Return to Transcripts main page

Quest Means Business

Boston Bomber Guilty on All Counts; Shell, BG Announce $70 Billion Deal; US Market Swings; European Markets Close Lower; Tunisian Security Concerns; Jewels Snatched in Audacious London Heist

Aired April 08, 2015 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:00] (NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSING BELL)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: Ah! She forgot to push the bell, but by the miracles of modern technology, the bell was pushed anyway. And now, for

the closing -- one. Oh, dear. Crains New York Business shortchanging us on the gavel as trading came to a close on Wednesday, the 8th of April.

Tonight, the Boston bomber is guilty on 30 counts. The same jury must now decide if he faces the death penalty.

Also we'll tell you, shelling out $70 billion on BG. A gas giant is created.

And there's a huge heist in the heart of London. Thieves make off with millions in cash and jewels. It's the sort of thing you'd see in the

movies.

I'm Richard Quest. I mean business.

Good evening from London. We begin tonight with the breaking news from Boston in the United States, where a jury has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

guilty on all 30 counts that he was facing in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

The 21-year-old Tsarnaev stood with his head bowed and his hands clasped as verdicts were read. He now faces the death penalty or life in prison. The

trial is to move to the penalty phase in the coming days, where the jury will hear more testimony and determine Tsarnaev's fate.

CNN's national security analyst Juliette Kayyem joins us now from Newton in Massachusetts just outside Boston where, indeed, Tsarnaev was finally

captured. So, the guilty verdicts were not unexpected, but really to the large extent, what is the likelihood now from anything we can gauge that

the jury will go for the death penalty?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's a hard question to answer, because what we do know is that, obviously, this group of jurors

believe in the death penalty. They feel and they stated so to the judge before they sat as jurors that they would be willing to give the death

penalty if the facts and evidence showed that.

So, at least this is a group that would do it, and it's, I have to say, the polling in Boston is almost consistently most people don't agree with the

death penalty. So, it's a unique group for this city.

But I will -- the defense attorney put on, or at least started to put on sort of slivers of very good evidence to suggest that Dzhokhar was the good

brother as compared to the bad brother. In other words, but for his older brother, Dzhokhar would have just been sort of a misfit Cambridge Boston

kid. And she did -- she was able to put forth some evidence that might make a lot of jurors not eventually send him to death.

QUEST: Right. In this trial -- I mean, the verdicts are now in -- but in this trial, did we earn anything about Tsarnaev that we didn't really know?

That made you sort of sit up and think, ooh, now hang on a second?

KAYYEM: So, I think there were two pieces of evidence for a lot of people watching it that were sort of the most jarring. I think the first was it

was the first time that we learned where Dzhokhar was in those immediate moments after he killed a couple people and injured a couple hundred, that

he went to a supermarket, that he hung out there, that he ate. Just this casualness that really makes him seem very, very evil.

I think the other piece, though, is sort of later on in the week on Friday, when there was this manhunt, that the -- what he wrote on the boat, as all

the Watertown police are surrounding him, the statements about his brother and about jihad and wanting to die, that had never been fully disclosed,

either.

And so, I think that there were pieces of information that are going to be interesting for the sentencing phase, and particularly as a Bostonian, I

think the trial was important just for some sense of closure, although there'll never be perfect closure. But just some sense for the families

that they got to at least hear this out.

QUEST: Juliette, thank you for your interpretation, your analysis, and for giving us some guidance on this next phase. Many thanks.

Now, in our business agenda tonight, the biggest deal the oil and gas sector has seen in more than 15 years. The chief executive of Shell and

the chairman of BG Group shared a handshake at the London Stock Exchange. Well, that's the handshake. And they announce that the two companies are

to merge. Shell's agreed to a $70 billion deal. It'll take over BG.

[16:05:00] In the old days, used to be known as the old British Gas. I'm old enough to remember that. Shell will pay a 50 percent premium on BG's

closing price on Tuesday, 13.56.

Oil and gas takeovers often happen when oil prices are low, but this one is particularly interesting. You've got BG Group, one of the last that have

not been snapped up, and you've got Shell. Now, if completed, BG's operations will increase Shell's oil and gas reserves by a massive 25

percent.

So, not only do they get a quarter more reserves, it will boost production by 20 percent. The BG Group CEO Helge Lund will take up as much as $40

million in cash and shares. He's only been at BG for a year.

But in one of those quirks of the way CEO contracts are structured, along with many of the senior management of BG, if the company is taken over,

they get a minimum of a year's salary, and of course, many of their options they vest.

