22/02/2017 World Business Report

Those are the headlines. Here's Sally.

It's been a bumpy ride for European plane maker Airbus.

Analysts brace themselves for disappointing results as orders

More's coming in to China from foreign investors but Chinese

Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock.

Also in the programme, we continue with our series

on disability in the work place - the opportunities and challenges.

But first: In less than an hour European plane maker Airbus

will tell the markets how it fared last year when it

It's been a tumultuous year for the company.

It's been forced to accelerate last minute plane deliveries in order

There's also been a slowdown in demand for jets and it's even

been forced to cut production of the prestige A380 superjumbo.

The A400M military transport plane has also proved a major drag,

the project has been plagued by delays and technical problems.

With me is Gervais Williams, managing director of Miton Asset

What do you think they will say interned of how they've done in the

past year? They actually delivered more planes, so there's been an

overall rise in planes, but the margin will coming down, so it's a

question of how much going forward they can continue to sell the old

models before the new ones start coming in. How costly have the

issues regarding the A400M and A380 being? They are both operating at a

loss at the moment. They are still keeping the A380 going for now

because they want to see if they can get new sales. But it isn't really

taking off at all? No, it has had problems because not many airlines

have taken it on because it is difficult to get... The overall

aircraft going from different airports, which aren't that will

organise to take a double-decker aircraft. What about the future

orders? Is an issue with them? At the moment they are looking to get

more deliveries on the A320 and A330, but at the moment they have

more models coming in, so they have to work on selling the old model

before the new ones arrive and not many airlines will buy the old

model. So to get rid of the old models they have to reduce the price

or have some sort of incentive there? That's right. You taking a

margin hit to get the sales at the moment, but next year in 2018 when

the new models come on, at that stage there will be a strong

recovery. Presumably they are boosted by the currency scenario, in

the way that rolling its archrival isn't so much? Yes, Boeing is

selling well. There's been a strengthening of the dollar versus

the euro, so does help. Although these things do fluctuate and

sometimes the dollar comes back and you will rise and it could work the

other way. All right, thank you very much indeed. The results will be

coming out from Airbus and we are expecting them in about 25 minutes.

Gervais will stick around to give us further analysis of the numbers when

we get them. Invesment flowing in to China

is on the up, but Chinese investment What's going on? Global acquisitions

by Chinese buyers have slowed significantly after two record

years. Outbound deals had dropped to 8.5 Indian dollars US, down by 40%.

That's because activity has been curtailed because of the new capital

controls imposed by Chinese authorities. There's also been

pushed back from overseas due to various concerns. For example,

several deals in Australia, like the purchase of the station and energy

grid, were abandoned. There are a few deals in Germany falling by the

wayside. But deals China are on the price. More $7 billion has been

invested in the mainland so far this year and that nearly double the same

period last year. So we have deals in retail and some staples

accounting for nearly half of those. That outdoes real estate and

financial deals. Beijing has long been trying to rebalance the economy

away from infrastructure. Heavy industries and export led growth and

towards domestic consumption. That's why we are now seeing this move

towards more investments into China, rather than outside of China. Sally.

Thanks very much. Good to see you. Hong Kong's former leader,

Donald Tsang, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for

misconduct while in public office. Mr Tsang was accused of accepting

free renovations to a luxury apartment in China from a property

company, in return for awarding Yahoo has agreed to cut $350 million

off its original asking price in the sale of its internet

business to US telecoms giant The new deal comes after two huge

cyber attacks at Yahoo ending months of uncertainty over the agreement,

now worth $4.5 billion. The world's largest retailer has

seen a boost in sales. Wal-Mart has reported profits

rising one point 8%, -- 1.8% higher than

investors were expecting. An increase in online sales

and a higher number of customers going to their stores lifted

profits, leading to the tenth straight quarter of

comparable sales growth. British businesses could be losing

out on a potential ?420 million a week by failing to target

disabled consumers. Sophie Morgan designed

the Mannequal, a wheelchair for mannequins that is both a style

guide for wheelchair users I had a car crash when I was 18 and

that's why I now use a wheelchair. I thought about the wheelchair as a

symbol of disability and that really became a reference point and I just

drew lots of different types of chairs. That's when I decided that

that was the product I wanted to develop.

The Mannequal is more than just a wheelchair in a window, with a

mannequin on it. For me it is first and foremost a symbol of inclusivity

and a sign that the shop that is putting that chair in its window is

saying, people with disabilities are welcome here. We've considered them

and we know what their needs are. I was successful in getting it into a

couple of retailers on the high street.

I had three chairs in a high-street shop on Oxford Street in London I

was so over the moon. But the minute the Games finished it was taken out

and I was shocked. Does that mean there are no disabled people in

Ebor? What's going on. I was really disheartened. -- people any more?

The challenge for me really is to prove that there is not only a

reason to do this from a sort of socially responsible position, there

is also a value in doing this because you're going to open up your

business to an enormous demographic of people. We have a spending power.

People know that there needs to be better representation. You see it

with plus size models, you see it with models of different colour and

size and so why... Way isn't the disabled body represented at all?

That needs to happen yesterday. My challenge is to not only get them by

the heart but also the mind and show them by the wallet, more likely,

that they can make money by communicating with not only me as a

disabled person but my family and you get that grand loyalty that

comes from it. But also it's a good thing to do a bit helps people who

have disabilities feel more welcome and included.

We have so many stories with our special coverage this week on the

issue of disability works, how businesses are dealing with it. Take

a look at our website. Also on Twitter, use the hashtag

disabilityworks. Looking at the markets, another record close last

night for the United States and that's partly fuelled by Walmart and

home Depo coming in with earnings better than expected, which is

fuelling optimism that the US consumer is out there in for

spending, which will boost growth in the economy. That helped sentiment

in Asia today as well, with just about everybody headed upwards,

apart from Japan, which is down slightly because the Japanese yen

has strengthened in the past few hours compared to the US dollar. A

record close again for the S 500. See you soon.