Brexit Polls Send British Pound Haywire; Polls: Support for "Leave" Campaign Growing; Nigerian Militants Sabotage Oil Output; JPMorgan CEO in Favor of Trade Agreements; Burberry CEO Take 75 Percent Pay Cut
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Apparently that's how you get a good week started. A triple digit gains for the DOW on Monday, June the 6th. Tonight, the British pound gets full ax. New Brexit polls send sterling sinking. GOP OMG. BuzzFeed dumps Donald Trump. And Christopher Bailey's checkered history at Burberry. The chief executive is taking a huge pay cut. I'm Paula Newton and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening, tonight the pro-Brexit campaign gets a boost and the pound goes on a wild ride as the rhetoric heats up. A pair of new polls show Britons are leaning away from the European Union. Now, the "Leave" campaign has a 4-point lead in the latest YouGov poll, and a 5-point lead in an ICM survey. Now that's pushed the pound to a 3-week low. It bounced back tough, later in the day, and really interesting to see sterling ride this political turmoil out. The polls from YouGov show a divided nation. Opinion, of course, has shifted time and again since September. And on the last week the "Leave" camp has gained the upper hand. Volatility in the polls has sent sterling as we were saying on an absolutely hair raising ride. In general, the pound has weakened as the "Remain" camp has lost ground. Now, on Monday, British Prime Minister David Cameron warned the fall in sterling is just the beginning.</s>DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Add those things together, the shock impact, the uncertainty impact, the trade impact, and you put a bomb under our economy. And the worst thing is we would have lit the fuse ourselves.</s>NEWTON: Now, as we've warned you before, much hyperbole to go on from both sides here. Now, he touted the economic benefits of staying in the EU. Those who want to leave the U.K. have focused on -- leave the EU, pardon me -- have focused on immigration. Phillip Davies is a Conservative Member of Parliament. He told me a Brexit would help the U.K. take control of its borders and insisted it would bring economic benefits, as well.</s>PHILIP DAVIES, BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MP: We are now paying 10 billion pounds a year for a 68-billion-pound trade deficit with the European Union. In which is a declining part of the world's economy, as well. You can have a 68-billion-pound trade deficit for nothing. You don't have to pay 10 billion pounds a year for one of those. And I think that economically and on the issue of immigration the only solution is perfectly clear, and that's to leave the</s>EU. NEWTON: You know, the economic arguments have been flowing fast and furious. I suspect that U.K. voters are probably discounting economic arguments on both sides because there seems to be a lot of hyperbole. For one you're writing an editorial that if we leave the EU, we will regain our power to negotiate our own deals more quickly with whomever we want. Is that not completely unrealistically when we have countries that have said categorically to the UK, look, you're getting the back of the line, not the front of the line, to renegotiate the trade deals?</s>DAVIES: Well, the U.K.'s the fifth biggest economy in the world and President Obama said we would be at the back of the line, the back of the queue if we wanted a trade deal with America. Well, I asked who was in this queue? And apparently, nobody's in the queue. So being that --</s>NEWTON: That's not true, actually. They're in the midst of deals with Asia and other side deals Europe. And he saying, look, Asia and Europe come first. The U.K. is after that. That's very clear.</s>DAVIES: The pacific deal's being concluded. Now going to be ratified. The negotiations concluded. Only other deal in town is the TTIP deal with the EU and that's going nowhere, because the EU can't agree. Because there's 28 different countries all with competing issues. The Americans don't particularly like it, because the French don't really like free trade really. They're a protectionist country themselves. And it will be much quicker for the U.K. and U.S. with historical ties, pretty good balance of trade that we have between our two countries, our --</s>NEWTON: That directly goes against what the President said and if you go away from that, every -- so many business leaders, the majority in the U.K., are saying that, look, this will be damaging. It would be better to just level them. Say, yes, this could be short economic pain, but the long term will look much better?</s>DAVIES: I don't accept that because we have a trade deficit with the European Union. So that we buy far more from them than they do from us. So why would they stop trading freely with us if we were to leave when we would be there single biggest export market? The EU doesn't have a trade deal with the U.S. and not likely to have one in the near future itself anyway. So were not losing out on a trade deal with America, we haven't got one at the moment. So --</s>NEWTON: You're saying there would be zero economic effect except on the upside the day after a "Leave" vote?</s>DAVIES: Paula, everything in our country was still keep trading and Germany want to sell us their cars. France will want to sell us their wine.</s>NEWTON: That wasn't my question. My question is, what will be the impact -- economic impact short term, one to two quarters after a leave vote?