Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Baker Hughes Reports, Netflix Earnings Recap, and Market Outlook
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 0:05Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple car Play and
- 0:08Speaker 1: Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand
- 0:11Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 0:16Speaker 2: All right, so it's in thick of earning season and
- 0:18Speaker 2: there's a lot of interesting company stories coming out. What
- 0:20Speaker 2: we want to highlight right now is Baker Hughes. It's
- 0:23Speaker 2: an oil field services company with really two main businesses.
- 0:26Speaker 2: One is legitimately just oil field services. You're helping oil
- 0:29Speaker 2: producers make more oil out of the ground offshore and onshore.
- 0:33Speaker 2: The other one is called Industrial and Energy Technology. That's
- 0:36Speaker 2: new energy, that's LNG, it's export facilities, two big businesses.
- 0:40Speaker 2: Revenue came in for the fourth quarter at about six
- 0:42Speaker 2: point eight four billion dollars. Earnings came in a fifty
- 0:45Speaker 2: one cents a share. And we're joined now by Lorenzo Simonelli.
- 0:48Speaker 2: He's chairman, president and CEO of Baker Hughes. Lorenzo, it's
- 0:51Speaker 2: so good to see you. Thanks for joining us today.
- 0:54Speaker 3: Alex. Good to be with you as always.
- 0:56Speaker 4: So listen.
- 0:57Speaker 2: The stock is down three percent. The commentary from analyst
- 1:00Speaker 2: is your outlook isn't as rosy as your peers like
- 1:03Speaker 2: Halliburton and Slumberge.
- 1:04Speaker 4: What do you say to that?
- 1:07Speaker 3: I would say, first of all, we're coming off some
- 1:09Speaker 3: great results in twenty twenty three, and also we've laid
- 1:12Speaker 3: out a clear strategy, as Baker hughes, over the coming years.
- 1:16Speaker 3: As you look at twenty twenty four, we've given a
- 1:18Speaker 3: guidance that is the balanced approach with all of the
- 1:21Speaker 3: geopolitical and also uncertainty that's happening around the globe. So
- 1:26Speaker 3: we stick to our guidance and we think that we're
- 1:28Speaker 3: executing and as you look at the guidance, we've got
- 1:31Speaker 3: considerable growth in twenty twenty four and great performance as well.
- 1:35Speaker 2: So what's the biggest question mark? I guess so if
- 1:39Speaker 2: you're more conservative than your peers, where is the question mark?
- 1:43Speaker 2: Is it going to be the new energy orders? Is
- 1:46Speaker 2: it going to be on shore demand or is it
- 1:48Speaker 2: going to be offshore? Is it domestic or international that
- 1:51Speaker 2: has you thinking questioning the most?
- 1:55Speaker 3: You know, you look at what's happening around the world,
- 1:57Speaker 3: and you see the geopolitics, you see what's happening from
- 2:01Speaker 3: the OPEC cuts, you see what's happening from the consolidation
- 2:04Speaker 3: in North America, and that leads some uncertainty relative to
- 2:08Speaker 3: the activity levels within North America Land. We still see
- 2:13Speaker 3: that North America should be flatish, but US Land will
- 2:18Speaker 3: likely be negative for the year given some of the consolidation,
- 2:22Speaker 3: and also some of the activity international again will be
- 2:26Speaker 3: in the high single digits, So we still see that
- 2:28Speaker 3: being robust. And I think again, as we look at
- 2:31Speaker 3: giving guidance, we're taking a balanced approach to what's taking
- 2:35Speaker 3: place around the world at this moment and also giving
- 2:38Speaker 3: a predictability to our investors on what can be achieved
- 2:42Speaker 3: and also confidence in what we can achieve.
- 2:45Speaker 5: Lorenzo, I just looking at your business here, and I
- 2:47Speaker 5: see that about three quarters of your revenue as comes
- 2:49Speaker 5: from outside of the United States, So obviously you are
- 2:52Speaker 5: attuned as much as anyone to the geopolitical risks around
- 2:55Speaker 5: the world. What are you telling your investors about what's
- 2:58Speaker 5: happening in Eastern or if it's happening in the Middle East,
- 3:01Speaker 5: and how that may impact your business.
- 3:04Speaker 3: We're telling them that we've taken every caution and also
- 3:08Speaker 3: we're managing the situation. We haven't seen any impact and
- 3:12Speaker 3: we don't anticipate a big impact, but we do think
- 3:16Speaker 3: some of the development plans may be delayed slightly over
- 3:20Speaker 3: the long term. No change in what the NOCs and
- 3:23Speaker 3: also large customers are laying out from a capital spend,
- 3:27Speaker 3: but there may be some I would say delays. Again,
- 3:30Speaker 3: as we look at the outlook internationally, we're still anticipating
- 3:34Speaker 3: high single digit growth and we think that internationally is
- 3:38Speaker 3: a key place for us to be and we look
- 3:40Speaker 3: to perform there over the coming years.
