Welcome to countdown. Im anna edwards. Just pass 6 00. Bloomberg reporters are standing by across the world, ready to deliver the stories. Hans nichols is covering pfizers bid for astor zeneca. David tweed is in berlin covering airbus and earnings are breaking now for that business. Big with countdown for interviews. First, an exclusive interview live from the Goldman Sachs india idea summit. Who would hear from the head of International Asset management division, coming up later. Ceo, we will speak with the peter long, right after those earnings break at the top of the next hour. We will also get numbers from easyjet as well as insight into those numbers from the ceo of the lowcost airline. Be releaseds will in about 58 minutes. Sweetens planning to its bid for astor zeneca as the ceos of both Companies Face their first joint trial and the u. K. , testimony. Hans nichols has the details from westminster. Hans . Anna, good morning to you. We will find out after this hearing potentially about a sweetened bid from pfizer, increasing it, but they will not make a decision to go hostile until they see how the Committee Hearing goes. We will get a sense of how hostile or friendly this committee will be with the first round of appearances. We will get a sense of whether ian read, when he appears at 1 00, still has any potential allies on this panel or if he will be filleted. He is the head of the committee, adrian bailey, a labour mp, and that gives an indication it could potentially be hostile. Thisine of questioning, is about potential new products or taxed benefits of relocating here in the u. K. . When you look at the different tax profiles of pfizer and astor zeneca, you get a sense of why it would make sense to come here. The effective tax rate of pfizer 27 , astrazeneca 21 . He claims those are legally binding, and that is what we will be at issue. Foralks about no job cuts five years, keeping 20 of the workforce here in the u. K. New Research Facilities in cambridge, talking about investment, call it talking about keeping jobs in the u. K. , but when you look at the number of jobs in the u. K. From astrazeneca, it is about 5600. Globally, they are above 50,000, so just a fraction of their employment profile is in the u. K. They are planning on a massive investment in cambridge, 350 Million Pounds, and that is the issue, will the jobs be in the u. K. For the future or is this a threat overall the r d industry here in the United Kingdom . Anna . Perspective on this. We will have a lot of Politics Around the story articulated today. A lot of this will come down to a lot of focus on the sheer size of this takeover in relation to other takeovers we have seen in u. K. History, so give us some perspective. Other way to put it other than to say this potential takeover dwarfs all the other takeovers we have seen in the u. K. It has been a remarkable year in the pharma space. Rustling pointt, for some any takeover laws, was 12. 8 billion. We are talking about the previous prices. This could be a 60 billion pound deal. If he gets raised, we could get north of that and truly into uncharted territory. Anna . Thank you very much, hans nichols reporting from westminster on that takeover battle which is going to grab a lot of headlines. Goldman sachs management is holding its first idea summit. Event, speaking with chief executives and Global Policy makers. Manus janssen, was on everybodys mind today . Anna, before they even have lunch in this building, they will have touched on the big issues of demographics, energy, europe poised to perform as one of the top lines. It is a demographics that sort of catches my eye. We will catch up with katie koch. We will find out what the ceo of the g summit and fixed income is going to talk about. We will touch about the realms of technology. We have a main speaker here. I will catch up and have the opportunity to speak to nicolas enstrom. He did it once, he did it twice. He sold skype, he bought it act, and he sold it again. Back, and heit sold it again. When it comes to the sheer scale done, inennstrom has terms of disruption of technology, there is no better man to talk about the technology stage. We will also have an opportunity to speak with bills and neck , currently the chairman of Goldman Sachs international. We will focus on china, focus on gees comments about being prepared for a new normal. What does that mean for the region and the world. I think there are some beefy topics to get into. Of course, we have a roster of ceos here at Goldman Sachs. , andw wilson will join us sheila will join us with the short straw for the first interview. We will talk about asia, japan, economic scum is it working, and katie koch. The question is not so much whether they are ready, its whether im ready to get into it with detailed questioning. Anna, back to you. Im sure you will be, manus cranny, joining us from the Goldman Sachs summit. Breaking news from airbus. The aviation giant reporting numbers this morning for the first time. 700 Million Euros against an million, so658 comfortably beating estimates when you strip out even the oneoff items. They say they see fullyear delivery at about the same level as in 2013, and that is one of the things that investors are looking for here. Q1revenues up five percent, with theup, but down previous year. But get some details about this particular business, the one that changed its name to airbus. David tweed is following the story from berlin. David . Anna, a couple of things to look at. One, as you mentioned, they kept their guidance. They will have a similar deliveries as last year. No change. One area i have been looking at very carefully is the delivery of the a350. They say they are on track to deliver the a350 by