iag says it has relaxed talks with aer lingus.illie walsh is in no rush to complete a deal. ♪ francine: welcome back to "the pulse." guy: here are some more of bloomberg's top headlines. francine: bnp paribas has had a good first quarter thanks to its investment bank division. bnp's investment bank saw pretax earnings surge. revenue from equities trading jumped 23% while fixed income sales were higher by 33%. guy: royal dutch shell suffers a fall in profits as average brent crude prices slump by 49% in the first three months of the year. numbers were well ahead of expectations. francine: airbus miss revenue estimates after it delivered fewer units, but confirmed its outlook for the year. guy: staying in the air, iag posted a first-quarter profit and reiterated its 2015 forecast. kari lundgren joins us now. what was behind the strength in the numbers for iag? kari: really strong numbers from iag as you said. this is what is traditionally a weak water. british airways returned to profit. iberia they narrowed their loss. welling, the

mark: will iag say anything about it did for aer lingus? kerry: the million-dollar question.ent discussions are ongoing. he said they want to have some sort of resolution within weeks. having said that, this is not a deal that walsh will want to rush. he will want to get this right. it will fit very well. there are lots of things which should make it happen and make it work, but he is not going to do this at any price. i think he is patient. i have a feeling that today, the focus may be on iag, emphasizing that they don't need anything to grow and they have a good business as it is. he may want to step away from making a lot of comments. i have a feeling that will be the focus. manus: always great to get your input. stay tuned because we will bring you an exclusive interview i did. he is looking to expand his luxury line of hotels, and there are interesting tidbits. ♪ manus: time now for a bloomberg exclusive. i sat down with a veteran hotelier. he owns one of the most stylish hotels in mayfair. i asked him about the middle east expansion plans and currency swings. >> 27% of