- 3:42Speaker 2: Lorenzo, what's your take on the demand side? I guess
- 3:46Speaker 2: that would focus more on oil and it does also
- 3:48Speaker 2: hit on the red sea issue. But what's the man
- 3:51Speaker 2: going to look like for twenty twenty four? I'm getting
- 3:53Speaker 2: notes about twenty twenty five, but I have no idea
- 3:56Speaker 2: what's going to happen this year?
- 3:59Speaker 3: Wow, Alex, it's so always difficult to predict some of
- 4:02Speaker 3: these elements, just like it is oil price and you
- 4:04Speaker 3: know this space well. I think demand continues to be robust.
- 4:09Speaker 3: A lot of it's going to depend on the economic
- 4:12Speaker 3: situation as you look at some of the events unfolding
- 4:15Speaker 3: also globally, and we anticipate that again demand will increase
- 4:21Speaker 3: this year and continue to be strong, especially in the
- 4:24Speaker 3: developing world.
- 4:26Speaker 5: What are your customers telling you here I know obviously
- 4:28Speaker 5: close contact with them. What are they telling you about
- 4:31Speaker 5: their spending plans over the next couple of years.
- 4:37Speaker 3: Again, it varies. You've seen in North America obviously some consolidation,
- 4:42Speaker 3: so people are going through that consolidation and they'll be
- 4:45Speaker 3: looking to adjust some of their spending plans in the
- 4:49Speaker 3: short term, but again continuing to be robust on the
- 4:53Speaker 3: long term as you continue to see the demand be
- 4:55Speaker 3: there on the international side, these NOCs have more year
- 5:00Speaker 3: projects that they're executing. There'll be some variation in the
- 5:04Speaker 3: timing of those, but again the long term continues to
- 5:07Speaker 3: be solid, and as you look at our guidance, again
- 5:10Speaker 3: we're anticipating that maybe there's some tempered view on some
- 5:15Speaker 3: of the case of the development, but the developments are
- 5:18Speaker 3: going to happen.
- 5:19Speaker 2: OC Paul just you know, national oil companies just pull
- 5:23Speaker 2: up with the oil jargon there. Lorenzo, you mentioned the
- 5:28Speaker 2: M and A situation, and I find that so interesting
- 5:30Speaker 2: because that was one of my questions to all these
- 5:32Speaker 2: CEOs when they announce these big mergers, is are you
- 5:35Speaker 2: actually going to be slowing your oil production growth over time,
- 5:38Speaker 2: and they're all like, no, no, no, no, no, it's going
- 5:40Speaker 2: to be really good. It's going to keep growing. What
- 5:43Speaker 2: do you think that timeline actually looks like? In the
- 5:45Speaker 2: beginning their synergies, they get more out of the ground,
- 5:47Speaker 2: but then that tapers off.
- 5:48Speaker 4: What do you notice?
- 5:51Speaker 3: So as you look at the normal evolution of consolidation
- 5:55Speaker 3: we've seen this cycle before, you are going to continue
- 5:58Speaker 3: to see a production increases, but you're also going to
- 6:01Speaker 3: see synergies between the consolidation and as they go through
- 6:04Speaker 3: their integration activities, I think you'll likely see some temperate
- 6:09Speaker 3: measures relative to some of their procurement, but again production,
- 6:13Speaker 3: they're going to seize the opportunity to continue to increase
- 6:16Speaker 3: production as the demand is there.
- 6:19Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm not an expert in
- 6:21Speaker 5: this unlike Alex. But a term I you see here
- 6:24Speaker 5: a lot and I don't hear it that much anymore
- 6:26Speaker 5: is peak oil? When are we going to be at
- 6:28Speaker 5: peak oil? Are we at peak? I don't hear that
- 6:30Speaker 5: discussion anymore. So when you're talking to investors, how do
- 6:34Speaker 5: you talk to them about the long term kind of
- 6:37Speaker 5: demand for oil?
- 6:40Speaker 3: You've got to look at it from a standpoint of
- 6:42Speaker 3: the energy transition is going to be multi decades and
- 6:47Speaker 3: it's going to require an energy mix that is abundant
- 6:50Speaker 3: of providing as clean as possible fuel sources to the public,
- 6:57Speaker 3: and that means oil is going to have a role
- 6:59Speaker 3: to play. And we see oil and gas in particular
- 7:03Speaker 3: having a strong robust outlook as we go forward. And
- 7:06Speaker 3: the question on pea coil has been asked many times.
- 7:09Speaker 3: There will be a time when pea coil comes. I
- 7:12Speaker 3: think it's not at this stage, and we continue to
- 7:16Speaker 3: focus very much on gas and also LNG.