Gary Ross is the founder and executive chairman of PIRA Energy Group. He joins me now from New York.

GARY ROSS, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN AND HEAD OF GLOBAL OIL, PIRA ENERGY: Hello, Richard.

QUEST: The oil and gas industry, what drove this deal? Is it just that there was a dramatic fall in the price, which makes these deals make sense?

ROSS: I think so. It's opportunistic, because prices are incredibly low. They're less than half where they were a couple years ago. And BG offers

some attractive long-term assets, as long as the price goes back up, Richard.

QUEST: Ah, now, nobody believes that the price is going to certainly going to go back to the levels that we saw, say, two years ago, 18 months ago

anytime soon. Do you still hold that view?

ROSS: That's right. Well, we don't -- we're not expecting prices to go back above $100 Brent or back where L&G was like $15, $16 a million BTU.

But we do expect prices to move higher, and I think we're at the low end of the range now, so that this acquisition could look pretty good in a few

years' time at much higher prices.

QUEST: Is that -- I still am having difficulty understanding the, if you like -- yes, so, Shell pays a lot of money to BG shareholders, who get

something like 18 or 19 percent of the company. But they -- the reserves, by boosting the reserves of Shell by some 20-odd percent, 25 percent, that

only becomes truly profitable if prices go back up.

ROSS: Well, I think that's right. And I think Shell knows that at current prices you can't replace half of the existing oil production today. The

prices are just too low. And when you look at the decline rates in production around the world, you just have to think that the prices are

going to have to go higher.

And demand is beginning to respond as well to the low prices. US oil demand was -- has been averaging up like 3, 500,00 barrels a day in the

first few months of this year. So, price works.,

QUEST: Where is -- price, ah! No, don't -- where is BG giving Shell something they don't already have?

ROSS: Well, they're giving them a lot of potential L&G projects. They're very big in L&G, and a lot of very attractive assets if the prices go

higher. So, places like in the United States, Australia, and elsewhere.

So, I think it fits right in very nicely with the Shell system, with the Shell L&G, who Shell's already huge in L&G. But again, the caveat is, we

have to see higher prices or else this is not going to work very well.

QUEST: Right. Well, that -- assuming -- humor me, Gary, if you will -- assuming that they believe there are higher prices, or at least marginally

higher still to come, does this fire a starting gun for other consolidation in the industry? And if it does, who should we be keeping a beady eye on?

ROSS: Well --

(LAUGHTER)

ROSS: I wish I knew, Richard. But I think you're right. I think the industry, there'll be more activity. This is the starting gun, and I think

other people are looking at attractive opportunities, and I think you're going to see more deals done in the next few months.

Because I think these prices are extraordinarily low. Therefore, it creates a great opportunity for the larger companies who haven't been able

to grow their reserves to acquire incremental reserves.

QUEST: Gary, good to see you, sir. I shall be watching closely --

ROSS: Thank you, Richard.

QUEST: -- on those share prices to see -- oh, not the share prices. The price of oil. I'm about to do the share prices now. The price of oil.

Mustn't get my prices mixed. Gary joining us from New York.

[16:09:58] Now, BG shares soared more than 26 percent. I'm just looking at the numbers at the moment. Bearing in mind it was a 52 percent premium

to the 90-day average price, it does show you that. The shares were up 26 percent. Shell fell nearly 5 percent in Amsterdam, possibly one of those

things where buy on the rumor, sell on the news.

When we come back, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, it was the most dreadful attack in Tunisia that left many people dead. The question, of course, how the

country and the tourism industry of Tunisia manages to convince tourists it's safe to return. It's a question for the tourism minister of the

country, who'll be with us next. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Two interesting questions -- well, one interesting questions with two times. What happened in New York just

before 11:00 in the morning, and at roughly 20 past 2:00 in the afternoon? They were both times when the New York Stock Exchange dipped, in one case,

just a little bit under the level, in the other case, quite a large dip.

Alison Kosik is in New York to try and -- the vagrancies of the market. I mean, we can maybe ignore the 11:00 one, but what on Earth happened later

in the day?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Fed minutes came out from their meeting in the middle of March. That's when you saw that bit of

a dip, not much, because then you saw stocks come back up.

Look, it was one of those days where stocks really didn't know which way to go. They grappled with earnings season beginning right after the bell

today with Alcoa kicking it off. First quarter earnings season expected to disappoint. The expectation is that earnings will come in 4.5 percent

lower than last year.

And then, they were grappling with those Fed minutes. What did those members say? Those members really couldn't come to an agreement. Some

said rates would go up in June, some were pushing for rates to go up in September. But remember, Richard, this -- these minutes came out before

that very disappointing jobs report in March.