the end of the year, the first one going to qatar airways. They have ordered 80 of these. The reason people are looking carefully to make sure there is no hiccup in the delivery of the a350 is because they had a problem, they would have had to pay a fee for not being able to deliver on time. That is an important area. Another area where there is not a lot of news in the program in the statement is on the restructure that is going on with the defense industry. The only thing ive got here says the strong focus this year will remain on Program Execution and the implementation of the various improvements and restructuring plans. Sees toll, everything be going in line for airbus at the moment. Ontime, guidance has been confirmed, and they are continuing with their restructuring plans. Anna . David tweed joining us from berlin. Some developments we are getting from the french banks. The us is frances secondlargest bank, saying this will bethat they seeking to increase their return on equity, the measure of their profitability, more than 10 by 2016. That is helped by lending in russia and africa. This is a business that has already told us how they were performing and how their business was exposed to the geopolitical events in russia a week or so ago. Forwarden is coming with the new target, returning equity, 10 by 2016. Just ahead, calling for unity as exit polls indicate he will become the next Prime Minister of india. We will see how Indian Markets are reacting. First. Bloomberg. Time for todays company news. The ceo of italys largest bank told bloomberg a diplomatic solution to the crisis in ukraine is urgently needed to protect their business in europe. I hope at the end of the day common sense will prevail on. Oth sides in ukraine we need to find a solution. , ite dont find a solution will affect all European Business including in europe and russia. Unicredit is the secondbiggest bank in russia and one of the biggest in ukraine. At t is looking at purchasing directv, giving them a National Satellite tv provider to combine with their broadband and internet tv services. Increasingly watching video online. The combination would allow the bundling of directv into a competitive internet package. Broadcast something from silvio berlusconi. The Italian Company which owns 22 stake has an option to match the bid of any purchaser, according to one of the people. 725fonicas bit is worth million edwards. Welcome back to countdown. Im anna edwards. 6 00. Utes past optimism in india is rising. Exit polls saying that Narendra Modi will be the next Prime Minister. Official results are due friday. We bring in john from hong kong. The markets are reacting positively to the exit polls . Good morning. Modi looks like the man of the moment. So far, the votes are underway, the last phase of the election, 54 Million People voted for 4 seats, the last stage, the votes go again. Bjp party as the favorite. So far, the exit poll say the bjp wins. The majority that is required is 252 votes in the lower house of parliament to get the majority. That is the crucial area. So far, the markets pointing to a modi win, and the markets like that. The ruby at a four month high, and the key benchmark saturn alltime high rising as well. Are up 13 since last year. Is the name for the parliamentary candidates. Confirm, itpolls would seem, his position again as the new Prime Minister. John dawson, thank you so much, from hong kong. Since 1906 radio has filled the airwaves with news, traffic, talk, and music. The industry is facing its toughest challenge, competing with the digital and streaming options. Even with all of the options, radio has continued to be the cockroach of media. Radio has survived everything, from a track to itunes. So far, an onslaught of streaming music startups. The industry says 92 of americans tune in at least once a week, unchanged since 1970. We are the breakfast club, good morning Clear Channel owns 835 stations in the u. S. , and his edge comes from knowing the audience. Dumb you think we are so that we would pay hundreds of millions a dollar per year for Program Radio stations versus playing music if that worked . Why pay an announcer 10 million per year . Because its worth it. Do you ever look at yourself naked in the mirror . Nationally recognized personalities are not the only radio plan. The admin is doubling down on award shows and parties. Jockeysow hear the disc as a sponsor of a major event. Ucs integrated into that major event. Its a whole different way of selling and a whole new revenue stream for us. And the marketing opportunity for the advertisers involved. While the efforts may help radio hold on to listeners, ad revenue has yet to recover since the financial crisis. They almost have to abandon some of their National Advertisers and focus on the local markets, local programming, and local advertisers. That is the one area where the internet is less powerful. Large companies consolidated smaller positions in the early and mid 200s, replacing local djs and staff with programming for wider release. While it may be too late to revive the local voice, radio can do a better job at collecting and aligning data, says this adviser to advertisers. Itself,dio reinvents they have not yet come up with a measurement. Because all eyes are on digital, it is all most the new standard we have to come to. A new standard and reality, sharing ad dollars with a raft of competitors. Advertisers follow the consumers, and they are seeing movers consumers move there in droves. Bob pitman is not worried. There are 200 radio stations in new york and we have four of the top five. The Media Business and every business is littered with failures, and people go, i will just get in their business. Good