- 7:19Speaker 4: Well i'm speaking of so Llen G. Paul is huge
- 7:22Speaker 4: for Baker Hughes.
- 7:22Speaker 2: So they helped to build the export terminals that you
- 7:25Speaker 2: get and that has been a humongous driver here in
- 7:28Speaker 2: the US. And just to focus on that for a second,
- 7:30Speaker 2: they booked about one hundred and sixty nine million dollars
- 7:32Speaker 2: worth of new energy orders in the quarter and overall
- 7:34Speaker 2: for the year seven hundred and fifty million. Like that's
- 7:36Speaker 2: growing at a very rapid clip, Lorenzo. Somehow, restricting ler
- 7:42Speaker 2: G exports in the US is becoming something people are
- 7:45Speaker 2: talking about. The permit process has gotten a lot slower.
- 7:49Speaker 4: What is going on, Alex.
- 7:53Speaker 3: It has gotten slower, and again we're monitoring the situation,
- 7:58Speaker 3: and I'm disappointed because as you look at the benefits
- 8:02Speaker 3: of USLNG not only for the US but also for
- 8:06Speaker 3: the world, and also what's been achieved with the geopolitical
- 8:09Speaker 3: uncertainty and also providing to Europe, there's been commitments that
- 8:13Speaker 3: have been made and we should continue the USLNG exports
- 8:17Speaker 3: and also the permitting of these projects. That being said,
- 8:21Speaker 3: international projects are continuing to move forward, and we have
- 8:25Speaker 3: an expectation that again in twenty twenty four there'll be
- 8:28Speaker 3: sixty five mtpa FIDD, and we're again seeing about thirty
- 8:34Speaker 3: to sixty mtpa FIDD in twenty five and twenty six,
- 8:38Speaker 3: and by twenty thirty there'll be a global capacity in
- 8:42Speaker 3: place of eight hundred mtpa. So, you know, we'll monitor
- 8:45Speaker 3: the US situation. It's disappointing. I think it will sort
- 8:49Speaker 3: itself out. There's been a lot of commitments that have
- 8:51Speaker 3: been made to international partners.
- 8:54Speaker 5: Because you know, again, Lorenzo, I've learned so much just
- 8:57Speaker 5: from talking to Alex about the energy business. Now that
- 9:00Speaker 5: we're the US is a net energy exporter, it just
- 9:05Speaker 5: seems like the natural gas part of the liquified natural
- 9:08Speaker 5: gas part of.
- 9:09Speaker 6: It has to grow, you know.
- 9:11Speaker 5: So I guess my question is if I wanted to
- 9:13Speaker 5: go down to Corpus Christy and hire you guys to
- 9:15Speaker 5: build me a LNG facility, could you do it?
- 9:18Speaker 4: Yeah, you have to wait a while. Their backlogs really deep, Lorenzo.
- 9:22Speaker 3: We have a very good backlog and we continue to
- 9:24Speaker 3: grow our backlog in LNG, and yes, we can build.
- 9:28Speaker 3: We have the most versatile portfolio of solutions around LNG,
- 9:33Speaker 3: small scale, large scale, stick modular, onshore, offshore floating. So
- 9:40Speaker 3: you're coming to the right place, Baker Hughes for LNG,
- 9:44Speaker 3: and I.
- 9:44Speaker 2: Should point out MTPA million tons per annum, So it
- 9:47Speaker 2: just basically means the capacity, like how much you can
- 9:49Speaker 2: actually process an export because you got a cool natural
- 9:52Speaker 2: gas down before you export. Lorenzo, I am going to
- 9:56Speaker 2: see you next week for the annual meeting. In your
- 9:58Speaker 2: annual meeting in Florence, the talk will definitely be Italy.
- 10:03Speaker 4: Really, I know you are to me right.
- 10:04Speaker 6: Not Florence, South Carolina, Florence, Italy. They hate Lorenz nice.
- 10:08Speaker 2: And the talk is definitely going to be revolving a
- 10:10Speaker 2: lot around that LNG story for investors. Just looking at
- 10:14Speaker 2: the numbers today, the stock doown three percent. What's your
- 10:16Speaker 2: main message before we get to the broader outlook next week.
- 10:20Speaker 3: The main message is we're coming off a terrific twenty
- 10:23Speaker 3: twenty three where we posted some record results. Our strategy
- 10:28Speaker 3: is very clear. We set out guidance that continues to grow.
- 10:31Speaker 3: The business continues to post improvements in our embat homogen rates.
