this is business live from bbc news with maryam moshiri and sally bundock. south africa's stagnating economy will be in many voters‘ minds, as they cast their ballots in the country's general election. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 8th may. it's africa's most industrialised economy, but is struggling with low growth, chronically high unemployment and one of the most unequal societies on the planet. we'll cross live tojohannesburg. also in the programme: yet more geopolitical

uncertainty facing investors, as iran's president, hassan rouhani, says tehran will resume high—level enrichment of uranium. european markets have opened and it's looking pretty mixed. and it listed on the london stock exchange last year, to help grow its portfolio. has it now built on that? we'll get the inside track on the african—focused property group grit with its chief executive. also, organisers of the world's biggest football tournaments are reportedly looking into sponsorship deals for match breaks created by video assistant referee technology, what do you think of more adverts mid match? will it put you off or is it money well spent? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we start in south africa, where voters go to the polls today

for the country's sixth democratic general election since the end of apartheid in 1994. the immediate challenge facing the winner will be how to fix the country's floundering economy. let's take a look at some figures. around 27% of south africans are unemployed. among young, black south africans, thejobless rate is one in two. job creation has stalled, as growth has stagnated. south africa's economy expanded byjust 0.8% in 2018, after it fell into a technical recession in the first half of the year, following two consecutive quarters of negative growth. that compares with an average 4% expansion in the decade before the global financial crisis. another priority will be the reform of the state electricity firm eskom, as it struggles to keep the lights on. it's been imposing scheduled power cuts, or "load—shedding",

to try to prevent a total collapse of the overstretched power grid. eskom's debt mountain, of around $30 billion, amounts to more than 8% of the country's gdp. much of that debt is guaranteed by the government, adding to what the country owes as a whole. meanwhile, the national debt currently stands at 56% of total output and rising. just under. and it is rising. international banks describe eskom as the single biggest threat to south africa's economy. sally. let's go to a polling station injohannesburg. our africa business editor larry madowo is injohannesburg. larry, we've outlined some of the enormous challenges facing the winners of this general election. talk us through what voters are saying to you about the future. voters are hoping for more jobs when they cast their votes today for one of the 48 political parties. they hope it will be somebody who can wrestle with that 27% unemployment

rate. half of young black south africans are without a job. that might explain why some of them did not feel they needed to vote, but apathy has been a major issue in this discussion around the election. the president says the anc is largely expected to win but some a nalysts say largely expected to win but some analysts say his margin might be below 60% of the vote for the first time. in the last election they had 62.5% but this time, there has been a resurgence of parties that seem to be addressing some of the issues ordinary south africans want such as the eff or the daa. they want some major economic reform to handle corruption that is also a major issue. but for cyril ramaphosa, when he was elected president very recently, there was a huge amount of hope and excitement that he would bring the radical change. and yet many argue he's just sitting on bring the radical change. and yet many argue he'sjust sitting on his hands, hoping to not be booted out of the anc. he has to deal with an

opposition within his own party ranks, which is why it is so important for him to get a solid mandate. the markets are expecting anything about 60% to quell that opposition and to begin to institute some of those radical economic reforms. to do that. when he came into power at the end of 2017, there we re into power at the end of 2017, there were so into power at the end of 2017, there were so much public support for him, a wealthy businessman, millionaire several hundred times over in dollar terms, someone who had to be in the anc at the beginning and went on to become very wealthy. but that quickly fizzled out and now there is a lot of disillusionment within his party and the country. people hope that he can begin to crack the whip to really get a south africa working again. we will leave it there. larry, thank you so much forjoining us, our africa business and editor. they are in south africa. today plasma collection in south africa two business editor. the results will take some days. we will keep you up—to—date —— south africa

business editor. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. us secretary of state mike pompeo is expected to warn uk prime minister theresa may over plans to involve chinese tech giant huawei in the uk's sg telecoms network when he visits london today. the us is urging allies to keep huawei out of sensitive infrastructure programmes, over fears the company may provide a route for china's communist regime to spy on the west. the japanese car giant toyota says its annual profit fell, despite record sales. the maker of the prius hybrid said net profit came in at $17 billion for 2018. that's down 24.5% from the previous year, when it recorded its best—ever result. toyota blames investment losses for the fall in profit. uber drivers across the us and the uk plan to protest outside uber offices today, in a strike against the company's recent 25% wage cut. the protests come as uber prepares to list its shares on the new york stock exchange on friday, in what's expected to be one of the year's biggest stock market listings.

