debris for any clues as to what went wrong between barcelona and dusseldorf. that's what we watching this morning. a little bit of m&a in the market this morning. let's focus on what european equity markets are doing this wednesday morning. let's get straight to manus cranny. manus: good morning to you. equity markets coming back ever so slightly. you are going to get a confidence indicator coming from dax. the overall position on the european map according to oxford analytics, basically, money supply is going along at 8%, 9%. quantitative easing is working. the deal is pretty much done. the pricing and the payout, that is going to be down to performance on telefonica. we will see how it opens at the start of trade.

hermes, let's see if we got an opening price. they are going to pay a possible five euro special dividend. their numbers actually beat. we will keep an eye on hermes. down 1%. you are getting the special dividend of five euros, but the margins are what the market is focused on. they come a bit lower because of currency pressure. when it comes to those deals let's see how telefonica is opening. 10 billion pounds worth of a deal done. 9.2 5 billion pounds will be paid to them. and another billion pounds in stock trades. a great deal of speculation is perhaps already in the price. that way profit -- bellway profits up and the dividend remains quite a bit ahead. almost 25% over the estimate.

if you are a shareholder, you are getting 25 pence, that is 25% better than the estimates. they are saying everything is going pretty dandy. airbus is obviously the maker of the plane involved in the tragedy in the southwest of france. they also make an announcement that they are selling part of their holding in aviation. those are three individual names that we have a focus on. keep an eye on the real. this will begin trading on the session as new york comes in. what you have is the brazilian central bank saying we are not going to defend this currency. this is the second worst-performing emerging market currency overall in the past 12 months, the worst being the russian ruble. come 8:30, i think these names

are going to be in the fray. they are not trading yet. national bank of greece and alpha. we will see how the greek market opens later on. the european central bank for illegally preventing these banks from buying greek government t-bills, and therefore closing down access to finance for say burress and his party -- for tsipras and his party. we will keep an eye on greece as the day rolls on. back to you. anna: thank you very much. let's get back to one of our top corporate stories. 3g capital is in advanced talks to acquire kraft food and merge it with ketchup maker heinz. caroline, good morning. run us through this potential deal. caroline: 3g capital getting its hands on what is renowned for

philadelphia cheese spread maxwell house coffee kraft. this could be bringing its power thereto then merge with heinz. it already owns heinz, 3g capital with berkshire hathaway. they could combine kraft and heinz to make a juggernaut making $30 billion per year. that could cost the overall market valuation of kraft as it stood before the deal was speculated in the press, $36 billion. let's take it to a the dream team seems to be here. berkshire hathaway and 3g capital, they would be working together once again. two years ago, they bought heinz together. it was warren buffett that helped finance the deal of 3-d capital getting into heinz. last year berkshire hathaway

again teaming with 3g capital to help burger king by tim hortons. that is the canadian coffee and doughnut company. that merger producing a much bigger company now known as restaurant brands international. berkshire hathaway knows his stuff. they were a long-term investor. at one point, they were the biggest shareholder in kraft. they didn't really like what was going on with the cadbury buyout . warren buffett said the two deals were dumb. but it looks like his appetite is being whet again when it comes to kraft. he wants to be able to create this juggernaut they are talking about maybe mix your basques well house coffee with your baked beans on toast. the deal could be announced this week. the key question, price tag.

the market capitalization of kraft is currently $36 billion but the shares after-hours spiked to a record high, closing at about 16.5 as you see on your screen. now just inches away from that peak number, just shy of 16%. the question is, what will be the price tag? we are hearing $40 billion. that is only a premium of 11%. back to you. anna: thank you. my children are always telling me about the virtues of combining cream cheese and catch up. i'm not sure i'm convinced. thank you with the latest on that potential megamerger. let's get an investors take. we are joined by john bolton. good to see you. we are talking about m&a. where are we in the m&a story? do you think it is indicative of