- 10:36Speaker 3: We're expecting OFSC to be a twenty percent for twenty
- 10:39Speaker 3: twenty five, it to be a twenty percent by twenty
- 10:42Speaker 3: twenty six. We're not changing those expectations and we're taking
- 10:47Speaker 3: a balanced approach to twenty twenty four. But when you
- 10:49Speaker 3: look at the guidance, it continues to move the company
- 10:52Speaker 3: forward and also posts very good results.
- 10:55Speaker 2: Lorenzo, I really appreciate that the conservative approach and then
- 10:58Speaker 2: sort of moving a lot faster in the next couple
- 11:01Speaker 2: of years.
- 11:01Speaker 4: Thanks a lot.
- 11:02Speaker 2: I look forward to seeing you next week in Florence, Italy.
- 11:04Speaker 2: Thank you, Lorenzo Semonelli. He's chairman, CEO and president of
- 11:09Speaker 2: Baker Hughes. Now we're going to do something that only
- 11:11Speaker 2: Paul and I can do. Talk to a CEO, then
- 11:14Speaker 2: bring a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst who's been covering the company
- 11:16Speaker 2: for years on to then talk about it. This is
- 11:18Speaker 2: what we can offer you on the Bloomberg Intelligence Show
- 11:21Speaker 2: every day, Scott Levine, he covers oil services for Bloomberg Intelligence.
- 11:26Speaker 2: What did you make of the move today the numbers
- 11:28Speaker 2: and just talking with Lorenzo in the last ten minutes.
- 11:31Speaker 7: Yeah, now, I think so. The stock is down a
- 11:33Speaker 7: bit today, and we've seen Halliburton and SLB up on
- 11:38Speaker 7: earnings over the past week. Frankly, the guidance that Baker
- 11:44Speaker 7: gave today for mid teens EBIT dog growth is almost
- 11:48Speaker 7: identical to what SLB gave. I think the difference here
- 11:51Speaker 7: is probably the conservatism around the messaging number one, certainly
- 11:57Speaker 7: the mid load to mid single digital client that they're
- 12:00Speaker 7: calling for, spending growth in North America, high single digit
- 12:05Speaker 7: growth in international trails what we saw out of both
- 12:08Speaker 7: of those two companies. And then secondarily, you know, LNG,
- 12:12Speaker 7: as you mentioned, is a really big driver for Baker
- 12:15Speaker 7: that's unique to them, certainly much more so for them
- 12:18Speaker 7: as a producer of modules for LNG plants, which neither
- 12:23Speaker 7: SLB and Hell do and I would say that the
- 12:26Speaker 7: commentary there was maybe a little bit more downbeat as well.
- 12:29Speaker 7: They're looking for modest growth and FID capacity this year
- 12:35Speaker 7: they focused more on some of the businesses outside of that.
- 12:38Speaker 7: So I think it's probably more so the tone out
- 12:41Speaker 7: of Baker being a bit more sober than the guidance
- 12:45Speaker 7: per se, which was in line with consensus, and the
- 12:48Speaker 7: growth outlooks similar to what we saw at the piers there.
- 12:51Speaker 5: So I'm looking at the A n R function for Baker, Hughes, Halibert,
- 12:57Speaker 5: all the comps.
- 12:58Speaker 6: Street likes this stuff. They like these oil services companies.
- 13:03Speaker 6: What's the bull call on this?
- 13:04Speaker 5: Is this?
- 13:05Speaker 6: People? You're going to need oil forever?
- 13:07Speaker 7: Yeah, well they're you know, they are investing in the
- 13:10Speaker 7: future with the energy transition and the new energy business
- 13:13Speaker 7: as well.
- 13:14Speaker 4: But I think, you.
- 13:15Speaker 7: Know, so look two years ago twenty twenty two, this
- 13:18Speaker 7: group was outstanding, right, you know, the group was up
- 13:22Speaker 7: sixty percent, the market was down closed to twenty percent.
- 13:25Speaker 7: Last year the group performed okay in a much stronger market,
- 13:30Speaker 7: and the growth expectations for the group have moderated and
- 13:33Speaker 7: are moderating still in twenty twenty four. I think within
- 13:38Speaker 7: that context, Folks are still comfortable with large cap globally
- 13:44Speaker 7: diversified oil field service companies like Baker Hues, like SLB
- 13:49Speaker 7: to a lesser extent, Haliburton because they're more focused on
- 13:52Speaker 7: North America. But they're still comfortable with these companies. They're large,
- 13:56Speaker 7: they're global, the balance sheets are in good shape, that
- 13:59Speaker 7: we're turning more than fifty percent of the free cash
- 14:03Speaker 7: to investors, and so that appeals to investors that kind
- 14:07Speaker 7: of are attuned to this new energy environment where it's discipline,
- 14:12Speaker 7: growth and capital returns rather than the wildcatter mentality. So
- 14:16Speaker 7: I think it's what I like.
- 14:17Speaker 6: I like the wildcatter.