mining giant bhp billiton is facing a $5 billion claim for damages over a dam collapse in brazil in 2015. it was a fatal collapse. law firm spg, which is representing more than 200,000 brazilian claimants, said the company "knew of the risks" at the samarco mine in minas gerais state. bhp, an anglo—australian firm listed in london, rejects the charges. chinese trade data for april shows exports unexpectedly shrank but imports surprised with their first increase in five months. the figures paint a mixed picture of the economy as the trade war between the us and china continues to escalate. could things get a lot worse? sharanjit leyl is in singapore. in the asia business hub. every bit of economic data out of china gets analysed for any signs of the impact

of this trade war. absolutely, sally. it is poured over for clues as to how it is responding to this massive trade war with the us to stop naturally, exports were down due to a sharp drop in shipments to the us. it was a sluggish global demand for things like smartphones and other electronic gadgets that hit china's high—tech exports. economists say the outlook for chinese exports is challenging. if trump follows through on his latest tariff threats, it could hit china's exports further. imports were the big surprise with a 4% jump from the previous year, much better than a nalysts forecast previous year, much better than analysts forecast and the first game since november. and an indication that even as the external situation which suffers for china, domestic demand, how much the chinese are actually buying internally, that is starting to perk up. that is as beijing rolls out more economic stimulus, for instance. meanwhile, china's trade surplus with the us widened tojust over

china's trade surplus with the us widened to just over $21 billion china's trade surplus with the us widened tojust over $21 billion in april. that is unlikely to make president trump happy, as he escalates those tensions in trade talks. he is now giving china until friday to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods to 2596 billion worth of chinese goods to 25% from 10%. while also threatening new levies. we have been reporting about these high—level us trade talks and negotiators will be meeting in washington again over the next two days, to try to resolve their trade issues. everybody will be watching now now so closely. for asia itself, we are looking at that economy there, but for other economies around china and southeast asia, it's so critical that this situation gets results, isn't it? absolutely. lots of the country here, particularly within the southeast asian region all rely on china, it is the biggest trading

partner for many countries in asia. whatever happens in china to china sta rts whatever happens in china to china starts to have repercussions elsewhere in the region as well. slowing economy in china is not good news for the rest of asia. dare i say it the rest of the world. thanks. we will see you again soon. let's ta ke let's take a look at how asian markets have fared. not looking particularly good. then they came down 1.5% nearly. investors are worried about whether or not a deal between china and the us can actually be agreed when both sides need to talk trade in washington, tomorrow. —— when both sides meet. and samira hussain has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. a mixed picture in europe, different factors affecting how european investors see the world. they are worried about the implications for global growth that the us — china

trade spat has and lots of company news out of europe. and samira hussain has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. the house of mickey mouse will be reporting earnings on wednesday. now, walt disney is expected to report a different profit for the last three months, because of the money it's spent to build up its streaming service, disney+. investors will be looking to hear from the company about its plans to divest 21 regional sports networks. these came to disney as part of its acquisition of 21st century fox's film and television assets. now, the us—china trade war will be a feature of the earnings report of bunge, a global grain trader. it's had a string of bad results, given the low grain prices, because of a glut of crops and, of course, the disruptions because of the us trade dispute with china.