something we are seeing more broadly? john: we look at the broad trends within m&a. much of what we've seen in corporate activity has been large firms, large deals. that tells us there's some confidence. there's some confidence among larger corporates which is quite an interesting gauge. borrowing cross are easier across the corporate universe. there is some confidence in corporate boardrooms. what is interesting for us at the moment, we've not seen much of a pickup in smaller company corporate activity. for us, that is where you get the grassroots exuberance kicking in. we are entering into a cycle of more corporate activity. we gauge the u.s. as coming into midcycle. i think we are still some way off on that kind of exuberance that really permeates all the way down through the corporate

universe. anna: it seems to have been a long sweet spot. when we start to see the u.s. recover and some m&a deals coming through, people say there is a sweet spot before rates go up. rates still haven't gone up. how long do we remain in this low interest rate environment austin mark -- environment? john: probably for some time yet. even on the fed's own projections, rates will barely reach 3% by 2017. market projections currently around 1.7%. we've got the boj and the ecb seriously buying bonds in the market. that's keeping longer dated yields the press. this is a low interest rate cycle. we do believe this will be a longer and flatter business cycle. let's not forget, it was a very deep recession. the recovery trajectory is probably going to be longer and flatter.

to the still midcycle, probably not unreasonable. anna: in terms of investing, does it make sense to go after businesses that are domestically focused? john: yes. you've got to remember that the u.s. economy, only 13% of it is exports. the vast majority is the consumer. we've got the boost coming through from weaker oil prices. we are beginning to see signs of domestic confidence pick up. the u.s. is on a solid recovery track. we've got no reason not to think that america will not continue to do well over this year. where is it going to do well? probably the consumer. dollar strength is a headwind for exporting companies which make up a greater portion of the s&p than they do of the broader economy. domestic u.s. is definitely a sweet spot right now. anna: is there more to come? john: you've got to love historically.

from 1980-1985, we had a dollar rally of five years. 1995-2002, 7 years, 40% gain. anna: john, thank you very much. up next, independence day in greece. but perhaps in name alone as government bills stack of an money runs out. ♪

anna: welcome back.

this is "on the move." on a day that greece celebrates its independence from the ottoman empire, the nation may be bemoaning dependence on creditors. the ecb is said to have banned greek banks from increasing holdings of death. the government is trying to come up with money anywhere it can. for more on the latest, we are joined by ben sills in athens. good to see you this morning. how cash-strapped is greece at this moment? bill: hearing nothing here. anna: seems as if ben is not hearing me. wonder if we will get that another try. looks as if we have lost him. let's instead talk the john bilton from j.p. morgan asset management. the failings of modern technology. let's talk about greece. is this playing out in a

worrying direction for you? are you managing to keep your concerns contained? john: the thing to remember about anything to do with eurozone, whether it be monetary policy, political policy, it is all about keeping the sides talking. the positive is that the sides are talking. greece does face a crunch in terms of its current financing bailout package. it is about 7 billion euros available still in it. runs out sometime during april. certainly, there is a pinch point coming up. the negotiations are in play and we are reading a lot about how german politicians are becoming a harder line against greece. at the same time, we are seeing some suggestion that there could be minor concessions coming through to keep greece on track and keep negotiations going forward. i think while they are talking we remain reasonably comfortable. anna: is that the market's

working assumption, that if greece stays in the eurozone keeping it in the eurozone is the number one priority for the germans despite all the rhetoric? john: i think what the market is trying to do is weigh whether it is better to have greece in or out. right now i think the jury is out. will we have the same level of contagion as we had back in 2012? probably not. that's why we continue to see yields in italy, spain, and other periphery nations tighter against german bonds. the crucial point to focus on is the degree of contagion. the market seems relaxed about that. anna: let's try to get out to athens. i hope you can hear me this time. how cash-strapped is greece at the moment? then: -- ben: we are getting down to the last coppers. no one knows exactly how long the greek government can last

but we are seeing reports that they are pulling cash from public companies, essentially having to scramble together every time there is a major payment. they need to make 1.5 billion euros of pension and salary payments before the end of march, then they have treasury bill redactors coming in april. there are several hurdles coming up which look extremely challenging given the lack of funding. anna: what consequences are therefore the broader economy? it sounds as if there could be severe consequences if this is where the money is coming from. ben: we are already seeing that the economy was growing and those trends have reversed in the last couple of months. as the government scrambles around, pulling money from these different parts of the public sector, it is sucking the life