- 14:19Speaker 7: I like that.
- 14:20Speaker 4: Yeah, I called SLB slummers. I'm definitely gonna hear from
- 14:22Speaker 4: them later, but SLB.
- 14:24Speaker 2: So to that point, though, I feel like if you
- 14:27Speaker 2: talk to SLB, they'll talk a lot about digitalization and
- 14:30Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, whereas Baker Hughes talks really
- 14:33Speaker 2: about LNG and they build these big terminals they help
- 14:38Speaker 2: to do that, like with the likes of Bechtel, for example,
- 14:41Speaker 2: do you feel like at some point these guys are
- 14:43Speaker 2: gonna be you can really bet on them different ways,
- 14:45Speaker 2: Like I'm gonna bet On Baker Hughes for LNG. I'm
- 14:47Speaker 2: gonna bet an SLB for an AI component and digitalization,
- 14:50Speaker 2: like can I do that yet?
- 14:52Speaker 6: You can?
- 14:53Speaker 7: And I think those are accurate depictions of the business.
- 14:57Speaker 7: But I wouldn't overstate their signs magnificance, like I feel
- 15:01Speaker 7: like Halliburton gets maligned a lot for the North American exposure.
- 15:05Speaker 4: And they're all some solid international.
- 15:07Speaker 7: It's over half their business.
- 15:09Speaker 4: I totally didn't know that until yeah no the other day.
- 15:11Speaker 7: But SLB is eighty percent international, and these guys are
- 15:15Speaker 7: closer to SLB than they are to HOL in terms
- 15:18Speaker 7: of that geographic split. So, you know, while the statement
- 15:22Speaker 7: is true, I think it's it's equal parts branding as
- 15:27Speaker 7: it is the business mix, and investors are naturally going
- 15:30Speaker 7: to look for ways to differentiate between the companies, and
- 15:32Speaker 7: so they'll, you know, they'll gravitate towards the differences more
- 15:35Speaker 7: than they will the similarities. But I think there are
- 15:38Speaker 7: a lot of similarities in the balance sheet. All the
- 15:40Speaker 7: companies are focused on global markets to more or lesser extent,
- 15:45Speaker 7: and so with with Baker, the LNG emphasis is a differentiator.
- 15:50Speaker 7: For sure, they have a much bigger equipment business than
- 15:54Speaker 7: either SLB or Halliburton does. And so it's natural folks
- 15:58Speaker 7: to focus on that specifically. And and some of the
- 16:02Speaker 7: weakness and demand out of Europe maybe is weighing on
- 16:04Speaker 7: that story a little bit, but it's still a very
- 16:06Speaker 7: strong business for them.
- 16:08Speaker 5: And if I were an investor, I would prefer my
- 16:11Speaker 5: oil field services and equipment companies to be more international
- 16:15Speaker 5: rather than less, given how tough it is to get
- 16:17Speaker 5: stuff done here in the US.
- 16:19Speaker 8: Is that right?
- 16:20Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 16:20Speaker 7: I think certainly there's much more visibility.
- 16:23Speaker 4: On it years ago statement.
- 16:25Speaker 7: Yeah, I guess it depends what time we're talking about.
- 16:28Speaker 7: And and and you know, look, shale had the year
- 16:30Speaker 7: that the energy you know, blew the lights out twenty
- 16:33Speaker 7: twenty two. Shale came back much stronger from COVID than
- 16:37Speaker 7: international markets did they get tough faster, but they got
- 16:40Speaker 7: crushed more significantly, And so that was a little bit
- 16:43Speaker 7: of a one year snap back and shale and and
- 16:48Speaker 7: so you know, we've now we're now past that. International
- 16:52Speaker 7: really reaccelerated and overtook shale toward the middle of last year,
- 16:56Speaker 7: and the expectation is that they'll they'll do so again
- 16:59Speaker 7: this year. So I still think there's much more of
- 17:01Speaker 7: a multi year growth visibility on international including.
- 17:05Speaker 2: Offshore energy is definitely going to be a talking point
- 17:08Speaker 2: in the presidential election.
- 17:10Speaker 4: The reality is a little different.
- 17:13Speaker 2: When we say, drill, baby, drill, We're gonna unleash American
- 17:16Speaker 2: energy independence. My question is is that not happening? And
- 17:19Speaker 2: then my other question is are we going to see
- 17:21Speaker 2: restrictions or any sort of slowing down of LNG exports.
- 17:26Speaker 7: Regarding the latter, I don't think so, no, and I
- 17:30Speaker 7: don't you know, yes, we've already heard some of the
- 17:32Speaker 7: drill baby drill mantra, and I think you know, they're.
- 17:35Speaker 4: Ten million barrels a day and good.