QUEST: All right. We have the -- the little dips in the market. Although, I have to say, Alison, we haven't time to go into it, but I have

to say, those minutes came out at 2:00, correct?

KOSIK: Yes.

QUEST: And that dip happened at 20 past 2:00, so there's a lot of slow readers.

(LAUGHTER)

KOSIK: Yes. I think so.

QUEST: Well, I just thought I'd mention. All right, Alison Kosik is in New York. To the European markets.

(RINGS BELL)

QUEST: And they closed slightly lower on Wednesday. Energy shares outperformed the other sectors. Well, obviously, the Shell-BG deal. But

it wasn't sufficient to overweigh the rest of the market. The largest losses came in Frankfort, the DAX down three quarters of one percent.

Tunisia's tourism minister admits neither she nor the government can give a total guarantee of zero risk for travelers who visit her country. Still,

safety remains her number one priority.

The minister is part of a Tunisian delegation visiting Paris, where the president met with his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, on Tuesday.

France has pledged security support, and Tunisia is hoping to reassure tourists. For good reason, look at the numbers. Tourism is 15 percent of

GDP in Tunisia.

Now, I asked Salma Elloumi Rekik how the recent attack -- and remember, that recent attack killed more than 20 people who were visiting a museum --

how that attack has affected Tunisian tourism.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[16:15:03] SALMA ELLOUMI REKIK, TUNISIAN TOURISM MINISTER (though translator): Currently, the main concern for us is security, and we must

effectively provide security for the whole of the tourist regions, for hotels and tourists themselves.

We are applying measures decided upon on the 19th of March. We've started to have work meetings. Once we're over the shock of the attack, it's

important to take a certain amount of decisions with regards to security. Now we're trying to apply full transparency in dealing with this problem.

QUEST: But obviously, you still have to do the work of now convincing tourists that they are safe.

REKIK (through translator): It's very important to convince them that the security problem is under control. We can't say that there is zero risk,

but we've seen attacks on many destinations in the past, attacks in Jordan, for instance, Egypt. And we've seen tourism recover.

They want to hurt the economy, democracy in general, and it doesn't succeed, because there is a capacity to forget and to disassociate

terrorism from these destinations that have repeat visitors. Certain hotels are still full and remain full

QUEST: When you look at what happened and you look at how it happened, what lesson has the industry and the government learned to prevent it from

happening again?

REKIK (through translator): We have learned lessons. We are at war with terrorism, and we are not the only ones, because we have agreements with

Western countries, neighboring countries, to precisely eradicate and to ensure that these movements do not have a future.

QUEST: How do you keep your -- staff, your security, from remembering that the risk is always there?

REKIK (through translator): We do not intend to stop the measures decided upon on the 19th of March, the ones taken to ensure security in our

country. We know that these are things that cannot quickly disappear, and we must truly put in place a structural system to ensure security in the

medium and long term.

We can't say in 8 months it's finished, in 18 months it's finished. We have to be extremely vigilant to give a level of security equivalent to

that in France or in the US or in London or in any European destination.

QUEST: And to those people who say why hadn't you done it before?

REKIK (through translator): That's true. But you know that Tunisia has had four years of instability. It's the first time that we've had

presidential elections with universal suffrage for five years. So, we are entering a period of stability, a new page in our history.

It's the first government of the second Tunisian Republic, and we are going to be able to put in place important structural reforms to relaunch this

economy, and tourism, which is an important sector for our economy. And you know that this cannot be done without security.

This government, this new government, we've been here for two months, and it's been a heavy blow for our country, but we are determined to eradicate

this phenomenon. We are not optimistic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: The Tunisian tourism minister talking to me earlier.

All that glitters may not be diamond and jewels, and if they were, they may not be there now. It's a jewel heist that's reminiscent of a movie. But

who took the jewels and why? We'll be in London with that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:02] QUEST: By any definition, it was scandalous, it was astonishing in its audacity, and it could be the biggest heist of its kind

in the United Kingdom. Thieves armed with power tools and rappelling gear have raided the vaults of a safe deposit company in London's Hatton Garden,

absolutely crucially in the center of the city.

Well, the crime went unnoticed for as long as four days over the Easter holiday, and the thieves may have made off with hundreds of millions of

dollars in precious gems and cash. The police are now on the scene and carrying out what they described as a slow and painstaking forensic

examination. CNN's Phil Black now looks at how the robbers may have pulled off such a brazen heist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Throughout London's diamond district, one question is being asked by everyone: how

did they do it? CNN has a photo which answers at least part of the question: the method of entry.