plenty of other news around right now. including the geopolitical relationship between the middle east and the west and iran very much in focus. we have this story which broke about an hour or so ago, the news that basically iran has pulled out of key commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal. this after the us abandoned the deal, last year. you may remember at the beginning of may, the us increased the sanctions against iran and got rid of any waivers to countries like japan, that were still importing oil from iran. all those waivers were removed, which meant, for iran, it was a massive increase on the sanctions on the country. but what is tricky about this, of course, is for european countries like the uk, germany, also china, and russia, they are still privy to this international nuclear deal. this

will put this conversation and focus today. mike pompeo, secretary of state for the us, meeting with prime minister theresa may buster no doubt it will come into the conversation. mike pompeo fresh back from iraq where he took a surprise visit to talk about iran and its influence in the region. joining us now is simon french, who's the chief economist at panmure gordon. nice to see you. a lot happening in markets, stories affecting markets will stop talking about iran pulling out of this key nuclear deal. it was still in a relationship that was brokered in 2015, the us pulled out, many argued what relevance has it got anyway, your thoughts on that, iran, the oil, new sanctions in may? lots of factors for investors to weigh up. particularly as we are seeing signs of a global upswing adding to the demand for oil. there are concerns the supply side, uncertainty of venezuela, uncertainty of venezuela, uncertainty of venezuela, uncertainty of the iran deal, actually, the question you have to

ask yourself is whether, from both the oil story and indeed the trade story, the us rhetoric is going to be matched by us action. that is the key thing you have to price in. you have to put it into context because president rohani is saying he is threatening to increase production of higher enriched uranium in 60 days and the tensions in the middle eastis days and the tensions in the middle east is upping. this is a big material influence on the overall balance of the oil market. you are talking about at peak supply about 4.5 million barrels a day from iran. if that comes back to sanctions level from 2015, one .5 million barrels, where is the delta of three million and that draw from demand? we will see you to talk through the papers and your thoughts on var and whether we should have advertising. are you a liverpool fan? whether we should have advertising. are you a liverpoolfan? hull city but watched it last night. a great match! we will talk about it next.

still to come: how the biggest pan—african focused property company was built. we'll get the inside track on grit real estate income group with its chief executive. you're with business live from bbc news. do you want to start? i'm looking at her, longingly. iwished do you want to start? i'm looking at her, longingly. i wished she would look at me longingly! some good news from britain's biggest companies. we need a bit of that. according to the latest profit watch report by the share centre, revenues at the uk's 40 largest firms are up 8%, and profits at these companies are also growing. not so great if you are a slightly smaller—sized company, the figures show those outside of the top 40 actually saw profits fall. richard stone is ceo of the share centre. let's talk to him now. explain to me first of all how you compiled these figures. i know we are talking about the 40 biggest companies but what exactly a re the 40 biggest companies but what exactly are you looking at and how? we basically look at all the

companies that reported during the first quarter. we do this every quarter. we add that together with the numbers that those companies have reported over the course of the last year, so we get an annualised picture. looking at revenues and profits for the uk listed companies. are you surprised to see this outcome? because you would think, given brexit, the uncertainty, etc, all the stuff we have been reporting that we would have the opposite news? when we look, there is a difference between the top 40, the biggest 40 companies and the rest. the biggest 40 are large multinationals, particularly a concentration on things like banking and oiland concentration on things like banking and oil and gas. with rising commodity prices, weakness in sterling, their results look quite good but outside of the top 40, as you said, the performance is more mixed. we saw profits fall. while they are growing in revenues, they are suffering from a squeeze on profits, particularly in areas like retail and asset management and those sorts of things. retail and asset management and those sorts of thingslj retail and asset management and those sorts of things. i wanted to ask you, what kind of companies are the ones doing really well and what are the ones that are really

suffering right now? the ones that have done best really are the oil and gas companies and the miners. commodity prices have gone up in sterling is weak. swinging from losses a couple of years ago to a substantial profit and the banking sector is doing well, highest profits in that sector since 2007. a lot of the regulatory fines and bad news in that sector is looking as if it's going into the past now. on the wea ker it's going into the past now. on the weaker side, as i said, it is the retailers in particular and we have seen a retailers in particular and we have seen a lot of news about the high street in recent times. richard, thank you so much. richard stone from the share centre. more details on that including the latest german industrial output numbers. surprisingly better than expected. 0utput up by half a percent in march and most were expected a half percent for, totally the opposite. most were expecting a half percent fall down. your're watching business