- 17:37Speaker 7: Enough that hearkens back to a different time. That's you know,
- 17:40Speaker 7: I think the intent there is is for for voters
- 17:45Speaker 7: to see that messaging, right. But the area where you
- 17:49Speaker 7: think you probably see the most difference, frankly, is in
- 17:52Speaker 7: the energy transition technologies. And you know, for example, we
- 17:57Speaker 7: you know, plug Power yesterday was a thirty percent as
- 18:01Speaker 7: a you know, based on enthusiasm for them getting a
- 18:04Speaker 7: loan from the Department of Energy, and so you know,
- 18:10Speaker 7: there's been some concern and pushback regarding the incentives around
- 18:14Speaker 7: hydrogen development, et cetera. And so if we were to
- 18:17Speaker 7: see a change anywhere, I think, you know, if indeed
- 18:22Speaker 7: we see a change in the Republican Party getting the
- 18:25Speaker 7: president presidency in twenty four, it'll be with regard to
- 18:29Speaker 7: the er the incentives for the energy transition, and maybe
- 18:32Speaker 7: that getting some throat cold water thrown on it. But
- 18:37Speaker 7: as far as US oil, you know, during the Biden administration,
- 18:40Speaker 7: production has grown fine. Despite some of the tough talk
- 18:43Speaker 7: you heard about cracking down on leases in the Gulf
- 18:46Speaker 7: of Mexico, offshore is done just fine, and I don't
- 18:49Speaker 7: think it's much of a difference factor in terms of
- 18:52Speaker 7: conventional oil and gas.
- 18:54Speaker 4: So great, Scott, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
- 18:57Speaker 2: Thanks for all answering all my emails with my chickens
- 18:59Speaker 2: running too earlier in the day. It Scott of being
- 19:01Speaker 2: a Bloomberg intelligency covers all the oil field services.
- 19:05Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 19:09Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
- 19:13Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen
- 19:16Speaker 1: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station
- 19:19Speaker 1: just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 19:24Speaker 5: Annett Rathbund cio at CBIZ maybe SEBIZ Investment Advisory Services, Independence, Ohio.
- 19:30Speaker 5: That sounds like really right smack in the middle of Ahio.
- 19:33Speaker 5: If I had to guess, I don't know.
- 19:34Speaker 6: And thanks so much for joining us here.
- 19:37Speaker 5: Again, I thought we might take a meaningful pause here
- 19:41Speaker 5: in the first quarter with these markets, given the real
- 19:44Speaker 5: rip we had in November and December. What do you
- 19:47Speaker 5: make of this market here as we you know, kind
- 19:49Speaker 5: of get into the back half of January and twenty
- 19:51Speaker 5: twenty four.
- 19:53Speaker 8: Sure, thanks for having me. And actually, Independence, Ohio is
- 19:57Speaker 8: ten minutes south of cleveland'srection we go, so they should
- 20:03Speaker 8: really said Cleveland, Ohio. But anyway, you know, SMP, it's
- 20:07Speaker 8: kind of surprising after all the bearish talk last year
- 20:10Speaker 8: that we would be reaching record highs multiple days in
- 20:13Speaker 8: a row. It looks like today might be another one
- 20:15Speaker 8: of those days. But it's important to remember what's driving this, right.
- 20:18Speaker 8: I mean, everyone's talked about tech driving this magnificent seven
- 20:22Speaker 8: becoming even more magnificent, But you know, there may be
- 20:25Speaker 8: a reason why if you look at the underlying trends
- 20:29Speaker 8: in the SMP five hundred you do have tech leading,
- 20:32Speaker 8: but how many stocks and how many sectors or sub
- 20:36Speaker 8: industries are actually hitting those record highs along with the
- 20:39Speaker 8: SMP five hundred, the cyclical parts of the sectors that
- 20:44Speaker 8: represent the cyclical parts of the economy, they're not reaching
- 20:47Speaker 8: record highs, right, So this is a reflection of some
- 20:51Speaker 8: of the changes or the bifurcation that we see in
- 20:54Speaker 8: the economy being reflected here. So do I think that
- 20:58Speaker 8: tech can continue to run?
- 20:59Speaker 9: Well?
- 20:59Speaker 8: Look, I mean I think that tech is a part
- 21:03Speaker 8: of utilities. The pandemic has taught us that it is
- 21:06Speaker 8: a part of infrastructure. We can't live without it. It
- 21:09Speaker 8: is part of our daily lives. It's I mean, some
- 21:12Speaker 8: people might say Netflix is a part of their you know,
- 21:14Speaker 8: social infrastructure as we thought today. I don't think tech
- 21:18Speaker 8: is going away, and there's a reason why they're doing
- 21:21Speaker 8: so well during the earning season. So I don't know
- 21:24Speaker 8: if it can continue to run at such high valuations.
