"Costa has experienced subdued demand in a number of categories, namely tomato, berry and avocado during December 2018, and trading conditions in January appear to be slower than planned at this stage."
Costa Group ASX Announcement
As part of the NAOS investment process, we pay particular attention to the comments made by company CEOs and business leaders in order to gain a greater understanding of the current investment environment and key trends that may be emerging. Below are quotes from the week which in our view detail some of the most important and prominent industry trends and economic factors impacting their businesses.
Global Economy
“I would anticipate that one or two rate hikes could be needed to stop the US economy overheating.”
Janet Yellen, Former Chair, US Federal Reserve
“Monetary policy will continue to support economic growth, job creation and investment. We hope to see better co-operation between fiscal policy and monetary policy. China is going in a good direction in better exchange rate policy.”
Dr Zhou Xiaochuan, ex-Governor, People’s Bank of China
Technology
"If I think about the industry five and a half years ago if I had been on a conference like this, it would have been PCs [are] dead, all servers are going to the cloud………flash forward [to today and] our industry shipped 1.5 billion PCs in the last five years for about $1 trillion of revenue."
Jeff Clarke, Vice-Chairman, Dell Technologies
Telecommunications
"In this market, you need to build your own [5G] network. And the geography, cost of deployment and low density is more challenging [in Australia] than other markets."
Inaki Berroeta, CEO, Vodafone Australia
"So in my view in Australia, fixed wireless technologies will have higher development than other markets."
Inaki Berroeta, CEO, Vodafone Australia
Energy
“The security of Australia’s petroleum supply chains requires urgent assessment. Australia is the only developed oil-importing country in the world that has no government-controlled stocks of crude oil or refined petroleum products."
Professor Samantha Hepburn, Director of Centre for Energy & Natural Resources Law, Deakin University
Agriculture
"Costa has experienced subdued demand in a number of categories, namely tomato, berry and avocado during December 2018, and trading conditions in January appear to be slower than planned at this stage."
Costa Group ASX Announcement
Retail
"We decided to execute the close-down of Crabtree & Evelyn in Australia through an orderly, solvent wind-down rather than through a voluntary administration process.......It's our view that an orderly and solvent wind-down is a responsible and mature response to a difficult retail trading environment."
Scott Langdon, Partner, KordaMentha
"High-end beer is driving virtually all the U.S. beer category growth."
Bill Newlands, CEO, Constellation Brands
"The result was impacted principally by lower than expected sales in the Australian retail channel during November and December due, in part, to cooler weather conditions."
Matt Parker, CFO, Gale Pacific
Financial Services
"In many cases clients are moving away from relationships with incumbent platform providers."
Andrew Alcock, Managing Director, HUB24
"Increased volatility and the downturn in global asset markets over the December 2018 quarter has reduced AUM due to slower than anticipated inflows and investment losses."
Navigator Global Investments ASX Release
Australian Property
“Sentiment is down and with a state and federal election just around the corner, I don’t think we will see it rebound in the short term despite stronger results in some sectors.”
Jane Fitzgerald, Executive Director, Property Council (NSW)
"Despite a drop-in house prices, land prices have not retracted and oddly enough in some areas have actually increased. This may be due to land banking by major developers combined with the significant investment by large Japanese corporations buying large land parcels, similar to the late 1980’s."
Market Announcement, Tamawood Ltd
“I have been doing it for 40 years and I think this is potentially one of the worst housing downturns we have seen over that period. A lot of it is artificially induced with too much government interference in the market.”
Robert Lynch, Chairman, Tamawood
"Internally we plan for multiple scenarios around what's happening in the marketplace and what's happening with house prices whether it be further decline, being level or some increases. We're not seeing any evidence of anything falling off a cliff."
Rowan Munchenberg, MD, Bankwest
"We want to settle 100 per cent of course but thinking of the current situation in the market, if we can get more than 90 per cent, we will be more than happy."
Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib, Managing Director, UEM Sunrise [Malaysian Developer]
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Important information: This material has been prepared by NAOS Asset Management Limited (ABN 23 107 624 126, AFSL 273529) (NAOS) for general information purposes only and must not be construed as investment advice. Certain economic, market or company information contained in this material may have been obtained from published sources prepared by third parties. Nothing contained herein should be construed as granting by implication or otherwise, any license or right to use such third party content without the written permission of the owner.
