the world. between the countries, stable economic relations are built. that would benefit not only japan, but the whole world. it is important that there be stable economic relationships. that continuously the u.s. and china will go to dialogue and error to seek a constructive solution of the problem. discussed economic issues. something weas also addressed. there are a variety of challenges in the global economy we discussed today. trump: very importantly, i have nothing to do with tpp.

i'm not bound by anything anybody else with respect to the united states. tpp would have destroyed our automobile industry and many of our manufacturers. what other countries agreed to is not binding at all of the united states. as far as china is concerned, they want to make a deal. i think they probably wish they made the deal they had before they try to renegotiate. they would like to make a deal. we are not ready to make a deal and we are taking tens of billions of dollars of tariffs. that number could go up very substantially very easily. sometime in the future, china and the united states will absolutely have a great trade deal. we look forward to that. thank you. >> second question goes to reuters.

>> i'm going to follow vivian's lead and ask two questions. first, the follow-up on trade. can you lay what japan needs to do to avoid auto tariffs? ,efore you come back to the g20 do you expect talks with china to get back on track this year? trump: getting to the g20, i think we are very much discussing different things with japan. we have an unbelievably large trade imbalance which has been there for many years. japan having the big advantage. brilliant businesspeople people. brilliant negotiators. spot butus in a tough i think we will have a deal with japan. likewise i think we will have a deal with china in the future. many companies are leaving china because of the tariffs and china is subsidizing a lot of

industry. some people said the american taxpayer is paying the tariffs. it is not that way. they are paying a small percentage, but our country is taking in billions and billions of dollars. , we arell that money giving a small percentage two our farmers who have been a focal point of what is going on with trade. farmerve gone after the thinking they are going to hurt the farmer. i'm going to negotiate a bad deal for the rest of the country. the american farmers, these are great patriots. 32, 30had meetings with 5, 40 farmers at one time. numerous times. they do not want subsidy. i have told that to you before. they want a level playing field. they are better than anybody in the world. them, i'm going to get

you a subsidy while china takes advantage of us. they said, we don't want subsidies. all we want is a level playing field. greaterican farmer is a -- these are great patriots. they are looking 100%. we will have a very good deal with china. i do not believe china can continue to pay these hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. businesses are leaving china by the hundreds, by the thousands, going into areas that are nontariff, including the united states. they are going to different parts of asia. japan, but a lot of places, but they are also coming to the united states. pay. is no tariff to all you have to do is move your company to the united states.

with all of that being said, there is a good chance the united states in china will have a very good trade deal. >> you tweeted about north korea yesterday. do you believe they violated u.n. resolutions with the short-range missile launch? to bet give you pause appearing to side with a brutal dictator instead of a fellow american in former vice president joe biden? pres. trump: kim jong-un made a statement that joe biden is a low iq individual. he is based on his record. i agree on that. peoplesame time, my think it could have been a violation, as you know. i view it differently. perhaps he wants to get attention. who knows. it does not matter. all i know it's there have been no nuclear tests.

there have been no ballistic missiles going out. there have been no long-range missiles. someday we are going to have a deal. i'm not in a rush. jong-un understands the unbelievable economic potential. ands located between russia china on one side and south korea on the other. it is all waterfront property. great location as we used to say in the real estate business. i have to tell you, i really believe iran would like to make a deal. it is a possibility to happen also. >> in terms of criticism your supporting a dictator instead of a united states vice president? pres. trump: when i look at what has been done by the vice president and the president, the horrible iran deal, look what

happened since i terminated the deal. i ran when i came into office was fighting in many locations all over the middle east. they were behind every single major attack whether it was syrian, whether was yemen, whether was individual smaller areas. whether it was taking away oil from people. they were involved with everything. now they are pulling back because they have serious economic problems. we have massive sanctions and other things. steel, copper, different elements of what they used to sell. the oil has dried up. iran.t looking to her i'm looking to have iran say, no nuclear weapons. we have enough problems. no nuclear weapons for iran. , hasnk iran, again tremendous economic potential. i look forward to letting them get back at the stage where they

can show that. i know so many people from iran, these are great people. great -- a change to be a great country. with the same leader. we are not looking for regime change. if you look at the deal biden and president obama signed, they would have free access to nuclear weapons where they would not be in violation in a very short period of time. what kind of deal is that? we cannot have that. there were many other things they did that were very bad. i do not take sides in terms of who i am in favor, but i can tell you joe biden was a disaster, his administration with president obama. they were basically a disaster when it came to so many things, whether it was the economy, military, defense, no matter what it was, they had problems. i am not a fan.

