who will be ceo of the joint lafarge-holcim team? it will be a lafarge player.et to be announced, but we understand a candidate has been agreed upon. now, that is still left to play out. we want to know who will be helming this juggernaut of a cement maker. it is the biggest since 2012. there has been a battle. this is why they've struggled to get through these hoops that they've had to jump through. it seems that all m&a really does come down to personalities. finally, they managed to iron out their problems. one problem seems to have been whether bruno lafont could push through the cost cuts. the deal makes sense because they could save $1.5 billion per year by joining forces. they also have to sell off assets. this is a key part of the deal. they have to sell off assets so that they can abide by competition laws. who picks up those assets? crh the irish building materials company. 6.5 billion euros of assets. yesterday, they agreed to buy those assets. they didn't even know if there was a deal done between lafarge and holcim. even though crh already raised mo

we understand a lafarge executive has been agreed upon. candidate has been put to the four, but as of yet, that hasn't been dotted and crossed. they haven't exactly come to the eventual agreement. that is unlikely to be announced today. we know we had that scoop coming from bloomberg at one minute to midnight last night, saying the deal had been agreed in the background. you will see how tumultuous the share prices have been. as we went from highs to lows, hoping the deal will come through. it is 1.4 billion euros expected to be saved for holcim and lafarge if they combined to become the biggest cement maker in the world. question as to whether bruno lafond, given he had not been performing as well to get those cost savings. there have been highs and lows over the past year. this is what the deal was first announced. april, 2014. since then we are seeing lafarge, even though the share price has been up 16 percent, it has been not performing as well from a sales point of view as holcim has been. holcim up seven and three quarters percent. k

that hold not only crh but also holcim and lafarge.mention all those hard-working lawyers working extremely hard. anna: caroline, thank you. chicken chain mentos -- nand o's has made a billionaire. here is devon pendleton. he helped fund the original nando's concept in south africa, but his fortune is really drive from the u.k.. guest: he actually has a residence in the u.k. nando's has company-owned stores and franchise stores. he owns the concept in the u.k. he owns all 320 stores that operate here. it has basically given him half of his fortune. anna: this is a business founded back in the 1980's. what made it so successful? devon: it is a great concept, but a very simple concept. everybody loves chicken. it has this fun vibe. it is everywhere. anybody in the u.k. knows that you can't walk on the high street without seeing a nando' s. anna: talk about the afro portuguese theme. he has influenced a lot of the fanatics in the restaurant design. devon: he definitely has put his spin on the restaurant. he is a big art collector of south

lafarge and holcim said their merger. running out of time. greece under the gun to submit a concrete plan to speed up the bailout talks. good morning to our viewers in europe, good evening to those in asia. a warm welcome to those waking up in the u.s.. this is "the pulse." live from london. european leaders meeting for a second round of talks in brussels. russia and greece remain very much top of the agenda. on russia, the group has pledged to extend sanctions until the end of the year. for greece the eu has asked the government to submit a more solid reform plan. let's bring in our reporters. caroline connan joins us from brussels. marcus joins us from athens. caroline, let's start with you. caroline: on russia, which was on the agenda like greece in brussels, they decided to put off the decision to aging summit. -- a june summit. the eu sanctions expire in july. they might extend these until the end of the year. which would match the timeline of the minsk agreement. [no audio] guy: we seem to be having technical difficulties from brussels.

meanwhile, they do not like what is happening with lafarge.his is a merger on the cards to create the world's biggest cement company. we thought they managed to agree on the terms changing the management in the future and financial terms, the problem is one of lafarge 's key shareholders does not like the deal. so polson's second-biggest shareholder says they do not like the way the merger is going and they will vote against the wholesome lafarge merger. that is olson's second biggest shareholder. they don't like the way the deal is going and they will vote against it which is bringing lafarge down. back to you. anna: thank you very much, those are some of the stocks we are watching this morning. let's get to a political story this morning. nigeria hosted presidential elections over the weekend and the professional -- official results are unannounced. bloomberg tv's analyst joins us. what is the latest. >> we are still waiting on the independent collection to announce the results. they have said they are collating those results and they will b

instead of a one for one sale, they want 9.1 to one of lafarge.sweetener to the deal in that respect. it seems to come down to personality as well. when it deal was first aired, it was lafarge's chief executive who was going to take the head of the entire entity. but sudden it will didn't seem as though he was trusted to get the savings they wanted 1.4 billion per year is what he was promised. perhaps he's too much of a character, cigar smoking, gun chewing, whereas the c.e.o. of holsim is quieter. francine: oh not gum chewing! caroline: how could he? i know i know. singapore might agree. but overall, he's a different character from holsim's slightly quieter c.e.o. it seems as though they have a different executive from lafarg tow take the helm and turn him into the co-chairman. francine: of course, this has huge repercussions, including c.r.h. caroline: they've already sold shares to finance it. they've already sold 1.6 billion euros worth to finance the purchase of these assets in chile and brazil and canada. it's all about expanding themselves