live, our top story: voters are going to the polls in south africa, where the immediate challenge facing the winner will be how to fix the country's floundering economy. around 27% of south africans are unemployed. young black south africans, one in two. it's a real problem. now let's stay africa, where rapid urbanisation, a fast growing middle class and increased business travel and tourism have driven demand for new and modern commercial and residential buildings, hotels and industrial workplaces. since the turn of the century, the continent has averaged economic growth of 5.1% a year — that's according to the international monetary fund. and spending by african consumers and businesses already totals $4 trillion annually. 0ne company that's taking advantage of the region's growth is africa—focused property investor grit real estate income group limited. grit owns just under $800 mllion

worth of properties spread across several african countries including morocco, botswana, kenya, mauritius and mozambique. with us now is bronwyn corbett, chief executive of grit real estate income group. bronwyn are welcome to the programme. thanks for having me. what is going on right now? i have to ask you, being a massive african company investing all over africa, being south african yourself, what is your view on the elections? ironic i sit here on the day of the elections. we don't invest in south africa. you have started some of the challenges in south africa and that is what we have said that meant you had stated. being south african, you know things have to resolve themselves. south africa is the —— balance of the continent and it has been the leader in so much of the sophistications of the continent. it is negative. it is very important that the elections hopefully will achieve some of these key aspects

even for our business. even if we don't invest in south africa, the importance of south african success and the economy's success is critical for the balance of the continent. where do you invest and why? it is such a vast array of different african countries and what they have to give or not as the case may be. absolutely. you have to be so careful that you don't paint africa with one brush. it is important. a big education process especially for an international institution not to do that. how we look at the african continent is that we like to have part of our investment into africa investment grade, which are countries like morocco, mauritius, botswana. those countries have more sophisticated capital markets, very politically stable, ease of doing business and moving money in and out of those countries. the other part of the continent we invest in is growth africa. that is where you see significant growth that i always talk about africa being the last frontier because i really believe it

is the last frontier of growth. it has been able to mitigate a lot of the perceived africa risks that are not necessarily understood. that growth africa are countries like ghana, mozambique, kenya, east africa is a huge growth area. we have seen a lot of international investment and international te na nts, investment and international tenants, global tenants, positioning themselves across the continent. 0ur product is a real estate solution for these global tenants. the importance of being able to give them the sophistication of proper real estate, proper infrastructure, cross the specific countries. real estate, proper infrastructure, cross the specific countrieslj recently visited kendra, nairobi. i saw growth and building like an investment but i also saw lots of empty building stuff i've recently visited kenya. iwas empty building stuff i've recently visited kenya. i was wondering if this is something africa wide that growth can sometimes happen too fast and too quickly for a country to cope. absolutely. one of our strategy is about being multi—geography is exactly that. what we have seen is we have seen a

lot of investment pile into certain and not necessarily countries but certain cities, like nairobi, like accra. these investment piles in and it is competitive and becomes overly saturated. i have seen it in south africa, real estate is grossly saturated, too much of this, too much retail. you start seeing happening in these areas, which is u nfortu nate happening in these areas, which is unfortunate because ultimately, these countries need development. 0ften these countries need development. often the second—tier cities are forgotten and that is where we position ourselves. when we do retail, we do commercial retail, we do it focusing on the second tier mass market shopping. that you are able to bring 4.5 million people that would generally travel eight hours to get into the main cities of less sa ko, hours to get into the main cities of less sako, nairobi, it is about bringing real estate and the ability to service that market. china has been investing for many years but even more so in the future with the belt and road initiative, give us your thoughts. is that an investment that africa should have welcomed?

your thoughts. is that an investment that africa should have welcomed ?|j don't that africa should have welcomed?” don't like to sit on the fence about these things because africa needs investment, foreign investment and the more developed markets have shied away from investment into africa. that is one of the things that bringing grit to the uk and educating the uk institutional markets, seen money go to africa. chinese money has gone where others fear to trade and it can't be ignored. which is absolutely why you see it. the influx into bronwyn these regions., so lovely to have it on the programme, good luck. --, so lovely. stay up—to—date with all the day's business news as it happens on the bbc‘s business live page. those insight and analysis from our team of editors right around the globe. and we want to hear from you, too. get involved on the bbc‘s