The person who snapped this doesn't want to be identified and says it shows the roof and the lift shaft running through the building of the Hatton

Garden Safe Deposit Company. It shows new bricks and wet mortar, strongly suggesting this was repaired after thieves smashed their way in through the

wall.

But this was just the beginning. They then had to get down through the building to the underground vault, cut their way through that, and only

then get to work on the safety deposit boxes. And how did they avoid the alarm system?

Norman Bean believes they didn't. He's a longtime jewelry maker who uses one of the vault's safety deposit boxes. He says the company's security

guard told him the alarm was triggered Friday, the first day of the Easter long weekend.

NORMAN BEAN, CUSTOMER: He says he went down, he looked through the glass, it looked all clear, and he said he just went. And I was really upset. I

thought, he should have waited for the police and then gone inside to check it out.

BLACK: Bean says he asked why the guard didn't inspect the vault more closely.

BEAN: He said, "I've don't -- I don't get enough money to go in," that's what he told me.

BLACK: The company couldn't be reached for comment. Its website boasts of its precautions and shows photos of some of the initial security inside.

It doesn't show the vault. But people who've been in there say there are 600 safety deposit boxes in various sizes. Police say between 60 and 70

were broken into.

JAMES RILEY, THE GEMOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN: If one or two of the diamond merchants have lost the best stock, which would be kept

there, then we could be looking into certain single millions, perhaps even to 10-plus million.

BLACK: The police say it will take time to work out whose boxes were hit. Gerry Landon is one of the nervous people waiting to hear. He says he had

hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of valuables in his.

GERRY LANDON, DEPOSIT BOX OWNER: It's very hard to believe that.

BLACK (on camera): Can you give me a sense of what you've kept in there?

LANDON: Oh, loose diamonds and jewelry, and some cash.

BLACK: Hatton Garden has always been an obvious target for criminals. The businesses here know it. It's why they spend a lot of money and effort on

security. The concern is this happened anyway, and it could prove to be both in value and scale the greatest crime this area has ever seen.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Roy Ramm is the former commander of the Flying Squad, the economic crime unit of Scotland Yard. He joins me now via Skype from Cyprus. My

word, sir, this is one out of the old school, isn't it?

ROY RAMM, FORMER COMMANDER, FLYING SQUAD, SCOTLAND YARD: Richard, you would have to go back over 40 years to see anything quite like it, when

some robbers tunneled into Lloyd's Bank in Baker Street and dug a 40-yard tunnel to break in and use thermal lances and explosives to get into the

vault. So, this is not by any means an everyday offense, that's for sure.

QUEST: Who did it, Roy? What's your gut feeling? Are we looking at your good old-fashioned London criminal, or are we looking at something far more

sinister, do you think?

RAMM: Well, that could be that $100 million question, because we don't even know yet just how much money has been taken from these boxes. But

history does show us that in safety deposit boxes when they have been opened and the police have been able to establish about how much it's gone,

it's been 50, 60 million pounds in the past.

Who did it? Well, that's obviously way too early yet to even speculate. But there are London gangs who are capable of doing this. But I think that

it's such a one-off, we need to look at the kind of investigation that's going to take place now. We're going to look at the forensic evidence,

which is -- these days much, much more valuable than it's ever been before.

[16:25:06] The idea that there may have been five or six men working down in this vault for a number of days and not have left any kind of forensic

trace --

QUEST: Right.

RAMM: -- is pretty unlikely.

QUEST: Whenever we hear these -- and I'm aware that you're a former very senior police officer -- but whenever we hear of these sort of cases,

there's almost a -- begrudging wow. It's almost as if, look what they did, they got away with it.

I think of the Great Train Robbery. In that case, somebody, of course, died. But you referred to the bank job with -- on the Lloyd's Bank on

Baker Street. Do you have any sneaking admiration that somebody's able to pull off something like this?

RAMM: I wouldn't say it was admiration. But what I do say is at least they didn't harm anybody in the commission of the offense, as far as we

know, that's for sure. They have put themselves on the line to some extent and gone out bold over at least a weekend, expose themselves. If they'd

have been caught in that vault, that would have been curtains for them for a very long time.

So, I wouldn't say it's admiration, but I certainly don't hold them in the kind of contempt that I hold the people that go out and rob with guns.

There's been a lot of effort in this crime, there's no doubt about that.

QUEST: Very good to talk to you, sir. Thank you very much, joining us on the line --

RAMM: Pleasure.