blood the rest of the economy, which is exactly the opposite of what greece needs the government to be doing at this stage in the cycle. anna: thank you very much, ben sills joining us from bloomberg news in athens. still with us, john bilton of j.p. morgan. let's talk about the european picture more broadly. some of the data has been improving when you look at pmi, credit formation data. are you optimistic about europe? john: broadly speaking. the interesting point is that we have ecb qe happening incidental to a turnaround in data. slightly better consumer confidence, a little bit of momentum starting to pick up in terms of industrials. generally, you've got two things moving in the right direction, policy support and macro data. i think what is important to the watching is the degree to which we get a pass rue from the weaker euro into corporate earnings.

europe is export-heavy compared to the u.s. at these kind of levels, it should start to feed through and give us earnings growth. that is positive. anna: you suggest there is no direct link between quantitative easing and the recovery in european data. do you think doctorates will be written in the future on whether all the talk about quantitative easing had anything to do with turning the european economy around? ben: i have no doubt it will keep the professors at harvard busy for decades. it is not clear the degree to which keeley directly affects -- to which qe directly affects markets. what is important is confidence in the central bank. the ecb had to tackle deflation. they had to tackle the lack of competitiveness of the eurozone and they've done so in very decisive action.

this is certainly boosting the general sentiment that we see around the eurozone. there's also a portfolio of fact. as the ecb sucked bonds out of the system, that money has to leak somewhere. there's not a big credit market, so that tends to go directly into the equity markets. that tends to create a little bit of a flow support for the equity market. anna: are you investing in the european consumer at the moment? ben: we would see europe as a little bit earlier in the cycle than the u.s. we are actually a little more minded toward the cyclical end of the economy. we want to be a bit more defensive in the u.s. if we want to add cyclical risk it is the markets like europe and japan where we are able to add that. anna: john, thank you very much. john bilton stays with us. still to come, cold feet in britain. a recent poll shows fright from

protests goes back to the mainstream. we will discuss that when "on the move" returns. ♪

anna: welcome back to "on the move." let's bring you up-to-date with bloomberg's top stories. airbus is cutting its stake in dassault and using the funds to boost growth. the disposal has a value of $1.9

billion. the move is a continuation of the airbus reduction of its holdings in dassault. hutchison bought 02, paving the way for the creation of the biggest u.k. wireless provider. telefonica expects the transaction to be completed by june 2015. brazil is scaling back support of its currency. sales of new foreign exchange swaps will end this month. the program that began in 2013 wasn't enough to prevent large currency swings. the real has fallen against the dollar in the last year. let's bring things back to the u.k. as we approach them a general election. it seems support for the protest parties may be waning. ukip is losing steam as voters turned back towards the mainstream. labor and conservatives are tied, but have each picked up a larger portion of the vote. john bilton is still with us.

we are still talking about the major parties being 35% of the vote each. markets are pretty nervous. how do you approach may 7? john: i think you've got to look at the fact that we are coming to one of the most uncertain elections in decades. with jabber way -- whichever way the landscape looks, it is difficult to make a clear projection. people by the u.k. because of political stability. if you start to question that then you need to build in some level of caution on the u.k. assets. with this uncertainty around the election outcome, we've got a degree of caution on our exposure to u.k. assets notably the pound sterling and the u.k. equity markets. anna: what is driving the pound at the moment if not the politics? is it the economic recovery story? how are all these things meeting

each other in the middle? john: you've got to look at the u.k. against its trading partners, against the dollar the u.k. pound is reasonably week. against the euro, it is strong. that is probably a bit of an issue. our biggest trading partner is the eurozone. we have an overvalued currency a current account deficit approaching 5%-6%, and we've got political risks. but those three together and bear in mind, history doesn't tell us that it ends well for sterling in those circumstances. 1975 and 1991 both saw political question marks and a significant deficit. under both those circumstances, we saw the pound we can significantly. coming into this particular election, we've got the ingredients to be very cautious on pound sterling. from our point of view, we would be approaching this election

with a degree of caution. anna: you are putting 2015 in there with some very chaotic times in u.k. history financial history. is that what is at stake here? john: when we look at it, we look at the valuation of's hurling which is strong against the euro, and we look at the current account deficit, which is wide, and we look at political certainty, which is low. those three together give us a degree of caution. are we going to see a crisis in sterling? i think markets are supportive at the moment. that's probably not a major part of the calculus. is there a tail risk that sterling weakens given the current account picture and politics? it is absolutely something that an investor has to be considering. anna: thank you for joining us. john bilton.