question for the prime minister. do you share president trump's optimism about north korea and his position about the recent missile launches? could you tell us you told the president, what you expect or would like to achieve if you travel to iran and hold talks? a president trump conducted summit meeting with north korea together with chairman kim. he agreed on the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. he signed the document. there was great significance in that. he cracked open the shell of distrust so that the bright future can be shared and urge north korea accordingly. if this is a new approach, which

i welcome, the north korean denuclearization, for many years, this was not achieved. precisely because it was not achieved, president trump just said that he will make a challenge with a new approach. we are neighbors to north korea. -- among countries. active president trump it policy, i have a trust in and i would like to supported. the abduction issue is of paramount importance. talk,oi at the summit president trump on behalf of my thinking conveyed and communicated my thinking to kim jong-un. i as well as the country of japan are thankful.

trumpnt ago, president met with family members of the abductees. they were very appreciative. his approach is something that everybody wants to have help -- have hope. missileshing of the launched, north korea short-range ballistic missiles. this is violating the security council resolution. my reaction is as i said earlier , it is of great regret. the same time, between kim , ag-un and president trump new approach was taken. that was something i would like to pay tribute to. any event, denuclearization

of korean peninsula is gone. , south korea, and europe will act in cooperation so the u.s. north korean process would be supported. regarding the, jcpoa, we have expressed our positions. peace and stability of the middle east is very important for japan and the united states for the international community as a whole. contributionake a to the peace and stability of the region, we would like to discharge whatever we can do. wherever it is possible for

japan to do, we would like to do this. be closeuld collaboration so that these tensions surrounding iran should be mitigated and alleviated. inshould not culminate conflict. >> thank you very much. with this, we will conclude the joint press conference with president trump and prime minister abe. seated until the leaders exit. [applause] pres. trump: thank you. abe shaking shinzo hands with president trump after they draw an end to this press conference, wide-ranging press conference discussing everything from the u.s. political situation to the north korean

issues of nuclear testing or ballistic missile launches and abduction as well. a huge issue for the japanese. talking a lot about trade as well. joining us from tokyo as our chief north asian correspondent. key takeaways from this press conference? >> the press conference was being held in the building behind me, the state guest house where president trump has been since 10:30 this morning. he paid his respects to the new emperor and empress on this first state visit. it was wide-ranging. a lot of it centered on north korea. that is a central issue for both nations. saidsaid -- shinzo abe they are on the same page with regards to north korea.

again, donald trump went on to say about the china trade war, this is perhaps the biggest headline. he says not ready to make a deal with china. beingised u.s. farmers as 100% behind him. he did make a few comments about u.s. mastic politics, reiterating that u.s. domestic politics, reiterating comments on joe biden having a low iq. most of the emphasis was about the rock solid relationship between japan and the united states, how they are going to issuesgether to resolve in iran and north korea as well as the trade war with china. thanks very much for joining us. joining us after that press conference with donald trump and shinzo abe. eu voters are sticking with the

mainstream. fears.y to earlier early results show the establishment parties have held their ground. the exceptions are france and britain. in the brexit party is in first place followed by the pro-eu liberal democrats. anne-marie, give us the take away from britain. >> good morning. the big take away is that brexit is killing the big british parties. is -- but the headline is nigel farage humiliate stories in eu polls. that is one of the big takeaways. the brexit party taking votes

away from the conservatives which are coming in last as far as the votes show right now. this takeaway is the biggest parties, labor and conservatives, are losing their stance. both are going to the brexit party. they are going to the liberal democrats. those parties have unambiguous and clear messages about what they stand for. remain or leave. division is widening in british politics and we are back to square one. matt: how much of a setback is this for emmanuel macron that haveew national front will as many seats in european parliament as his party? national --of the you were saying this was a big punishment for the french president, emmanuel macron. le pen also called for a

dissolution of the french parliament. if you talk to some officials and some people from macron's party, they actually think marine le pen failed to unrest.ze on the social in fact, the seats are pretty similar. the national rally will get about 22 seats in eu parliament. from 13%urprise comes of the vote. the republicans with just a percent of the vote. 8% of the vote. emmanuel macron will have to address issues such as immigration, not only liberal economic reforms, and also climate change in order to restore.