QUEST: -- from Cyprus. A meeting between Greek and Russian leaders, now that's enough to stir speculation in Europe. The Greek prime minister

Alexis Tsipras met the Russian president Vladimir Putin. There was plenty to talk about, and maybe money was on the agenda. Up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment, when the French air traffic controllers mean it grinds to a

halt aviation in Europe. You're going to hear from the union that talks about what the airlines want.

And the first reviews of the Apple Watch are in. We're going to talk to someone who was lucky enough to wear one all week.

Before that, this is CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty on all 30 counts he faced in the Boston Marathon bombing trial. The 21-year-old could now face a life in

prison or the death penalty. The jury will decide his fate when the trial moves to the penalty phase. One of the survivors speaking on behalf of the

victims' families says that the ordeal isn't over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:30:11] KAREN BRASSARD, BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVOR: It's not something that you'll ever be over. You know, you'll feel it forever - there'll

always be something that brings it back to the forefront. But we're all going to move on with our lives and we're all going to get back to some

sense of normalcy hopefully when this is all done. So closure I guess, I don't think only because it's forever a part of our life.

QUEST: Four white police officers are under arrest after being recorded on camera shooting an apparently unarmed black man. The victim is Walter

Scott seen here was a Coast Guard veteran, the father who had been pulled over for a broken tail light.

The video shot by a witness shows the officer shooting him eight times as Scott ran away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDDIE DRIGGERS, POLICE CHIEF: I'm'll be - I'm'll be totally honest with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do that.

DRIGGERS: I am. And give me just a second. The honesty comes from my heart. I have watched the video and I was sickened by what I saw.

QUEST: A desperately-needed aid shipment has arrived in Aden as fighting intensifies for the last major stronghold of Yemen's deposed president.

The United States is now speeding up weapons deliveries to the Saudi-led coalition that's fighting the Houthi rebels.

Thieves using heavy cutting equipment and repelling gear carried out an audacious raid on a safe deposit company in London. Police say between 60

and 70 boxes were opened during the raid. It's estimated that the $300 million worth of gems and cash were stolen.

Tunisia's tourism minister has told me security remains to be number one the priority after Islamist terrorists gunned down 21 foreign tourists in a

museum last month as part of a government delegation to Paris aimed at strengthening security and ties with the French President Hollande.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SELMA ELLOUMI REKIK, TUNISIAN TOURISM MINISTER, VIA INTERPRETER: It's very important to convince them that the security problem is under control. We

can't say that there no risk but we've seen attacks on many destinations in the past - attacks in Jordan for instance, Egypt - and we've seen tourism

recover. They want to hurt the economy, democracy in general and it doesn't succeed

because there is a capacity to for forget and to dissociate terrorism from these destinations that have repeat visitors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: What on earth was Alexis Tsipras up to when he went to Moscow? The Greek prime minister met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the

tone of the meeting is unlikely to please other members of the E.U. Was Mr. Putin mischief-making throughout all of this? Or was money being

offered and maybe helping Greece get out of its existing problems? Now, in a joint press conference, Tsipras had a go at European sanctions against

Russia, saying it's tantamount to economic war. Meanwhile, the Russian president told reporters Greece have not asked for

financial help. He said Russia will not take advantage of its relationship with Greece.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VIA INTERPRETER: I want to assure you that we are not going to use any kind of situations within the European

Union in order to bit by bit resolve the issue of improving relations with the European Block as a whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Yes, what was it all about? Here to talk about the meeting in Moscow is Athanasios Vamvakidis, the currency strategist with Bank of

America Merrill Lynch. Good to see you, sir.

THANOS VAMVAKIDIS, BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH GLOBAL RESEARCH, CURRENCY STRATEGIST: Good to see you, Richard.

QUEST: What were they up to?

VAMVAKIDIS: Well, according to their official statement, the meeting main goal was to perhaps to relax some of the restriction on Greek exports to

Russia and discuss future energy cooperation.

QUEST: No, but come on - E.U. leaders are not supposed to be going to Moscow at a time when the E.U. is putting maximum pressure with sanctions

over Crimea.

VAMVAKIDIS: Indeed this raises a lot of questions and the prime minister's statements against the sanctions are likely to upset not only the U.S. but

also some of the Eurozone members in Eastern Europe. It is quite likely that money was being discussed although this would not be admitted officially. But the bottom line is that this meeting has

brought nothing for Greece to help address their immediate challenges.

QUEST: Far from it. It's also brought a lot of problems for it. What is Greece up to? First of all, they decide to offend the Germans with the

questions about war reparations, now they go to Moscow - do they seem hell- bent to you on doing everything they can to offend the E.U.?