- 21:27Speaker 8: We might be expecting more than perfection from them for
- 21:30Speaker 8: the rest of the year. But certainly this isn't some
- 21:32Speaker 8: kind of a bubble. That's for me.
- 21:34Speaker 2: Well, So I love your idea that tech is safety
- 21:37Speaker 2: like it's utility. From that end, because I've wondered that
- 21:39Speaker 2: over the last six to eight months, and I do
- 21:42Speaker 2: wonder if earnings then matter. I know that's like sacrilege
- 21:46Speaker 2: and earning season.
- 21:47Speaker 4: But then if that's the case, just buy the dip.
- 21:49Speaker 2: And that's why basically the market just doesn't want to
- 21:51Speaker 2: go down.
- 21:54Speaker 7: Right.
- 21:54Speaker 8: And also, you know, if you think about how far
- 21:56Speaker 8: we've come with tech, I mean, they're taking up so
- 21:59Speaker 8: much of that. So if there is buying the dip,
- 22:01Speaker 8: it's actually also magnified. Now one risk is if we
- 22:05Speaker 8: do hit a soft landing patch where you know, we
- 22:08Speaker 8: may we're maybe pricing in a soft landing, but maybe
- 22:11Speaker 8: there is actually growth happening. If the FED lowers rates
- 22:15Speaker 8: maybe March, probably not, maybe in May, then we may
- 22:18Speaker 8: have recurrence of m and a activity some more exciting
- 22:23Speaker 8: opportunities that can be financed at a cheaper of cost.
- 22:26Speaker 8: If that happens, then then there is a risk that
- 22:30Speaker 8: some of the money that went into the by the
- 22:31Speaker 8: dip may be going back into some of the cyclical
- 22:33Speaker 8: sectors because they are so cheap.
- 22:36Speaker 5: Speaking of technology, meta platforms formerly known as Facebook, it
- 22:41Speaker 5: is up about one point eight percent today, all time high.
- 22:45Speaker 5: Now has a market cap once again of one point
- 22:47Speaker 5: zero one trillion dollars, So the tech play is still
- 22:52Speaker 5: in play.
- 22:52Speaker 6: Netflix up fourteen percent as well, not.
- 22:54Speaker 2: Even that, but asml yep a tech playover in Europe
- 22:57Speaker 2: is also set for a record close like it's sort
- 23:00Speaker 2: of encompassing many different types of tech it is.
- 23:03Speaker 6: It's kind of a cross the board. Hey, and what
- 23:05Speaker 6: do you think?
- 23:06Speaker 5: What do you think or what are you guys discounting
- 23:09Speaker 5: in terms of FED cuts in twenty twenty four. I mean,
- 23:12Speaker 5: the market is anywhere from five to six and a
- 23:15Speaker 5: lot of folks are saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's a
- 23:16Speaker 5: little too much.
- 23:17Speaker 6: How do you guys think about that?
- 23:19Speaker 8: Yeah? I do think that five to six is probably
- 23:23Speaker 8: too much. When it was really pricing in six, I thought, way,
- 23:26Speaker 8: maybe something might go wrong if we need six rate cuts.
- 23:30Speaker 8: But here's the thing. The FED officials have been slowly
- 23:34Speaker 8: walking things back right, so I feel like they're trying
- 23:37Speaker 8: to set us up or set the expectations so that
- 23:40Speaker 8: it wouldn't be such a surprise if they don't cut rates.
- 23:44Speaker 8: They don't wait until the second half of the year
- 23:46Speaker 8: to start cutting rates. So maybe in March, maybe we
- 23:50Speaker 8: don't get a rate cut, but maybe we get a
- 23:52Speaker 8: repositioning of the where the FED might be. I think
- 23:55Speaker 8: the biggest surprise is going to be if the FED
- 23:58Speaker 8: actually says we're revisiting the two percent target. Maybe it's
- 24:02Speaker 8: two and a half, maybe it's three.
- 24:04Speaker 4: Well, but that would be here.
- 24:05Speaker 6: Okay.
- 24:05Speaker 2: If they came out and said we want to revisit
- 24:07Speaker 2: and go to three, that would be huge.
- 24:10Speaker 8: That would be huge, right. But the thing is FED
- 24:13Speaker 8: super core, which is services minus food, energy and shelter.
- 24:18Speaker 8: Month of our month has been at zero point three percent.
- 24:20Speaker 8: That is not a two percent. So if the FED
- 24:22Speaker 8: wants to start and that's been there for a while,
- 24:24Speaker 8: So if the FED wants to start earlier than the
- 24:26Speaker 8: second half of the year, they're going to have to
- 24:28Speaker 8: come up with some reason. Because they've been telling us services, services,
- 24:32Speaker 8: service is super core. We're not seeing any easing there.