league doubledhe its take from the last national elections. the five-star party falls behind the democratic party. the this change -- coalition likelihoods we will see in italy? >> good morning. you see it is pouring rain here. not enough to rain matteo salvini's parade. the league is clearly the top party in italy, the dominant force. the leader has acted like -- in politics the last several months, but now we have numbers to back him up. we are likely to see more emphasis on the league side of the government program. possibly the so-called flat tax which salvini wants to pass. we will also probably see more pressure on europe. salvini also saying he does not want to pull the plug on the

current government. he wants a seat on the european commission. matt: thanks very much. braving the rain and dark clouds in rome. we are going to continue to cover the european election results. also a big deal this morning, fiat has announced his proposal to buy renault. that could see both companies gain traction. more on that next. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: welcome back to bloomberg markets. this is "the european open." seven minutes away from the start of cash equities trading across europe and not the u.k., it is a holiday. fiat chrysler has announced a 50-50 merger proposal for renault. this could lead to the creation of the world's third biggest automaker. the italian-american manufacturers is the combination of both companies will not result, on plant closures. in plant closures. fiat trading in

italy, renault in paris, are set to open significantly higher. for renault0% gain and 13% gain for fiat. joining us live now from milan is our bureau chief there. i have been in this business for a long time. merger always makes me wonder what is really happening. is fiat buying renault? >> that is a good question. it is fiat can say making the proposal to renault. we saw the fiat statement. with aoposed a deal premium to the renault closing price. on friday, a holding company will become the biggest investor

in the combined entity after the combination. webe it is premature to say have fiat buying were now, but renault,-- fiat buying but i see fiat in the driver's seat. matt: what about the nissan alliance? how will that fear with this new company outweighing the other? heard from our sources, the fiat proposal -- renault will go ahead for the time being with nissan. the alliance will not be resolved, but the merger will be delayed. matt: thanks very much. our milan bureau chief working hard on this story. we are going to come back to you. coming up, the market open. just four minutes to go until we see the start of trading against

-- across europe. we are closed in the u.k. for a holiday. if you look at european futures, we are indicating a positive open on the continent. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> just a minute away from the start of cash equities trading. let's have a look at how the markets are shaping up. >> it might be a holiday in the u.k. and the u.s. but that does not mean no movement. because there are letter volumes we could see less traders having more impact. certainly seeing that in china where the csi 300 is up more than 1%. trump in japan saying he is not in a rush to seal a trade deal with china. but we did see stocks off as much as 40% when it came to volume. with the yuan we are also seeing gains. we saw officials in china saying speculators should not shortly

currency. they would see spectacular losses. futures in the green. we saw u.s. futures also gaining as well during the trump press conference. we are about to get to the market open here, and one of the big concentrations for traders today will be both eu elections. hold, and that was not what some mainstream politicians feared. not yet seeing opening because the u.k. is off. that is usually the first one we see. we will have to wait a little to see the others open. the keye elections, is risk taken out of the picture now that the far-reaching parties have not done as well as some feared? we are seeing spain gained about .6%. europe stocks basically flat for the day. two things to keep an ion will be swiss. the voters decided not to revisit a relationship with the eu as well as greece during a snap election. now we are getting more markets

open. euro stoxx up about .5%. let's see what sectors are moving those markets. when we look at the imap we are seeing a lot of green across the board. one of the interesting sectors to watch today is going to be energy and materials. you can see materials, energy, a lotto green. iron ore going way past $100 per ounce. that is really helping the energy sector even though we are seeing oil off a bit. cars and autos also going to be an interesting one. fiat and renault, i am sure that is something you will look at with individual companies. matt: paying very close attention to how renault and fiat open up. it will be interesting to see if we get an early trade on renault and fiat. a lot of times when there is big news like this it takes longer to open the stocks. does not look like they have opened up yet.

therems of the stoxx 600, is a decent chunk not trading because the u.k. is closed. but we do have only 55 views -- losers. if you look at the losers you do not see renault or fiat yet, but we see ferruccio, one of the biggest gainers. aib as well. have these organized by total percentage, not by points. you do not really see a lot of big sized gainers. taking a look at the losers, what is dragging on the stoxx 600 the most, although it will be decently up right now. we see socgen one of the biggest losers. of course they are ex-dividends today. a number of companies going ex-dividends today, seven in total, including socgen, saffron down as well. swatch is also ex-dividends