[16:35:08] VAMVAKIDIS: It's not clear what is their current strategy.

QUEST: Right.

VAMVAKIDIS: Whatever it is, it's not working. They need a deal with the rest of Europe soon. The deadline to keep in mind is a Eurogroup meeting

of April 24th, and -

QUEST: That's when they have to agree the next - that's a three-month deadline - after the three-month deadline - when they have to agree the

future bailout if there's going to be one.

VAMVAKIDIS: Indeed. This is the final deadline and then the Greek Parliament will have to start implementing it first (ph).

QUEST: Right. I've been reading two of your very interesting documents. One is what if Greek misses another payment, but you talk about the good,

the bad and the ugly scenarios of Greece and you say that June is really crunch time.

VAMVAKIDIS: This is a time that they owe/own (ph) quite a lot of money to the IMF, and then in July and August we have substantial maturities to the

ECB. So the latest by June, Greece needs more official loans.

QUEST: And is it your understanding from - -because you look at the numbers - they literally found all the loose change down the back of the

sofa. They've done all of that to pay this last lot of money - there's nothing left.

VAMVAKIDIS: It is after paying $450 million to the IMF -

QUEST: Tomorrow.

VAMVAKIDIS: -- tomorrow. Then they've run out of the cash buffer. So not only they need a deal on the 24th, but they need in the meantime I think

they approved their grade A forms, some official funding to fund them in the meantime.

QUEST: You've put forward the good, the bad and the ugly scenario. The ugly is just awful - they leave, the good - they make the reforms, the bad

is this nasty middle ground. Which do you believe is going to happen?

VAMVAKIDIS: We hope it will be the good scenario. The bad scenario could be the most likely but this is a scenario which they tried to kick the can

down the road once more, but we do not believe this is a sustainable scenario.

This scenario keeps the uncertainty and keeps Greece exposed to new shocks.

QUEST: Good to see you, sir.

VAMVAKIDIS: Always good to see you. Thank you.

QUEST: Thank you for making sense of all of this. Now a wave of investment is poised to hit Cuba - not to mention armies of sandal-clad

American tourists that want to hit the beach. We'll travel to Havana and here are the plans of one entrepreneur who's got some very grand ideas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: I have promised everybody I won't be doing any sambaing or limbering as we go through today's "Business Traveller" update. But time

for this week it's becoming a pivotal week for Cuba. The U.S. State Department is expected to recommend that Cuba be removed from the list of

state sponsors of terrorism. Now that could happen as soon as today or just this week. Once it happens,

it means that the island could open up to a new wave of investment and tourists.

[16:40:01] When I was in Havana for "Business Traveller," I asked one entrepreneur how far and how fast should Cuba open up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUGO CANCIO, PRESIDENT, FUEGO MEDIA GROUP: This is a 1949 Chevy, all original. One of those antiques on wheels that we find here in the city.

It represents what Havana is today - it's a city that has - you know - it's stood still in time. It's still in the 50s. We're still in 1959, '62,

'63, and that's the beauty of the city and eventually all of this is going to change.

QUEST: Looking to drive some of that change is Hugo Cancio - a Cuban- American entrepreneur who frequently returns home carefully watching the wheels of change in motion.

CANCIO: There are real estate developers from the United States flying to Cuba very quietly, you know, taking notes and taking photos and putting

together their Cuba investment plans. And I don't blame them, you know, there's a lot of opportunities here.

QUEST: Those with the most to gain immediately are probably the major U.S. hotel chains - Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton. They've all expressed interest in

jumping into the market. Eying up the shabby government-run hotels that are desperately crying out for serious investment.

What happens to the Riviera? It's one of the most famous hotels in Havana.

CANCIO: Look, you know, unfortunately this hotel for some reason has not been renovated. Eventually someone will acquire this beautiful hotel and

turn it in what it should have been a long time ago. And preserve its beauty. I don't want this hotel to be teared down and someone build a new

hotel - a more modern hotel. I want this hotel to remain the same.

QUEST: Flood the market or keep it closed? Preserve history or cave in to the developers' dollars like the rest of the Caribbean? I see huge amounts

of potential, but I also see huge amounts of potential destruction - a tee- shirt shop, spas, overdevelopment.

CANCIO: I doubt that's going to happen for now. That's not what the majority of the Cuban people want. Hey listen, they may want to see a

Walmart, a Nike store and Apple store but nothing in excessive. You know, people want to be preserved, you know, some of the values.