coming up on the program, we turn east and talk to the executive director of china construction bank international. stay with us for that. ♪

anna: welcome back to "on the move." we are 30 minutes into the trading day. let's see how things are shaping up across the equity markets. the ftse 100 choosing to go its own way up by 0.1%. the other markets, flat or negative in europe. let's get some stock-specific stories with caroline hyde. what are you watching? caroline: i'm going greece and travel. we are looking pretty strong for the first half of the year. we are on track to improve results year on year. shares up some 2.5% on the back of that. the travel company said the

confidence of delivering full-year underlying operating profit growth 10%-15% is looking pretty rosy. they say they are pretty much sold out at higher average selling prices. meanwhile, they say bookings are up about 1%. average prices once again climbing. they were up 12% in terms of bookings. let's look at a u.k. stock. bellway climbing, up 4.5%. they are reading the rewards of the price increase we've seen in housing. first-half profit up 19%. gross profit up 41%. sales rising profit rising. they are completing more homes. the order book is looking healthy. they are building a land bank as well. they've got cash to splash. they are having 25 pence per share in terms of a dividend.

once again, property prices in the u.k. helping those builders. meanwhile, accor on the downside. it is europe's largest hotel operator and someone is selling shares. they are selling 11 million accor shares at 48.75 apiece, just bringing it down in terms of the overall share price. the proceeds are going to come in at about 500 million euros and they are going to have after-tax 350 million euros. we are seeing more supply in accor. therefore, down goes the share price. anna: thanks very much, caroline. china's construction bank international an arm of china construction bank will now offer europe's first eds that invest in europe's money market. here to tell us more is tony hung, executive director of

china construction bank international. he has just opened trading on the london stock exchange. thank you for joining us. what is it you are going to be offering here in london and why have you chosen london? tony: we are very excited about this. the product we are offering is the first to allow the european investor to invest in the onshore money market. we are providing this product, hoping that it will encourage the usage of rnb and we want to provide the european investors for them to handle their liquidity. we have great expectations for the product and we believe there is very big room for rnb etf product in europe. anna: what other products might

you decide to offer to international investors? do you have plans for any further products in the pipeline? tony: i think we are very focused on china. we are very focused on the renminbi. those would be the mainstream of the product that we are going to promote to our overseas investor. of course, while ccbi is based in hong kong, we do have capacity in the local market as well. the hong kong market, we have already provided those kind of services and products. anna: let's talk about the strength the possibility in the chinese currency. the renminbi now the eighth most traded country -- currency in the world.

what should investors' expectations before the renminbi? tony: i think, if we look to how the whole currency evolved, how it grows, i think it is an absolutely amazing story. the renminbi, it started a couple years ago, but now it becomes a few hundred years currency in terms of trade. they grow tremendously. first, hong kong, then singapore and the whole europe. we think in terms of the usage of the currency, it would have a bright future. there will be ups and downs on the currency exchange rate but we are generally comfortable and optimistic about the renminbi

currency as a whole. anna: how long do you think it will be before we get a fully convertible chinese currency? central bankers talk about plans to make it fully convertible under a capital account as well as current accounts. when does that start to happen? tony: i think it is a million-dollar weston. probably even our central bankers don't have a precise timetable. i can only say that if we look back, what happened in the past couple years on the government's commitment to further liberalize the currency, then we are seeing very good progress. we believe they will come sooner or later. anna: how would the chinese economy cope with potential inflows of fairly hot money? would there be a home for it all? tony: i think, definitely, yes. we have very well-established

currency management system and also i think the most important thing is the chinese economy nowadays is growing very big in size. the in and out of the hot money, i think, is just a daily event. we face that every single day. i don't think it would cause a big impact to the economy as a whole. anna: recently, investors were given a new way to invest in chinese equities with the launch of the stock connect between china and hong kong. a lot of people have suggested this hasn't lived up to expectations because of operational issues. what are your expectations for that kind of link as a way of investing in the stock markets in china? tony: i think it is a very big innovation, a very big step forwards. i wouldn't be surprised if this gave us a new trial.