today. see,ut of the 59 losers we seven are only off because of the dividend payment. you will not see them falling far enough to drag the index to a loss. eu voters, let's get back to the elections. sticking with mainstream parties, early european election results show establishment parties holding their ground. the exceptions are in france and italy, were populists topped the polls. and in britain where the brexit party is in first place followed by the pro-emu liberal democrats. the mainstream parties there really taking a drubbing. speed oning us up to what will now change from your point of view as someone covering the european parliament day in and day out. maria: morning. risk oftalked about the political fragmentation going

into the election and that is exactly what we got yesterday. the social democrats, a really bad night, particularly in germany. winning the election but also losing seats. the big fear was a surge but that did not materialize, which is probably good news for the markets. the most interesting take away is the performance from the liberals and the greens, the real winners last night and now potentially the new kingmakers. the main takeaway from the election is the pro-european parties, fragmentation but still holding the line in the european parliament. matt: who is going to get the top jobs now in europe? angela merkel does not want a top job in europe, she has made it clear. but her party seems to be holding his position. weekend, macron looks -- weakened.

spain's socialists did very well. who gets the top job now? maria: european leaders need to meet in brussels to decide who gets what. angela merkel has said many times on the record she does not want the european job. her career as a politician will be over when she leaves the germany government. waiver,comes to manfred that is the christian democrat who won the election. heis difficult to see how gets a compromise given that he lost many seats yesterday. emmanuel macron, it is interesting, he is meeting the spanish prime minister today. he openly said the brexit negotiators should be included. the commission is crucial because as you know, whoever gets this job have to be counterbalanced at the european central bank, which is pretty much the holy grail of european politics. matt: maria, thank you very

much. joining us live from brussels. now let's get to our guest cohost for the hour. abp invest.cio at he joins us now onset from london. what do you think about the european elections? does this change in any way how you look at the markets? >> there has been a couple of developments. number one there is a relief in terms of the lack of populist uprising movement accentuating. second is the number of people who turned out. people do care. this was not an election which passed by the by. this was the highest turnout in 20 years. people have voted, they have made their comments. and what has helped maintaining within the core parties is the voter economy. as long as the border economy continues to do well we see it is just a way from the fringes back to the center. greenster being more the

and the liberals rather than the social democrats. matt: that is interesting that the greens have done so well. especially here in germany, maybe it will have less of an impact on markets because of course the kids came out. people under 30 flooded the polls. and we have had these fridays first feature -- fridays for future protests where kids skip school to protest for the environment. but does it mean something, thanos, that maybe you have already felt happening in the markets, that investors will take a bigger place and modern investor's minds? thanos: most certainly. i think with the have shown in germany is that they can govern. there are a lot of states that have coalition partners with the greens. the next potential condition in my view will be a black green coalition together in germany. going back to the esg, it is at

the forefront of investor thinking. not only across asset owners which are allocating the capital, but also within the managers themselves. a number of funds have started to consider esg their processes not only as a marketing gimmick, but as a true change. very positive in shape -- indeed. matt: we are going to keep you with us, thanos, from abp invest. a lot more to talk about including the u.k. results. stocks on the move so far this morning, including fiat chrysler. the carmaker is making a proposal to buy renault. we will continue to file the progress of this offer and what it means for the entire industry, lifting auto stocks across the board. fiat chrysler of 15%. this is bloomberg. ♪ is bloomberg. ♪

matt: welcome back to the european open. i am matt miller here in berlin. markets are closed in the u.k. but we are 11 minutes in to the continental trading day. we see green arrows across the board. he stocks zero 600 up about half a percent. milan, more than 1%, being driven, pun intended,

by fiat chrysler. let's go to dani burger. dani: that pun teed me up perfectly. fiat chrysler shares up more than 15%. 50-50 would renault make it the third biggest carmaker in the world. both posting decline. iss saying it is not likely to see its contract renewed. that contract so therese buyer -- set to expire at the end of the year. set to be the biggest loss for the year. frombrand, a tax ruling the norwegian tax rulings saying what they saw and taxes from 2015, some tweaks will be made. that means a bigger tax charge will occur so shares are falling

more than 2%. matt: thank you very much, dani. turning now to the u.k. it is closed right now but they still have the election. like everyone else, there are eight tory mps in the running to succeed prime minister theresa may in the next election. candidates include foreign secretary boris johnson, is replacement jeremy hunt, and former secretary dominic rob. the brexit party took first place in the nation you election poll with over 30% of the vote. has warnedncellor against pandering to hardliners. he says the government that forces a no deal brexit risks being brought down. by the way, he is not in the running to succeed theresa may. thanos is still with us. two important elections here. one we just had, one is coming