QUEST: Capitalism may be some way off, yet the green shoots of regeneration can already be seen from one end to the other along the

Malecon. Do we have on the - on the front here we have two restored -

CANCIO: Restored.

QUEST: -- beautiful buildings.

CANCIO: Beautiful buildings. And then -

QUEST: And they're right on the seafront.

CANCIO: Up on the seafront, and then you see an old beat up building right here that is being repaired to be restored. So it gives you exactly the

idea of where the authorities are going with this. They're not - they could have turned this building down, but instead, they're getting it ready

to restore the property. So it tells you that we're not going to see big high-rise condos here for a

long, long time.

QUEST: Best intentions aside, the temptation to take billions of dollars in foreign investment, it will be difficult to turn down.

CANCIO: Look, I want Havana to preserve its beauty as it is, but I'm also not naive. I know things will change, I know we'll some skyscrapers (ph),

some huge condos and hotels along the Malecon. But I still want to preserve this.

QUEST: I don't think you can.

CANCIO: Of course. Of course we can. We - you know - we have done it and, you know, for 56 years. Cuban could have allowed foreign investors to

come in and transform the city many years ago. What's going to change now?

QUEST: For now, the engines are ready - plotting, planning for all potential outcomes. No one wants to stick their necks out too far.

Everyone just wants to be ready for when the race finally starts. Now why have you brought me here?

CANCIO: This is prime time - prime real estate here, prime property here.

QUEST: You ready to build here?

CANCIO: If I would be allowed - yes of course.

QUEST: You got the money.

CANCIO: Yes.

QUEST: You got the backers?

CANCIO: Yes, definitely.

QUEST: You got the property in mind?

CANCIO: No.

QUEST: I don't believe you.

CANCIO: (LAUGHTER).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Enjoying Cuba, enjoying Havana, and this Thursday - tomorrow -- you can see plenty more from Havana. This month's edition of CNN "Business

Traveller" from the Cuban capital. Thursday 9:30 a.m., 10:30 in Central Europe and repeated throughout the weekend.

[16:45:13] f you manage to miss "Business Traveller," you really haven't been looking.

Air traffic controllers in France are on strike and hundreds of flights have been cancelled. Let's look - this is sort of the movement of air

traffic as seen of course by the online apps. And you can see how much everybody is having to go 'round France. A very limited amount of traffic.

There's Paris obviously in the northwest. But a limited amount going through, and just compare it to what's happening in Germany through Austria

and down onto Spain.

Cancellations and thousands of travelers have been left stranded. The aviation authorities are scrambling to reroute the flights around the

French airspace as you can see.

The dispute's over an increase in pension age. It's only the first of several work stoppages planned in the coming weeks.

Guy Tardieu is the general delegate for the association representing airline operators. The airlines have strongly criticized the strike. He

joined me from Paris and I asked him - looking at the number of strikes and the rapidity and the more still to come, what needs to be done?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUY TARDIEU, GENERAL DELEGATE, FNAM: We feel that those persons - who are civil servants by the way -- they really don't care about what's happening

for the general public and what's happening for the airlines operating in France.

And that's the issue, and really we do push everyone to make sure that the conflict will be put at an end some times.

QUEST: This is a dispute over pay, it's over working conditions, but we've been here before, so what more can - do you think - the government or

indeed the airlines need to do - do they need to pay these traffic controllers more, give them better conditions?

TARDIEU: Well, we are just in the middle of the conflict. We surely appreciate if someone can pay - say - can pay them more as compared to

their pay today. But the fact is that they are providing to all the airlines and we are now in the middle of the conflict and we're stuck on

the ground because they have put on the floor many items - just as you say - the pay, maybe the number of hours they have to work the week or the

working conditions in general. And we cannot - airlines - sort out or solve those problems. So we are

really in the middle of this conflict and we are very harmed by this conflict too.

QUEST: Are the traveling public in Europe destined to have what might be a summer of strikes, delays? Is this just going to go on and on?

TARDIEU: It's the concern that we have because you have probably noticed that the strike is only located for France so far. As less - two years ago

- we had the same kind of conflict located to France as well and we do anticipate another - a circle of conflict within a couple of weeks and

another couple of weeks further. So that's definitely a very bad summer to start with.

QUEST: But from your point of view, representing the airlines, as between, say, the employer and the worker, between the authority and the air traffic

controllers, who do you blame for this?