</s>DAVIES: I don't think there will be impact whatsoever in the first two quarters. I don't think there will be impact at all. Life will carry on pretty much the same as it does now. People will be trading with each other as they do today. There doesn't seem to be any short-term impact, but a massive long-term bonus by going this alone and negotiating our own trade deals and making our own decisions just like the U.S. does.</s>NEWTON: A debate that will obviously only intensify over the next few weeks. In the meantime, today European stocks ended the day higher. Mining and energy shares were among the top gainers. They were boosted by a rise in metal prices. The London FTSE saw the biggest gains of all the major European indices. It ended the day up 1 percent. Now, businesses, too, of course, are divided on Britain's place in the EU. Small companies see an upside to getting rid of all those EU regulations, while large businesses fear trade with the continent will become much more difficult. The CEO of Airbus warns his company doesn't have a plan "B" if Britain votes to leave the EU. Now its factory in Britain has 10,000 workers responsible for assembling the wings for all of the company's civil aircraft. Fabrice Bregier told Richard Quest a Brexit would not just damage his company, it would harm the British and European economies.</s>FABRICE BREGIER, CEO, AIRBUS: As you say, we have 10,000 people developing, producing wings and other equipment's for us on all of our aircraft. So we will continue to do that. But it would destabilize, I believe, a U.K. economy and probably the European economy and this one is not good for the business. So as a European, as a CEO of a European company, I really hope that U.K. will stay within the European Union.</s>QUEST: What would be the model that you would adopt for Airbus U.K. for the wing maker? I realize you obviously have suppliers that are not in the EU, but nothing on the scale it would be for Britain if it left.</s>BREGIER: No, and of course, we would not take any short-term decision. My U.K. workers, employees, managers are really part of an integrated Airbus. And my only strategy is to grow with them. But we would have to look at the consequences of this Brexit. Hopefully, it won't happen.</s>QUEST: Let me ask you, I'm not going to push you too far, but could you see a scenario where you would move production from the U.K.? Bearing in mind it would all depend on like a free trade agreement and all those sort of issues. Could you see a situation where you would move wing making or other production from the U.K. if it left?</s>BREGIER: No, we have not plan "B" at all. We would have time to take the decisions. We would have time to look at the future consequences. But we all know that it would destabilize the world and not be good for the European industry and European company.</s>QUEST: To push this a bit further, because it is in many ways, you know, we could talk about how many planes you're selling, which new models you're going to create, the 320 and this, that and the other, but those are the everyday issues you're dealing with. But the big issues, frankly, are the issues of China's growth. The relationships and world trade. The falloff in world trade, the U.S. election, the Brexit. These are the chief executive matters that are starting to require more of your time, aren't they, and thoughts?</s>BREGIER: You are very gloomy today and this market is growing. And even with some slowdown of growth in one part of the world, is it China or in another part of the world. Globally we are in a green market. And so, this is what counts for me as a supplier of aircraft to my customers, the airlines. Last month, the traffic increase worldwide by close to 6 percent year on year. This is probably what we will expect this year. So we need more aircraft.</s>NEWTON: That was the CEO of Airbus speaking to our Richard Quest. Richard will be on the road next week listening to British voters ahead of that all-important referendum. While Airbus aircraft put together across Europe, Richard picked a vehicle, let's just say it's little bit more British for this grand tour, have a look.</s>QUEST: The United Kingdom, the nation of tradition, culture, queen and country. As the British people get ready to vote on their future in Europe, we'll be taking to the roads, discovering how the people are preparing for this most important vote in a generation. Caravanning across this green and pleasant land. Getting the sense of the nation's mood, from the village greens to the lights of the big cities. Over the hills and far away. Join QUEST MEANS BUSINESS on the road as voters decide whether to "Remain" in the EU or to "Leave" and strike out on a new path. The U.K., in or out? On CNN.</s>NEWTON: Can't wait. It will be good to get Richard on the ground there. In the meantime, oil prices rose Monday in part because of the attack on the oil infrastructure in Nigeria. A group called itself The Niger Delta Avengers struck again bombing to pipelines. CNN money is launching a new series, "Nigeria: An Economy Divided". Today we look at we look at the oil situation in Nigeria. How a country so rich in the resource can have an oil crisis. CNN Money Africa Correspondent, Eleni Giokos, joins us live from Johannesburg. And Eleni it's so infuriating. If you're a Nigerian you're saying, how can we be so rich in this resource but I cannot put a liter of it into my car to save my life.