business live web page. business live, on tv and online. what you need to know, when you need to know. simon frenchjoins us again. you have been in touch about football and increased advertising reve nu es football and increased advertising revenues that could be made because of var. what's going on? this is an opportunity in the break in the game where consumers don't actually switch out mtb and go off and make a coffee or grab a snack, they want to be part of the action —— switch out of the tv. that is the holy grail of advertising. expend what var is. this is video assistant referee, a break in the game where there is a contentious decision. it goes to a fifth referee up with the tv screen in front of him, who adjudicates whether it is a goal, foul, decisions that are contentious and difficult to see in real time. with the benefit of video technology. big tournaments are discussing whether

or not to monetise this and get sponsorship to play out during those brea ks sponsorship to play out during those breaks and we are asked people if they want this to happen four stop surprise, surprise, many people don't. mark says sickening. and nothing just be left alone for the greater good of the globally loved game? martin from wales says it is inevitable. the game will look more like a basketball. tony from scotla nd like a basketball. tony from scotland says getting more like the us as time goes by, notjust in football, bad news, all about money. the other thing, you don't know how often it's going to happen orfor how long. if you are investing, you wa nt how long. if you are investing, you want the advertising and sponsorship. interesting, nota given. it's not. over the course of a tournament you can probably estimate fairly closely but in a single game, you may not have any contentious decisions or a handful. there is quite a lot of parallels with the indian premier league kit where the brakes are heavily sponsored in play. but it is a commercial environment —— indian premier league where. almost a commercial environment —— indian premier league where. almost $1 million for a 30 second slot in the world cup football, this is big

money. so much money! where is it? thank you for being on the programme. thank you for your company. goodbye, thanks for watching. good morning. it's a very wet start to the day, we've got heavy rain moving its way northward across the uk. it's all linked into this area of low pressure, which you can see really nicely on the satellite imagery out to the south—west. weather fronts ahead of that, you can see lots of cloud across the uk and all this rain moving its way northwards. a clear from southern areas, there will be sunnier spells and heavy showers developing into the afternoon but that rain will continue, really quite persistent across northern areas later on and with that, quite a brisk easterly wind. and that's really going to make a difference into how it feels today across northern areas, because we've got that strong easterly wind.

temperatures around the coast about 6, 7, maybe 9 celsius. a little bit drier towards western scotland and across northern ireland, maybe a few spots of rain, drier towards the north—west of embed compared to the east of the pennines and further south. look at these greens and yellows, really quite heavy and intense showers with some thunderstorms expected across southern areas with some sunny spells and temperatures about 13 to 15. that area of low pressure is going to move its way through northern france but we've got this occlusion which is going to stick around as we go through thursday. more cloud and outbreaks of rain continuing in the north—east of england. showers for northern ireland and eventually some showers developing across southern areas. a bit of sunshine to the far south—west of england. sunny spells across much of scotland and temperatures will be about 8 to 11 degrees in northern areas, up to about 14 to 16 degrees, further south. going forward into friday, still this zone of cloudy weather across northern ireland,

the isle of man, into northern areas of england and again, a few showers developing, a fairly unsettled day. some sunshine top and tail of the uk and temperatures on par with the next few days, really, 12 to 15 degrees. but it's as we go into the weekend where we lose these weather systems, the area of low pressure. high pressure becomes firmly established as we go through saturday and into sunday and that's really going to settle things down. so, much drier, much brighter into the weekend and you notice as we go into the early part of next week, those temperatures will be getting up to the mid—to—high teens, perhaps even low 20s as we go through the week. something drier and brighter and warmer on the horizon. bye bye.

you're watching bbc news at 9:00 with me, joanna gosling. the headlines: gps blame excessive workloads for the first sustained fall in their numbers in 50 years. it's very real. it's the worst crisis since 1948. its future is injeopardy, there is no doubt about that. commentator: they caught barcelona napping. painting the town red — liverpool fans celebrate their team pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in champions league history at anfield. i'm proud, i'm really proud of that team tonight, really! asia bibi, a christian woman who spent eight years on death row in pakistan accused of blasphemy, has left the country.

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