TARDIEU: That's very difficult I would say because, you know, it's a conflict within the public structure. So it's within public servants and

it's a very, difficult to appreciate who can drive us out of this conflict. Probably this belongs to the higher officials in the civil aviation or to

the ministry, but the solution doesn't below to the airlines operators. Once again, we are stuck on the ground and we have no indication how - what

role we could play within the system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Stuck on the ground and looking avidly at your watch. Well of course it might be the new Apple Watch. A first look at the much-

anticipated arrival. The early adopters (ph) tell us what the first week with an Apple Watch was like. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:52:27] QUEST: Some news - business news just in to CNN. Zynga has announced its chief executive Don Mattrick is to depart from the company

and leave the board of directors. Now, this is might be interesting in its own right, but - it gets better - Mark Pincus, the Zynga founder and

chairman, he's to return to the role of chief exec.

Zynga shares around 8 percent in after-hours trading. So far we don't have the background or the back story, if you like, on why one's gone or why the

other's back. But it's fascinating that the man who started it all has now come back to take the helm and drive the ship.

Now the verdict is in on the Apple Watch. The question - will it do the smartwatch market what the iPhone did for the mobile market. Come and join

me at the Super Screens and you will see. So, the first reviews - a certain number of T people were allowed to wear

the smartwatch for seven days. The reviews basically said it's the best smartwatch around but it's not a vital purpose - purchase.

The reviews mentioned things like a short battery life. But most give it excellent, superb marks for its sleek design that everybody agrees is

world-beating. So who's going to buy it and how and when?

The pre-orders - they begin on Friday and the price is for the most basic starter -- $349. Yes there is a gold version which costs $17,000. Don't

bother going to sleep outside your local Apple store. Apple is desperately trying to persuade people not to line up outside the stores.

A leaked memo suggests the move towards online sales. Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry who is now head of retailing at Apple. Apple sent

the memo saying do not - they're trying to change the mindset for people.

Now, Scott Stein joins me from New York. An editor for CNET and one of the selected few who've tried out the Apple Watch ahead of its release.

I looked closely, I read your review very carefully. You - classic in a way - you liked it but you're not sure, are you?

SCOTT STEIN, EDITOR, CNET: That's pretty much it. I'm not sure. And I think that it's doing great things for the advancement of smartwatches and

wearables. It's beautifully designed, interesting apps but first of all the battery life.

You know, I actually like a watch with more battery life. And there are ones out there you can pick from that make more compromises.

QUEST: Right.

STEIN: The question is do you go with that or do you go with the one-day battery life with all the stuff that Apple brings to the table? And the

price.

QUEST: Right. Now the quote that I read, if I can just point you - "the watch is beautiful and promising, the most ambitious wearable that exists."

I mean that sort of says it all, doesn't it? It's a nascent market and Apple is not just dipping its toe, it's jumping in and holding its nose.

STEIN: It is and it's building for the future all at once. You can see that there are a lot of new elements and new interfaces thrown into a new

product, and you've got new types of apps. So someone's going to have to swim in all of this as opposed to just doing a couple of things well. And

building year after year, this is aiming to do a lot of things and hoping the software gets there and it's sort of there but not fully and the

interface has so many elements that it's a little hard to navigate.

[16:55:05] QUEST: Frankly though for me the biggest problem is that a watch is not just a method of telling the time. It may be your father's or

your grandfather's watch. It may be a beautiful piece of jewelry. It may be a reason why you're wearing a particular watch. And I wonder whether

that's an Achilles heel for the Apple Watch.

STEIN: It's an interesting question. You know, actually I found out my family has a background in watchmaking and it made me think about that in

terms of what's in a watch design. Then my mom brought up the idea of complications which is a watchmaker's term for extra features and special

elements that may not necessarily be easy to use or understandable but show off the quality.

You feel like you can see that in the Apple Watch. And the question is will that pay off now? Or is that a little too complicated literally? You

know, do you want to go -

QUEST: Right.

STEIN: -- right for the average person? What are the two things I can do on this and not feel too lost?

QUEST: All right, sir. Thank you for talking to us. Jealous that you tried it out. I suspect you were a dinner party favorite while you were

wearing it. We'll have a "Profitable Moment" after the break (inaudible).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment." It's tempting to regard those who robbed the London deposit boxes as some sort of lovable rogues who managed

to do something audacious and scandalous. That might be true at one level, but never forget there are people who had life savings and businesses in

those safety deposit boxes and they may be very seriously out of funds when all's said and done.

Oh, yes, the robbers got away with a lot but it'll be ordinary people who may ultimately end up paying the bill. And that's "Quest Means Business"

for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in London. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, (RINGS BELL) I hope it's profitable. Let's get together

tomorrow.

END