bloated supermarkets

in the healthy food revolution?

You're with

Business Live from BBC News.

Chancellor Philip Hammond

will be unveiling his

Spring Statement later today.

The Government has played

down any suggestion this

will be a mini Budget,

but there will be a few

changes announced.

Sarah Hewin, Chief Europe Economist

at Standard Chartered is here

to tell us what we can expect.

What will you be watching out for?

Well, three things. We are looking

out for the Chancellor, what he says

about the economy, we are likely to

see a slightly up for its revision

to the economic forecasts for this

year we will be looking out for what

it says about public finances as

well, revenues have done better than

expected, the borrowing requirement

is likely to come in a bit less than

expected, so I'm sure that Philip

Hammond will be trumpeting that in

the Spring Statement. Thirdly, we

are looking for some comments, some

consultations about various tax

proposals, for example addressing

VAT for small businesses,

potentially a levy on plastics,

possibly addressing inheritance

taxation. But of course, this is

going to be a very short statement,

we will not see any particular

details for spending and tax, that

will be left until the main Budget,

which happens in the autumn.

Just

briefly, what do you think about the

opposition view, not just from the

Labour Party but from other

quarters, that as things have

improved, it snowed time to try and

spend and help the public sector? He

will come under pressure to do that?

It will come under pressure. There

has been a squeeze on public pay

which should be eased slightly but

for many people the fact that

inflation is somewhere above

earnings and welfare payments means

that there is a real squeeze on

spending. He is under a lot of

pressure to boost spending. His

argument is that with debt to GDP at

over 84% then it is now not the time

to do that.

Thank you very much. We

will be right across that budget

statement, the Spring Statement, it

is not a budget! It is not a budget!

I am sorry. The Spring Statement. It

will be live here on the BBC News

Channel. You can get updates on the

BBC News live page, BBC business

live page, including details on

crunch time for crisp packets with a

possible new litter levy and you can

read all about that and how it might

cost the -- affect the cost of your

snack.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story: Donald Trump has

blocked a huge tech takeover on the

grounds of national security. The

Singapore -based company Broadcom

had wanted to buy the computer chip

maker QUALCOMM for $142 billion and

it is not just because they have

very similar names! There is a lot

more to it. Yes, they make a lot of

chips in smartphones. This is the

picture of the markets.

And now let's get the inside track

on a trend we all need to take heed

of, healthy eating.

Governments around the world

are being forced to act on the huge

problem of obesity and diets loaded

with sugar, salt and processed food.

Supermarkets are

gradually taking note,

but the farm-to-fork

movement is being driven

by small independent names.

Mindful Chef, set up by three school

chums in 2015, is one of those.

It's shipped over half a million

healthy recipe food boxes from small

farms in Devon and has the England

rugby, hockey and rowing

teams as customers.

Giles Humphries is the Co-founder.

Welcome to the programme. Thank you

for coming in. We have a sort of an

example of what might arrive in a

food box. There is a recipe card

which tells you how to cook and

everything is measured out, all the

precise ingredients.

Exactly. You

get a recipe card, offering

customers will have two or three in

a box, most popular in cities is

three and then with the recipe cards

to match them you have all these

ingredients.

Everything is measured

out in all of these bits of

packaging. Per

precise quantities so

it makes cooking at home super

simple and very easy.

But we think

this is very expensive to produce

when we all have a pot of this in

our cupboard.

It is logistically

challenging from a business point of

view but we have proved in three

years that we can get up to scale

quickly and we are doing 150,000

ingredients to our warehouse every

single week and we only have a team

of ten but a lot of customers do not

have these things at home so while

some might have the staples a lot of

people don't say this is just making

healthy eating

easy for people and putting this on

the plate. They might be busy at

work but they come home and it is

there and ready to go and super

simple.

It is a very popular idea

that caters to the busy lifestyle

that people have but it is

increasingly crowded and lots of

companies are doing similar things

so how does your standout?

It is a

very crowded market. It boomed in

the States and the UK followed quite

quickly. We are the third entrant to

the UK market and we basically

identified that no one was going

after the healthy end and to some

extent the premium end of the

market. We looked at what other

people were doing and decided no one

offered something for of refined

carbs and sugar and we were there to

focus about nutritious and the

delicious meals so in our boxes, we

do of Egan range and we do meet and

fish dishes but we will be focusing

on a placing pasta with nutritious

veg.