there will be some technical issues when we try to run it. but i think we should really look at the big picture, what it really means to international investors as a whole. instead of focusing on this minor problem. anna: back to the product you are launching, how big a market do you think you are tapping into? how much demand do you expect for the product? tony: to us, of course the renminbi is a very difficult question to answer. the whole renminbi scale in europe is growing quickly and growing every single day. what we can say is i think the room is huge. we do have very big expectations on this. we hope for the best. anna: tony, thank you very much for joining us. tony hung, executive director of ccbi.

8:38 in london. still to come, the latest on the investigation into the german wings crash. we will have all the details from the crash site. ♪

anna: welcome back. i'm on edwards in london. "on the move this is -- this is "on the move."

3g is said to be in talks to acquire kraft. the firm already owns controlling stakes in burger king and heinz. kraft shares soared in after-hours trading. brazil is scaling back support for its currency. the central bank's program that began in 2013 wasn't enough to prevent large currency swings. the real has fallen more than 26% against the dollar. the ecb is said to have banned greek banks from increasing their holdings of short-term government debt after concerns that the government is funding itself by greek lenders. blocking the funding puts more pressure on greece to present economic reforms acceptable to creditors. millionaire li ka shing's firm hutchison bought o2 paving the way for the creation of the biggest u.k. wireless provider. telefonica expects the

transaction to be completed by june 2016. moving on, investigators are preparing to examine the black box found at the site of the german wings crash that left all 150 passengers dead. rescue crews continue the search of the rugged terrain in the french alps, hoping to find an explanation as to how the plane crashed. french, german, and spanish leaders have made public statements expressing their grief, suspending their agendas to coordinate the crisis response. german chancellor angela merkel and spain's prime minister are traveling to the crash site today. international correspondent hans nichols joins us now. what do we know at this point? hans: well, we know that helicopters have been taking off all morning from the staging grounds just behind me to get over those mountains. i drove over and the snow level is at about 2000 meters.

we think the crash site is at about 1600 meters. that means at least it isn't covered in snow, but the angle of those mountains and the way they believe the crash happened is over a three-acre sort of zone. where that happened, that makes it exceedingly difficult to land a helicopter. they sent out about 50 rescue workers by foot trying to reach the zone. five of them, according to local reports stayed the night after being dropped down by a helicopter. they are trying to recover the second part of the black box the part that records the actual data the flight data, which may explain why that flight descent was so rapid. it was about eight minutes that it went from 38,000 feet down to 5000 feet, which is roughly where they think the crash happened. what happened in that period is crucial. it was originally french air

traffic controllers that said what is going on? they were the ones that made the mayday call. the mayday call did not come from inside the cockpit. it was radio silence inside the cockpit. the part of the black box that was recovered last night had the voice recorder. presumably, they've been going over that. they might have a better idea of what was happening in the cockpit. the big question everyone is trying to ask is, if there was a stall out, the descent would have been more rapid. that would have meant the plane was no longer on a flight path and it would have been dropping in 3-4 minutes area -- minutes. it could have still been in some sort of glide path, and yet no radio contact. we are being moved from this area, where some of the headquarters of the staging efforts are being taking place. we will be moving elsewhere in a

little bit. as you can see, the weather is holding up. at least the weather is allowing for good recovery efforts. we've got about five knots of wind. helicopters can fly in this weather. it is roughly the same conditions we had yesterday. clear skies, not too windy. it does not look like weather was a factor in yesterday's horrible tragedy. anna: what do we know about the aircraft itself? hans: it was delivered to lufthansa in 1991. it was the a-320, the workhorse as everyone has been describing it. this aircraft had about 46,000 flights it had done in almost 24 years. that gets you about 5-6 flights a day. it gives you an indication of just how frequently these planes