</s>ELENI GIOKOS, CNN MONEY, AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, I mean, Paula, this is the big dichotomy that you see in Africa's largest economy, and of course, what was Africa's largest oil producer. But because of those attacks in the Niger Delta, it's now slipping to second position to Angola. That's the point. You have a country that is so oil rich and has been producing oil for such a long time, but yet doesn't have the capacity to refine the crude that you utilize in your car. And of course, importantly for Nigerians, it's a major source of electricity, because a lot of people rely on generators around 80 percent of the day. And of course, businesses have also been impacted. These are some of the issues that the Nigerian economy has been grappling with. And we know that Nigeria relies on oil for 90 percent of its foreign currency, for 70 percent of its national budget relies on oil revenues. And then you have got a worry about importing fuel and how you're going to get around the issues. There are existing refineries in Nigeria, but they've been marred by corruption and, of course, very bad maintenance. Now there's a new multi-billion-dollar project underway on the outskirts of Lagos that is going to change the playing field in Nigeria. Paula, by 2018, it could make Nigeria net fuel exporter. Very different to what it is right now. Let's take a look.</s>GIOKOS (voice-over): Nigeria exports more oil than any other African country. It's also in the middle of a fuel crisis. How's that even possible? It's because Nigeria lacks enough refineries. The crucial step between the crude oil that's pumped out of the ground and the fuel that goes in your gas tank.</s>GIOKOS (on camera): You have an oil producer that's importing refined products.</s>MANSUR AHMED, STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS DIRECTOR, DANGOTE GROUP: Unfortunately.</s>GIOKOS: It's insane to think that.</s>MANSUR: It is insane. Nigeria produces between 2.2 and 2.5 million barrels of crude a day, yet, it is not able to process more than about 100,000 barrels a day.</s>GIOKOS (voice-over): But right outside Lagos, there's a solution and a construction. Africa's richest man is building one of the largest oil refineries in the world.</s>ALIKO DANGOTE, CEO DANGOTE: This is one simple largest refinery line in the world, which is 650,000 barrels a day.</s>GIOKOS: Getting to 650,000 barrels of refined fuel won't be easy. It takes a whole complex covering almost 10 square miles.</s>GIOKOS (on camera): How's this going to change the playing field in Nigeria?</s>DANGOTE: Well, it is going to change it a great deal. This one we're building was supply hundred percent need of Nigeria.</s>MANSUR: If we meet domestic requirement, domestic demand, we will still have surplus to export. So that we can become what we, Nigeria, should be, the hub of petroleum products supplies in the region.</s>GIOKOS (voice-over): The Dangote Group also wants to tap another underused resource, Nigerian workers.</s>DANGOTE: We are going to have our own direct employees, probably between 2,000 and 4,000.</s>GIOKOS: Employing thousands and solving a country's fuel crisis won't be cheap, but it will be profitable. How much is this project costing?</s>DEVAKUMAR V.G. EDWIN, GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DANGOTE GROUP: Altogether we'll be able to manage it less than $12 billion. Probably we'll be able to get the investment back within seven years.</s>GIOKOS: For now, these grand plans still look like this. The refinery won't be completed until the end of 2018 and that means more waiting for Nigerians.</s>NEWTON: It's fruitful and it's impressive, Eleni. And yet we talked about the deadline. Two and a half years from now. I mean, Nigeria has set and missed so many deadlines now on so many of the projects. From what you can tell, and I know you that you speak to oil executives all over Nigeria, how realistic is this going to be?</s>GIOKOS: Well, I mean, firstly, when you talk about the economy, you've got so many worries now and talking about deadlines. We are talking about an imminent recession, because the first quarter GDP growth really disappointed and contracted by 9.4 percent. In terms of being realistic on the timeline front, we were on this construction site, which is really enormous. But Aliko Dangote, the man that really is behind this vision, has been known to deliver on big projects. I mean, one of the largest sugar factory in the world. One of the largest cement factories in the world and deliver on time. The question is, by 2018, where are oil prices going to be? How are other refineries in Nigeria are going to be performing and importantly, how is oil production in Nigeria going to look? Remember the Niger Delta has come under a lot of pressure as we mentioned, because of these ongoing attacks. So these are all going to be a very important thing to look at by 2018. From a long-term project perspective, this is a really big project and it's definitely going to be a game changer for Nigeria.</s>NEWTON: Yes, the entire country counting on it at this point. Eleni Giokos, I know you'll continue to stay on top of this, appreciate it. We'll have more of Eleni's special reporting from Nigeria on the program this week and online. Just head to CNNmoney.com/Nigeria. Meantime, BuzzFeed says it won't allow Donald Trump to advertise on its site. And its CEO compares Trump to the hazards of smoking cigarettes.