How much does one of these

boxes cost?

It starts at £4 50 per

meal for one person. And it goes up

from there.

How did you infiltrate

the British sports scene? You supply

the British rugby team, the England

rugby team, should I say. The hockey

team and rowing and you have

Victoria Pendleton and Andy Murray

backing new. How did that happen?

Came about through our offering

because we found out these people

were customers and it came about

because we went on the crowdfunding

and we wanted to raise £400,000 but

we raised £1 million in ten days and

we were oversubscribed and out of

the woodwork came all of these fans

and customers.

How will you manage

when this kind of thing really takes

off? You have been going for three

years and you are already seeing a

lot of food box going all over the

country, but assuming and hoping it

really takes off, there is always an

issue with a new company struggling

when the demand really kicks in.

We

do 20,000 meals a week at the moment

and technology drives most of it. A

large percentage of the money that

we raised went into the technology.

One platform and a couple of Ops

guys in the house lights are packing

team of about 30 and we are in a

position to scale very quickly. We

have careers who delivered

nationwide and we are in a position

now where it is all about growth. We

are in the early stages of the

markets are customers come to very

quickly.

Are you all big fans of

cooking? Do you come up with the

recipes yourselves?

We have a chef

now, full-time in-house, who was

fantastic but Myles, my co-founder,

is a nutritionist and we are

constantly developing. We have a

test kitchen and we are constantly

developing three or four recipes

every day and we have a bank of 500

online.

If you ever needed taste

tester you know where to find him!

And is volunteering. 24 coming in,

it has been really interesting.

For many of us the thought of seeing

a counsellor or mental health

professional can feel intimidating

but a start-up in India wants to

change how we deal with these

issues.

We have a report from India.

It has been less than a year since

this man was laid off from his job

in the Indian IT sector but the

experience left him feeling angry

and sometimes even depressed. He

found it difficult to open up to his

family. But he did find some comfort

in a chatting app.

The difficult

thing was not getting to a state

where this happened to me so I must

be useless and that is why I kept

asking these kind of questions, why

do I feel like this today?

The chat

robot behaves like a counsellor,

focusing on what users are feeling

and how to respond to them. This is

what the future of therapy looks

like, an interface where people get

asked questions and this chat bot

will answer. If I type in a question

about losing my job the codes in the

software process it and give you

options. I would like to help at

first, can I do a quick check about

how it is helping you? There are

options to say yes or maybe later.

The founders say that the chat bot

have 200,000 clients who are using

this app for free. The company

behind it makes money from

professional therapists and firms

that use the app.

We have models

where psychiatrist or psychologist

used Wysa in conjunction with their

practice and they pay us.

AI

counselling is a new field and it

was not a consensus on how effective

it is.

There are many things a

real-life therapist can pick up from

what you are talking which an online

therapist will not be able to

pick-up. Are you venting out or

crying all your feelings, are they

sad in the pitch or the tone?

Figures show that nearly 80 million

Indians suffer from depression or

anxiety disorders and with the

accessibility of mobile phones Wysa

is confident about serving the

market that is very much in need of

counselling in the digital age. We

are talking about some of the

stories. Goldman could be a banker

who moonlights as a DJ, David

Solomon. He is a DJ. His name is not

too original but he would take over

but it is not entirely clear when,

it could be this year or next but in

the grand scheme of things he will

be one of the most important people

on Wall Street.

Setting the tone for the bank, if

you like, this DJ!

We have been asking, what would your

job on the side B? Thank you for all

of your tweets. Andrei says, I would

be a private pilot, the thought of

hopping on a plane and flying myself

anywhere. I love the sound of that.

Luke said he would be a freelance

continuity announcer so strictly

watch out! I will have nothing but

Jeremy has an answer.

I would really like to own a pub. I

had a good discussion the friend a

couple of years ago and we were

going to buy a pub and call it the

better and monkey.

What would suit me is to be a

childminder because I am always

looking after mine and MS will make

some money.

I fancy myself as a singer on the

sound -- side but in a soundproof

room.

I heard him recently and a singing

career is not for him.

Thank you for your time. Goodbye.