luck. Coming up, we will dig into easyjets numbers. Earnings, which will break in about 40 minutes. That is still to come on countdown. Stay with us. Will come back to countdown. Im anna edwards. Easyjet is set to report firsthalf earnings this morning. The carriers loss is set to shrink. Here is Caroline Hyde. We are expecting a drop in expecting no come things to improve, sorry, at easyjet because of the Business Traveler . Its still a loss, but rough and ability is improving. The company has a well placed that on the Business Traveler. Seating two years ago, the focus on the real hubs, milan and rome, but also opening routes to moscow and the like, bringing Business Travelers, offering them a premium, and it is winning out. Though easter came later this year, that should weigh on the numbers, but they are better. Sales rose five percent. Not just talking about lowcost players, but you are talking about some of the incumbent airlines, some of the whetherriers revisiting they should be offering Lowcost Airlines as well. That was the trend, wasnt it . Looking atfrance shorthaul flights because of the bang for the buck, but many may be reassessing shorthaul flights as they see the likes of others and ryanair and and Norwegian Airlines managing to eat into this area and the Business Traveler looking for not dismiss travel, per se, not the elite modes of traveling, but certainly wanting to fly. There are concerns among analysts there is a competitive threat for the rest of the year. I know you have had one eye on technology, the way this company is using technology. Does this have anything to do with the drones . We picked this story up in the newspaper segment a couple weeks ago. Its a fascinating story. What would an airline need to do with a small flying object like a drone, but its fascinating. This is all about cutting costs for easyjet. Drones they want to use to really see, say, when lightning may strike an aircraft. It might mean that a aircraft would have to be assessing damage. If you have a drone to do that at the time were just assess damage, you can save an awful lot of money. Disruption,s and but also 3d glasses they will be using to help assess damage as well. All about less disruptive. More detail on all of the ceo of easyjet. As prorussian separatist celebrate referendums and majorities in the east, we will have more details on the European Unions delegation to russia. Welcome back. Im anna edwards. Lets talk about the dollar. We talk about the euro. And how the other banks react. The bank of england needs a stronger need not to accelerate differences. Tomorrow, their chance to do that. A report. May prove to be somewhat more cautious. Reducing sterling. How do you express that . U may see a correction thanks, john. Has hit p and dow record highs. 4. 5 and and p rallied led by tech shares. Former u. S. Treasury secretary treasurer says it is more safer and resilient. These stress tests covers his time during the 2008 crisis. Despite new laws, geithner says the days may not be over. We are absolutely vulnerable to the risk of major panic again. It is inherent. You cant eliminate it or ban it or prevent it. You can do a lot of things to reduce your vulnerabilities and the reforms we put in, there are powerful reforms. And rebels in ukraine have asked to join russia. Meanwhile, russia yeah is threatening to cut off gas supplies. Now sticking with that story, the European Union sanctioned companies and advanced plans for broad economic penalties should russia disrupt the president ial elections due to take place on may 25. Ongoing ore on the crisis, the head of the e. U. Moscow. On joins me from ambassador, thank you very much for joining us and take into account the increase in sanctions that we have seen from the e. U. Tell us how far we still have to go on sanctions and will we see more sanctions from the e. U. Or u. S. . It is very consistent from the very beginning that we will nexationgnize illegal an and will have political and legal conquenses. What you have seen yesterday is the issuance of additional list of those who those sanctions including the two companies. There are 61 on the sanction list, which entails the freezing of the assets and companies who have illegally taken over the assets of the Business Companies in ukraine. Es ca late the situation. Urge russia to Work Together in implementation of the geef joint statement which was issued by the u. S. Ambassador, i want to ask you to respond some comments from john boehner that says europe should be doing more and u. S. Should be pressuring europe to impose tougher sanctions on russia. What is your take on those thoughts . Well, European Union has been rather firm and very strong with its sanctions. For the first time we have applied the sanctions towards one of our closest trade partners which is russia. We do respect american views. However e. U. Relations with russia are more intimate in terms of trade. It is 10 times larger than that of United States and russia. May seem in United States that e. U. Is too slow, but our scope might be more limited but the effect of our sanctions are probably exceeding those of the United States but we all have to Work Together as a team and the goal is a stable, secure and prosperous ukraine which is not only in the interest of the United States and European Union but russian federation. Threatening to end gas supplies by june 3 unless they pay in advance for their gas. Do you expect things to escalate from here . From my point of view, it is a premature signal from the russian side. Just yesterday we had a very constructive and very usinesslike bilateral negotiations between the senior officials of russia, ukraine and 16th d ministers on the of may, the three ministers