up. interestingly, because the u.k. eventually will not be involved, at least theoretically, what do you make of the big win for not just the brexit party, but the two parties who have a clear stand on in or out. thanos: the key point is this clarity. i think people really have been set up with the uncertainty which has prevailed. the two parties with the clear message seem to have been at the forefront. but there is no surprise in terms of the u.k. development from the brexit party. i think liberals did come as a surprise but not the brexit party. matt: what do you make of the pm contest shaping up for now. i think we know that hammond will not be taking part, but boris johnson seems to be at least among the tories a favor win. a favorite to

thanos: boris johnson is the favorite by far. i think it will be a pickle for the tories. one scenario is boris gets the leadership. calls for brexit, another opening of the renegotiations, being rebuffed by brussels, comes back to the house of parliament, the u.k. took offering no deal brexit -- u.k. to call for a no deal brexit, which will not go through, and jeremy corbyn has a high probability of coming in. scenario two, which would be a possible compromise for boris johnson, goes to brussels and seeks a two-year delay in the exit. during that two-year period he could potentially find technological advancements to put together a customs program which avoids the backstop. if that were to happen it would

likely stay until 2022. matt: is the corbyn government worse for the u.k. economy than a hard brexit? thanos: i think the uncertainty a corbyn government would prevail could be worse than a hard brexit. if it would be a full majority or not. but the uncertainty still with a majority government would be significant. thanos, a little more to talk about with you. let's take a quick look at the sectors on the move this morning in terms of the grr function on the stoxx 600. specifically the automakers, doing the best in terms of one-day moves. up 2.5% right now. we see tech stocks following up and then financials. these are the kind of leaders you want to see if you are along

this market. you want to see financial doing well. you want to see retail, banks doing well. of course all the industries are winning today, but bringing up the rear you see utilities, you see insurance, ec food and beverage, health care. stocks are theve smallest winners. and fiat chrysler and the automakers easily the biggest. renault up 16%. billionaireuawei's founder stands defiance in the face of u.s. sanctions that threaten the survival of a's company. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: welcome back to bloomberg markets. stocks are not trading in london today but we are trading across the rest of the continent. looking at some decent gains, especially in milan where 1.5%.hrysler, a gain of 111 seeing gains of over and change. cac also being held by automakers, up .9%. don't short the yuan. that is the warning from china,

even as bearish sentiment grows among the u.s. china trade war. to the brink of the critical seven per dollar level even before the clawed back some losses. bloomberg spoke to the ceo of huawei. accused of espionage and blacklisted by washington. but they told bloomberg a tit-for-tat would not negotiate with president trump. >> the u.s. has never bought products from us. even if the u.s. wants to buy products from the future, i will not sell to them. there is no need for negotiation. i will ignore trump. then who can he negotiate with? if he called me i would not answer, but he does not even have my number. 's tweets are laughable because they are self-contradictory. >> critics of huawei would say you got where you are through

intellectual theft and government support. what is your response to that? the u.s. has not developed that technology, so where should i steal it? ? it is more likely they are stealing our technology. trump attacks us because we are now more advanced than them. >> there have been calls some in to retaliatejing against apple. is that an action that china should be looking at taking? translate: that will not happen, first of all. and second of all, if that happens, i will be the first to protest. apple is the world's leading company. if there was no apple they would be no mobile internet. we would not see the beauty of this world. apple is my teacher.

it is advancing in front of us. as a student, why should i oppose my teacher? i would never do that. >> earlier this year you overtook apple as the number two smartphone maker. esau smartphone sales in the first quarter jump about 50%. and of course you have that goal of becoming the number one smartphone maker in the world. does that goal now have to be shelved? translater: we can become bigger or smaller. is good -- it is good enough are off to just survive. enough for us to just survive. matt: fascinating interview there with the huawei ceo. you can catch more of that interview this saturday in a bloomberg television special, huawei, conducted and contested. and of course online as well.

this, as china's banking regulator advisors -- advises against shortening against the yuan. they will suffer from a huge loss. thanos is still with us. thanos, what do you make of the whole huawei story? clearly this is just a negotiating trent -- tactic from president trump where he is trying to use huawei as leverage. do you expect this to end well for both sides? thanos: i do. i think this is a clever negotiating ploy from president trump, given the significant strength in the s&p over the last few years. it gives him some room to maneuver and play hardball with china and also with the middle east. so i do expect for both sides to come to a compromise, save face, and allow both economies to continue doing well.