fly. the last time it had an inspection was last summer. the lead pilot that was flying had over 6000 hours of experience. a very experienced pilot at the joystick. we will be learning more about the pilot and hearing from the families throughout the day. hopefully, we will have more from rescue workers in about two hours. anna: we will be back for more details. hans nichols joining us from near the crash site. let's stick with this subject. we are joined on the phone by aviation specialist chris yates. thank you very much for joining us. can you add any insight into what was happening in the cockpit at the time that this aircraft went into this rapid descent? any clues as to what really happened here? chris: i'm afraid the answer to that is a categorical no. we could always surmise what may or may not have been happening

aboard the aircraft, but at this moment, without the assistance of the black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder most certainly and the data recorder secondly without knowledge of the content of those, we can't possibly say what was going on on board the aircraft at that time. anna: it seems they have found one part of the black box, the voice recorder. they are still looking for the data recorder. give us an idea of what they've been looking for and the details contained in those boxes, and what the timescales are. how long does it take to get through that material? chris: some doubts as to whether it is the voice recorder or the data recorder that they have retrieved. i've heard various stories saying one thing.

one saying that it is the data recorder, other saying it is the voice recorder. what we do know is that the device they have in their possession that is within reach of their possession rather, is somewhat damaged and will require some reconstruction before the device can be activated and the information read off from that. once it is read off, there will be a period over which all of the experts will listen to or analyze the data, dependent on what has been received. it could take some time yet, i believe. before we get a first indication as to precisely went on with the aircraft. anna: all of the comments coming

from lufthansa expressing deep sadness about what has happened. how do you think the business will be planning for the future as of now? are we talking about lufthansa or germanwings airbus and mark chris: we are talking -- airbus? chris: we are talking about german wings primarily. the impact is being felt in some way for german wings. some of the pilots yesterday refused to fly a320's and that is partly in response to the impact the psychological impact i suppose, of the events of yesterday morning. moreover, there might well be a significant knockback from passengers who are booked on german wings. at the moment, there are reports

that people are changing their travel plans. the possibility of that will increase over time dependent on what the results of the black boxes produce. anna: i know you said that we don't know what caused this. rescuers have said they are working on the assumption that this is an accident. is there anything you read that leads you to doubt that? chris: none whatsoever at the moment. you can only ever characterize an aircraft accident as an accident until you know differently. it has to be said that all aspects of this incident will be investigated, whether there was anything untoward that occurred in the run-up to this flight

and whether that had any impact on the flight itself, or indeed whether it was just purely a fluke purely a mechanical failure that brought this aircraft down. anna: chris, thank you very much for joining us. chris yates joining us from yates consulting. as we head into a quick commercial break, here's a look at the markets right now. things looking pretty sluggish in europe. most of the major indices trading flat or negative. the ftse 100 up by 0.2%. european stocks declining after a record in yesterday's training session. "on the move" will be back in two minutes. ♪

anna: that is almost it for "on the move." for those listening on bloomberg radio, "the first word" is up next. for our viewers, "the pulse" is up next. guy: should bank bonuses be used to help employees get back to work? we are going to be talking to jim markley. that is what he is proposing. he's going to be doing it in london. anna: he's not proposing it in

scotland. guy: he's coming right here to the hornets nest. we will talk about that and talk to jim murphy to get his take on why he thinks this is a good idea. we are also going to update everybody on what is happening with the missing german wings flight. we are also talking about greece. hans from germany is outspoken on the subject. he will be speaking to us to give us his take on whether greece should remain. anna: his take and the take of the german government. thank you very guy johnson will be up next with "the pulse." that starts in just a few minutes. following that will be "the you e u.k. politics show." we will be back tomorrow. in the meantime, you can follow me on twitter. you can get in touch if you wish to do that. we will take a short break. "the pulse" is next.

♪

guy: looking for answers. investigators search the crash i of the german wings -- crash site of the german wings flight. cash rate. greece is looking to tap the accounts of the public health system and the metro to help pay its bills. crafting a deal. a private equity firm is looking to buy craft and mergers. -- kraft and mergers. good morning to our viewers in