:00:03. > :00:13.or husband. Those are the latest headlines. Now
:00:13. > :00:21.
:00:21. > :00:26.Balkan two World Business Report. Assessing the damage of Spain's
:00:26. > :00:32.boom and bust - an independent audit is said to reveal a whole and
:00:33. > :00:40.its banking system. The makers of Tiger beer get poured
:00:40. > :00:50.out by Heineken. Making France competitive again -
:00:50. > :00:54.
:00:54. > :01:00.what the nation small businesses Warned Spain in just a moment.
:01:01. > :01:06.First, to France, where as you have been seeing, the Cabinet will
:01:06. > :01:09.announce its new budget. It is likely to have 20 billion euros in
:01:09. > :01:14.tax rises for individuals and businesses. The last few months
:01:14. > :01:18.have already seen thousands of lay- offs by some of France's largest
:01:18. > :01:24.firms such as Peugeot and Air France. Confirmation this week that
:01:24. > :01:34.unemployment has passed the 3 million mark. Our correspondent has
:01:34. > :01:35.
:01:35. > :01:42.Designed in northern France, but also printed, precision cut and
:01:43. > :01:46.Sony. This firm in place 300 skilled workers and sold one
:01:46. > :01:50.million of its custom-made flags last year. The third-generation
:01:50. > :01:56.family member to be the firm says Addington compete against a
:01:56. > :02:00.thousand global competitors has forced constant innovation. But he
:02:00. > :02:04.says the burden on businesses like his has become too heavy. He was
:02:04. > :02:11.the budget to open the door to easier implement, especially of
:02:11. > :02:18.skilled younger people. What we try to do is to persuade the Government
:02:18. > :02:21.to say hello. If you don't make money would have money to spend.
:02:21. > :02:27.Protection of poor people can be a bit too much. You cannot fire
:02:27. > :02:32.people in any easy way. I have a factory in the US we have a problem
:02:32. > :02:35.and you can fire people. It is very easy and quick. In France it is
:02:35. > :02:39.impossible. This company is a strong export of. It has learned to
:02:39. > :02:43.live with high taxes on employing people and paying for their
:02:43. > :02:47.pensions. Meanwhile, countries like Germany and the Netherlands have
:02:47. > :02:55.carried out many reforms and the worry is that the eurozone economy
:02:55. > :03:00.is turning into eight team at the state. The finance minister told me
:03:00. > :03:07.a few days ago that he is trying to steeled some of the small
:03:07. > :03:12.businesses from tax increases. taxes on the people and firms, but
:03:12. > :03:17.the situation will not be the firm if the East -- company is big and
:03:17. > :03:21.small. We want to invest more in the smaller and medium-size firms.
:03:21. > :03:24.Commentators say France has lost a lot of time, failing to reform a
:03:25. > :03:31.system which still favours employment of the inefficient and
:03:31. > :03:41.low-skilled. Politicians did not want to tackle this issue and there
:03:41. > :03:47.
:03:47. > :03:53.has been any increase in It means that it is very difficult
:03:53. > :03:58.to be competitive with German competitors. France's second
:03:58. > :04:02.largest economy desperately needs to see more jobs created at private
:04:02. > :04:11.firms like this. But the 2013 Budget may only bring the biggest
:04:11. > :04:15.tax hike senior. The battle for control of
:04:16. > :04:21.Singaporean beer brand tiger. It appears to be at an end. We go
:04:21. > :04:25.straight to our reporter in Singapore.
:04:25. > :04:31.It was almost a two-month long battle. It essentially ends today.
:04:31. > :04:36.Shareholders in that the company have voted to sell the company's
:04:36. > :04:42.beer business to Heineken. The Dutch brewer will take and trawl of
:04:42. > :04:47.Asia Pacific Breweries which makes Tiger beer. This decision was waged
:04:47. > :04:53.for weeks. It was a battle that went on for two months between
:04:53. > :04:58.Heineken and the second richest man in Thailand. Asia is a fast-growing
:04:58. > :05:05.market globally for beer. It was very attractive to these firms. APB
:05:05. > :05:10.produces many other beers besides Tiger. They are behind some of the
:05:10. > :05:17.most popular beers in Asia. Heineken had already had a 56%
:05:17. > :05:23.stake in APB. This was a decision to buy out at little bit of the
:05:23. > :05:26.rest. The battle for control of the company began in January, when
:05:26. > :05:32.companies linked to the Thai billionaire bid for stakes in the
:05:32. > :05:41.company. That prompted Heineken to try to protect its assets in the
:05:41. > :05:45.region by trying to gain full control of APB. The joint venture
:05:45. > :05:51.has been going on for decades. After a huge series of news that
:05:51. > :05:57.resembled something of a bidding war for control on 19th September.
:05:57. > :06:00.The Thai companies finally said they would support the Heineken bid.
:06:00. > :06:05.The Heineken takeover still has to go through a little bit more of a
:06:05. > :06:13.process. They will have to get approval from Singapore's
:06:13. > :06:20.regulators. The all eyes are once again on Spain this Friday as it
:06:20. > :06:26.seeks a way out of its deepening financial crisis.
:06:26. > :06:31.Thursday saw a crisis budget aimed at saving some 39 billion euros
:06:31. > :06:35.next year in tax rises and spending cuts. Later today Spain's
:06:35. > :06:39.government publishes an audit of its struggling banking system. It
:06:39. > :06:43.will show how much money will be needed to save lenders crippled by
:06:43. > :06:47.the country's real estate crash. The moves are widely seen as paving
:06:47. > :06:53.the way for a request for aid from the ECB which would then buy out
:06:53. > :06:59.Spain's government debt to bring down its crippling borrowing costs.
:06:59. > :07:02.Time for a quick look at some other business news. Britain's financial
:07:02. > :07:10.watchdog will apply plans to reform the setting of LIBOR, the benchmark
:07:10. > :07:13.interest rate. It was revealed to have been manipulated by banks. It
:07:13. > :07:18.is used to price trillions of dollars of global transactions from
:07:18. > :07:24.home loans to credit cards. UK regulators may propose stripping
:07:24. > :07:29.the bank's' industry body of its role in setting the rate and basing
:07:29. > :07:34.it on actual market trades rather than but banks claim to be paying.
:07:34. > :07:40.The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone says it lost $235
:07:40. > :07:46.million in the past quarter. Investors had expected a far worse
:07:46. > :07:50.number and the resorts saw stock surged 18%. BlackBerry subscriber
:07:50. > :07:55.numbers have been boosted by sales in emerging markets like India and
:07:55. > :07:59.Indonesia, where revenues per use are typically lower. The company is
:07:59. > :08:02.now betting on its next generation phones to try to narrow the gap
:08:02. > :08:09.with the iPhone and Android based phones.