potentially we will see some discussions taking place at the end of june in osaka at the next g20 meeting. matt: what do you think about the yuan? a yuan going below seven or above seven, but then weakening against the dollar seems almost as inevitable as bitcoin hitting 10,000 right now. why would you not short it? thanos: i would not agree with that. i think the yuan is unlikely to break seven. we think it is likely to strengthen from here, partly because it would be a very big clinical statement. if the level seven were to break, it is a clear political statement from the chinese policymakers that they are taking the u.s. on an terms of trade wars and allowing the currency to be devalued in terms of competitive advantage. this is not a signal they would want to give. they will use that as an ace in their sleep alongside the overall levels of treasury they have. it is not something to be used likely and i do not think that

is time to be use yet. i am not sure if you invest in cryptocurrencies at all, but bitcoin has been on an incredible run. over 8000 right now. what are your thoughts on the digital currency? say i ams you rightly not a specialist in terms of digital currencies. i have also been following these develop its. i believe the low was around 3000 earlier this year and it has recently surged higher. this could also be because of recent discussions between considering a virtual currency to be put together. somethingure if it is as a safe value but it should not be totally dismissed. be aware of and keep an eye on what the future holds. matt: pleasure spending some time with the. thanos, really appreciate it.

founder and chief investment officer at abp invest. next, the populace attack falls short. mainstream parties hold their ground and eu election. ♪ ♪ the latest innovation from xfinity

isn't just a store. it's a save more with a new kind of wireless network store. it's a look what your wifi can do now store. a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome.

matt: we are 30 minutes into the trading day. let's get your top headlines. europe's radical parties failed to cause an upset in eu elections. edges higher as angela merkel's alliance is set to remain the largest bloc. fiat-chrysler proposes to buy renault. the deal would create the world's third biggest carmaker. and huawei's billionaire founder stands defiant in the face of u.s. sanctions that threaten the survival of his company. translater: i will ignore trump. then will who can he negotiate?

if he calls me i may not answer. matt: good morning and welcome to bloomberg markets. this is the european open. 30 minutes into the trading day let's see how things are shaping up in terms of the stocks that are trading. the u.k. is on holiday today, but we still see about 450 out of the stoxx 600 issues trading right now. and they are led mostly by carmakers. 400 are gaining, only 45 are falling. fiat-chrysler is a big gainer, 14%. renault is up 12% after what is being touted by some as a merger of equals, as laughable as that phrase maybe. it is bringing up the tide for carmakers. we really see all carmakers rising. daimlerchrysler of about 2%. porsche up about 2% as well. on the downside of things, we

see a couple of issues that are going ex dividend. socgen is going ex dividend, swatch is going ex dividend. those are weighing on the stoxx 600. i would not say pulling down because the index itself is of course gaining. we are looking at right now i gain of about two thirds of 1% on the broader european index. let's get the bloomberg first word news now. >> president trump says the u.s. will have a trade deal with japan and china, but he was vague on the timeframe of an agreement with the world's second-biggest economy. hea summit in tokyo, reiterated his opposition to the transpacific partnership trade agreement, but lauded the ties between the u.s. and japan. >> the u.s. japan alliance is steadfast and ironclad. we want peace and we want

stability. big government that tries to force a no deal brexit risks being brought down. that is the warning of chancellor philip hammond to colleagues looking to take over as prime minister. he says parliament strongly opposes leaving without a deal. he also did not rule out the possibility that he could vote against a government on such a confidence motion. bitcoin has soared to the highest level in a year. this extends a run that has seen prices more than doubled since march. crypto proponents are taking encouragement from a string of headlines showing greater interest from mainstream firms. bitcoin's fantastic ride this year follows a painful 2018 which saw its value tumble more than 70%. global news 24 hours a day on air and on tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. matt: thank you very much.