. >> holes in one's to change the terms of its deal with lafarge.ge, the french company, has said today it is willing to consider revising the share exchange rates in that deal. holci is prompting some investorsm to say that the swiss company should call for a bigger stake in the new entity. both shares lower. lafarge is performing worse, down by 4%. h&m, you know the company. the number two clothing retailer in europe. shares up by 2%. february sales increased 15%. we were anticipating a gain of 12.6%. the shares hit a record 365 swedish krona. that was on march 2. we are not far from there. about 16 swedish krona shy. siemens, shares of by 1.5%. the german industrial giant signed a 10 billion euro deal with memorandum for understanding with egypt to help expand its electricity network. those deals were signed at an economic conference over the weekend in a resort. that resort conference boosting investment to help revive the economy. lafarge lower, h&m up. jonathan: mark barton, thank you very much. a busy week for all things russia. today, eu for

lafarge down by 2.3%. lafarge is a cement maker in the midst of a deal with olson -- with holcim .eal terms may be changed. many feel that lafarge's terms are a little too favorable for it. we could see them change. analysts think overall, the deal will get concluded. perhaps not much of a win for lafarge. shares off by almost 2.3%. on the green side, one of the banks benefiting from the unleashing of 1.1 trillion euros of bond purchases. could be helping a couple of these peripheral italian lenders. but come on capacity. -- banca monte paschi. keep an eye on that one. jonathan: thank you very much, caroline. it is the qe kickoff. mario draghi launches the fight against inflation in the eurozone with quantitative easing for europe. the ecb's asset purchase program will amount to 60 billion euros a month until at least september of 2016. the purchases will also include negative yielding debt at a deposit rate which currently stands at -0.2%. david powell joins us now for a little bit more. inflation expectations. i was in a news conference on thursday. 2017, a long-term horizon i kn

lafarge and holcim are trying to push this through in the next few hours. it would be a transformative deal. the ceo said if a key part of the growth -- it would boost sales 28%. they are desperate to get their hands on these assets. overall, big for them to get this through. also big for asset managers. who are exposed to this. blackrock. all own shares. a lot on the table. manus: thank you very much for running that up for us. let's look at some of the top stories. a gun man killed at least 22 people into niger after storming a museum. -- in tunisia after storming amy sam. citizens of poland, germany, and italy. at least 17 tourists killed. three japanese nationals were killed in the attack. eu leaders meet in brussels with sanctions against russia and financial support for greece in the energy markets leading the agenda. the great prime minister is pinning his hopes for a breakthrough on the funding crunch on a meeting he has requested on the sidelines of the summit. as well as the ecb's mario draghi. money being frozen related to the petrobras scandal.

lafarge up 3.4%. both companies hopes to close the deal by july. back to you. >> a big mover there. thank you for giving us the latest. still to come on the show is the swiss central bank facing a crisis of credibility after the shock move in january? will the snb's chairman answer that question after this break. we're back in 2. you can't predict the market. but at t. rowe price we've helped guide our clients through good times and bad. our experienced investment professionals are one reason over 85% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper averages. so in a variety of markets we can help you feel confident. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. >>> welcome back. greece's prime minister says he's optimistic after discussions with german chancellor angela merkel and french president. speaking in brussels he says athens will present a list of specific reforms in the coming days to secure further funding. >> mor

. >>> finally, lafarge plunged after holcim abandoned the terms of their merger as a performance of thetors continued to diverge. back to you. >> quickly, pete. germany's up 23% this year. france is up 18. you see why people are saying -- >> some exposure to europe, absolutely. i don't think it's over, scott. i still think there's some room to the upside in some of these names. i think specifically over in germany, it's been one of those trades and i think josh has mentioned on several occasions as well. there are some trades over there. that does not mean -- you look at some like we talked about at the top of the show. how about the way target moved, and including today, new highs today, some huge roles, just last week on friday. people have taken profits off the table to that side of it and going to the upside. so there's still spots in the u.s. but you want to be very u.s. centric. >> sue herera has the latest cnbc headlines. >> hi, scott. syrian president bashar al assad dismissing comments by john kerry that assad should be included in negotiations to reach a political transition.