CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 20 December 2019 By NAOS Asset Management

Tourism, Travel & Experiences

“People are enticed and they want to travel. They want to experience. I think there’s a number of reasons for that. I think technology has had a big impact on that. I think social media, whether you love it or you hate it, is a big driver of that.” Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines Inc

“We are seeing increasing demand for leisure and experience-based venues in shopping centres and other large format retail centres across Asia Pacific as developers move to accommodate more retail and lifestyle tenants.” Scott Blume, CEO, The Entertainment & Education Group [owner of Timezone & Zone Bowlings]

“We have curated a major shift towards experience-based offerings, which now represent 42% of our portfolio.” Peter Allen, CEO, Scentre Group

Airlines

“It’s an attractive industry, an attractive place to be against the backdrop of an improved industry structure and industry dynamics where people are focused on returns, and you’ve got a consolidated structure that makes sense and we’re competing on quality and product and service rather than price solely, it’s a whole new world.” Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines

Technology

“The need for people to engage digitally with customers is not just a U.S. phenomenon. It's a global phenomenon.” Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe Inc

Food & Beverage

“The cider market has been in decline for about a year. Australia's never been a strong cider market compared with the UK.” Tim Cooper, MD, Coopers Brewery

Mining & Commodities

“There is remaining strength in the underlying [iron ore] market and market conditions.” Elizabeth Gaines, CEO, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd

“Mining of all major commodities is forecast to increase globally in the coming years.” Alberto Calderon, CEO, Orica

Agriculture

“This drying trend is the largest sustained change in Australian rainfall since records began and it is linked with atmospheric changes associated with global warming.” Market Announcement, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)

Media

“The competition has increased by 400 per cent, and not surprisingly, that's really hit our earnings.” John Hartigan, Chairman, Prime Media Group Ltd

Domestic Economy

“Credit conditions are improving, and we are seeing about half of our customers are first home buyers.” Mark Steinert, CEO, Stockland Corp Ltd

“What we've definitely seen is the bringing forward of [consumer spending] activity to the end of November.” Peter Birtles, Director, GWA Group

Global Economy

“In the last weekend that just finished, we delivered over 14 million packages on Saturday and Sunday...We weren’t even delivering packages on the weekend a couple of years ago.” Fred Smith, CEO, FedEx Corp

“Job growth, unemployment levels and consumer spending remains strong, which collectively are positive factors for our business.” Andrea Owen, CEO, Herman Miller Inc [global office furniture manufacturer]

US Economy

“I might also say that I think in this country, there's a little bit of an under estimation of what's going on in the rest of the world, the e-commerce growth, the technology sector that we had, the tax cut. All of these things have led us to have a high increasing employment. It's led us to have reasonable GDP growth that's virtually not true anyplace else in the world.” Fred Smith, CEO, FedEx Corp

“The US consumer is healthy, and the housing environment is stable and provides support for home improvement demand. With wage growth now at over 3% and a lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, the consumer remains confident heading into next year.” Richard McPhail, CFO, The Home Depot Inc

“We’ve got 50-year unemployment lows. Consumer balance sheets are in good shape. And obviously, the corporate sector, you know, after the tax cut, there was a major surge...Consumer remains very strong.” James Gorman, CEO, Morgan Stanley