we have some breaking news out of austria. the nationalists are backing a no-confidence vote, and that means the chancellor faces a possible ouster. the freedom party has called for the no-confidence vote in vienna and austria's very young chancellor, i think he is only 32 years old, facing a possible ouster as the nationalists back a no-confidence vote which could overturn his strategy of gaining their vote in the next election. eu voters are sticking with the mainstream though, generally, across the continent. early election results show establishment parties for the most part held their ground. the exceptions are in france and italy, were populists topped the polls. and in britain the brexit party is in first place filed by the

pro-eu liberal democrats. joining me now is regional advisor antinational rally. we also have -- advisor at the national rally. diwlso have someone from berlin. let me ask you what you make of the results of the vote. about thethis say feeling of the french populists? >> i think it is a huge victory for us because it is the best call ever from the national rally in terms of voters. huge participation. is also now clear the only two parties are the national rally and the emmanuel macron party. matt: but you will not be working together anytime soon, right? so what does this mean for

french politics going forward? there are some really divisive issues that need to be solved. the yellow vests protests, among them. how can you work to find solutions for the people? >> i think emmanuel macron has to hear what has been said by the voters last night. that is to say that france is very divided between two territories. the big cities who are taking advantage and organized at the moment, and all the other territories in france which are the countryside, which are suffering from european politics offer from -- but also from government politics. matt: why do you think you do well in the european parliamentary elections and not as well and french national elections? do you expect that to change? >> i cannot say we did not do well for the last elections in france. we are still the first party in

france. we were in the second round of the presidential election. so, it depends on the kind of election because the rules are different. of course the european parliament elections, it is easier for us to get an mp. score athave a huge any elections in france. matt: what do you think about this, about what they are claiming as a factory? they certainly have -- as a victory. they certainly have done a lot better than the afp in germany. favored morerench than the germans, what they call a populist party? >> in germany they have a different economic situation. record low unemployment, the economy is booming. so the right-wing party has actually lost in the european election now compared to the last elections two years ago.

90% are more pro-european forces. you have a time major upheaval in german politics because the social democrats and the conservatives lost more than 17% together in the european election. the ones picking up the vote is not the right-wing extremists, but the green party, who more than doubled its voting share. so there is a shift but the good news for pro-european forces is it is not the anti-europeans benefiting but more reshuffling within the german establishment. matt: what do you think about the economic situation in france? what would your party do given the choice to improve the economy and to boost growth in france? macron --mmanuel

he has not managed to make the boom happen. the situation and france is totally his responsibility. now i think in france we need to change this economic model. i am agreeing with your other guest. ecological issues are at the top of voters now. to producefocus more more in france and consume more in france. there is no sense to produce in with wrongoducts economic -- economic -- wrong ecological rules. this is the biggest issue we are going to face in the next

elections and in the next years. when you look at the situation here in germany, we are looking at almost an economic stagnation. maybe not as bad as what was expected at the end of last year and the first quarter of this year. do you see that improvement without germany spending more money? >> the fundamentals of the german economy are still very sound. andmain risk to germany europe comes from the global side. we see the slowdown in global trade is really the driving force behind slower domestic consumption. that is different from the situation three years ago. in germany, fundamentals are sound. wages are growing, competitiveness is very high. if you look at midsized german companies that have a stable and high market share. so i think the key challenge will be to tackle the global

issues. there are still some homemade problems. we have huge problems in italy the government not doing the right reforms. italy being relatively weak. we have a brexit to solve. but the key message is the german economy at least for the next two to three years is relatively sound with a strong foundation. also forces -- for fiscal spending, in my view the german government should push more public investment, use some fiscal space they now have to preemptively stabilize the economy and not wait. matt: it is clear they will not do that. the german government will not loosen the purse strings. they have things to spend on. the infrastructure here is crumbling. the highway system, the airports, the digitalization has not come forward. a lot of places still do not have broadband internet. but it seems every government

participant that i speak with, including the wise men and women that advise merkel, do not want to spend more money. >> germany is spending more money but it is on social issues. increasing pension and social security. so germany has social polarization. you see there is a very strong anti-movement against the big parties. i think it is not the issue whether the german government is spending enough for my -- or not. i think the german government is spending a lot. if the economy is recovering, i agree the german government will not have a fiscal stimulus. but i think if there was another slow down, i think the german government could and would act quickly. matt: really appreciate your time this morning.

thank you for joining us. next we are going to bring you some of the stock movers this morning, including renault and fiat-chrysler after the proposed merger between them. renault shares getting 14%. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: welcome back to the european open. a holiday in the ukase of stocks will not be trading. if you are waking up in london you can go back to bed. but we are open across the continent, and we are looking at some decent gains. .5% on the dax. up almost 1% on the core european indexes. still seeing more than 1% gain in italy because of the big deal we are talking about, fiat-chrysler making a pitch to buy renault. attractingy is record amount of capital. billion was10 raised. a rival is planning to raise money in the next year. what is it about this sector which appeals to investors?

joining us is partner at bc partners. thank you very much for joining us. what do you think it is about private equity? is the track record? is it the exclusivity? is it the strategy that is attracting capital? >> i actually think that it is two things. thatsistency of returns there asset class has been able to demonstrate for several years as well as the fact that it can allocate a lot of capital. this market has a lot of liquidity and they need to fuel it somewhere. market equity has proven to be a consistent return asset class. it has been able to generate superior returns compared to other asset classes. and it is probably the only one who can do so over a long amount of time. what we have seen is the private equity model is actually

consistency oft returns. it is a model which very much has advantages for both investors, management teams, as well as portfolio companies. that is why this asset class has continued to grow and has tripled over the last decade. my expectation is it will continue to do so. matt: you made a lot of money on a bloomberg competitor. you acquired a service that competes with bloomberg in terms of m&a data and news. i think you bought it for 300 80 million pounds and sold it for over one billion pounds. what value does private equity add to a business like that? nikos: you are right. we bought a business that used to be called merger market and we renamed it acura's. it remains a competitor to bloomberg. the reality is this was a relatively neglected asset

within a large corporate at the time but we saw it as a huge potential. and we partnered with management to create what we feel is a global leader in information services. what we did is we identified a few value drivers to do so. first, we bet a lot in technology as well as people. we invested a lot in introducing new products. we introduced new services. we expanded geographically. we also incentivized different leave the salesforce in order to be able to upsell and cross sell. we created some new product verticals. and all this by maintaining what is the core at the end of the day this business. the company has about 1000 journalists worldwide. this is what will continue to make it a growing business. it will continue to grow double-digit growth. good has grown double digits

during our ownership and i'm confident it will continue to do so going forward. matt: i think you sold a minority stake to singapore's sovereign wealth fund. we see other sovereign wealth funds getting together to make big deals. buyand abu dhabi looking to a skincare unit for about $10 billion. are sovereign wealth funds presenting a competitive challenge? how do they change the landscape for you? nikos: i do not think they present a challenge. on the contrary. it is one trend i think we will continue to see going forward. funds andign wealth generally lp's have become partners of private equity funds. they are not investors by definition and most cases, but what they have proven to be is a great source of capital, not

just when it comes to fundraising, but also when it comes to taking minority stakes on portfolio companies. but the way i look at this is that the actual gp and lp relationship, the investor relationship, is changing. and the dynamics are very interesting. this provides an additional touch point, i would say, with our investors. where in the past they would invest in various strategies that we would have, like in the case of bc partners and private equity, and real estate, credit. this time around we also offer them the opportunity to invest in minority stakes in portfolio companies. and it is a great way of creating that long-term relationship, that long-term partnership with your investors, and continue to be the stewards of their capital. so i expect this will be more of a partnership as opposed to any competitive threat or similar like that. matt: thank you very much for

joining us. nikos, pleasure having you. hope we can get you again in the future. if you are a terminal subscriber you can check out the latest m&a news by typing and go on the bloomberg. we will bring you more on today's biggest deal story next, the fiat-chrysler, renault merger talks. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: welcome back to the european open. we are about five minutes away from finishing the first hour of trading. of course there is not any trading in the u.k. we have equity indexes open across europe. we are seeing green arrows across the board. there will not be any trading in the u.s. either just in case you are wondering how this will go on. but we see futures trading higher for u.s. equity indexes that will open tomorrow. the big deal today, fiat-chrysler has announced a 50-50 merger proposal deal with renault. this may lead to the creation of the world's third biggest automaker. i am not sure what it would be called. let's go to our milan bureau chief and find out. would there be a name change?

will they just be fiat-chrysler renault? be fiat-chrysler renaul nissan mitsubishi? >> i don't have an answer for you right now. what i can say is the new company will be based in the netherlands, as fiat-chrysler is based in the netherlands. about thering possible chairman. be the ceo ceo could of the combined entity, an entity where the business investor will be -- what looks interesting is essentially that fiat seems to be in the driving seat in this merger plan. obviously this is just the beginning. we have to see how it goes.

we have already seen some political reaction. tommaso also wrote the book. may indeed find this merger to be a victory. this is bloomberg. ♪ s is bloomberg. ♪

>> holding back the tide. europe's parties failed to cause an upset in elections. angela merkel's alliance is set to remain the largest bloc. fiat-chrysler proposes a tie up with renault. the deal would create the world's third biggest carmaker. and huawei's billionaire founder stands --