- 24:35Speaker 8: And actually the PMI today right that came out, service
- 24:38Speaker 8: is still very strong and that's a larger part of
- 24:40Speaker 8: the economy and inflation and services tends to be stickier.
- 24:45Speaker 8: So we're gonna have to see some concessions somewhere to
- 24:48Speaker 8: justify an early cut. But certainly the expectations have been
- 24:53Speaker 8: heading in that direction.
- 24:55Speaker 5: All right, and I thanks so much for joining us
- 24:57Speaker 5: and a Rath, but Cio, it's ce Busy Investment Advice
- 25:00Speaker 5: Services Independence Ohio.
- 25:03Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 25:06Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple card Playing and
- 25:09Speaker 1: broud Otto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand
- 25:12Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 25:17Speaker 5: Wait, I'm looking at Netflix Olex really good quarter in
- 25:21Speaker 5: terms of subscribers last night. They're also talking up a
- 25:23Speaker 5: big advertising game over the next couple of years. Stocks
- 25:26Speaker 5: up thirteen percent at a fifty two week high. Here,
- 25:30Speaker 5: it's not at its all time high, but it's very
- 25:32Speaker 5: close over the last I guess twelve months is a
- 25:35Speaker 5: fifty three percent, So nice move for the folks at Netflixt.
- 25:39Speaker 5: Check in with somebody who knows this digital advertising digital
- 25:42Speaker 5: media business really really well. Front of the show, Mark Douglas.
- 25:45Speaker 5: He's a founder and CEO of Mountain. He's zooming in
- 25:49Speaker 5: from Miami. I mean, nobody zooms in from like Cleveland.
- 25:53Speaker 5: In January, they zoom in from Miami. So we literally
- 25:57Speaker 5: just had something from Cleveland. But these these you know,
- 26:00Speaker 5: these media types. Mark, thanks so much for joining us here. Boy,
- 26:03Speaker 5: let's just start with Netflix. A couple of things. One
- 26:06Speaker 5: love to get your thoughts about kind of what the
- 26:08Speaker 5: results from last night, and then two love to get
- 26:10Speaker 5: your thoughts on getting into wrestling.
- 26:14Speaker 9: Well, let's start with the wrestling. I think that's the
- 26:18Speaker 9: that's the most interesting part of it. You know, the
- 26:21Speaker 9: thing about Netflix is with every other streaming network, you
- 26:25Speaker 9: have to have a show you want to watch to
- 26:28Speaker 9: go there. With Netflix, you just go because it's Netflix.
- 26:32Speaker 9: And then they make the shows popular just because they
- 26:35Speaker 9: have this massive audience. And they essentially did that for
- 26:38Speaker 9: Formula one, and obviously Formula one was already a big
- 26:41Speaker 9: popular sport, but they made it, you know much really
- 26:44Speaker 9: expand the audience and increase the value of Formula one.
- 26:48Speaker 9: I think they're going to do the exact same thing
- 26:50Speaker 9: for WWE. Like, what was the likelihood I was going
- 26:53Speaker 9: to watch a WWE event, you know, yesterday? Very small likelihood?
- 26:58Speaker 9: Now very large.
- 26:59Speaker 2: I agree with you, Like I don't necessarily want to
- 27:03Speaker 2: watch WWE, but like if they did a documentary of it,
- 27:05Speaker 2: one hundred percent I'd be in on that. Are you
- 27:08Speaker 2: worried about content spend, like is all that just going
- 27:10Speaker 2: to cost too much for what Netflix is promising?
- 27:13Speaker 4: The street?
- 27:14Speaker 9: Well, I mean they that used to be a huge
- 27:17Speaker 9: problem with Netflix, meaning you know, on Wall Street, people
- 27:20Speaker 9: are like, this company will never make money, and then
- 27:23Speaker 9: they focused on profitability and they prove them wrong. And
- 27:26Speaker 9: so I think they have that pretty much under control.
- 27:28Speaker 9: And then obviously the app business is just pure profit,
- 27:32Speaker 9: like every dollar revenue they bring in there, you know,
- 27:35Speaker 9: net of like you know, paying their sales reps commission
- 27:38Speaker 9: is just more profit than Netflix. So I think they
- 27:40Speaker 9: have that formula very tight, and it's reflected in how
- 27:45Speaker 9: the stock market is responded, you know, the value of
- 27:47Speaker 9: the company right now.
- 27:48Speaker 5: So you know, Mark, let's just step back a little
- 27:51Speaker 5: bit because one of the growth drivers for Netflix, in
- 27:54Speaker 5: addition to wrestling, I guess, is advertising. Now, this is
- 27:59Speaker 5: something a business that but Netflix has said repeatedly and
- 28:03Speaker 5: pointedly that they're not going to get into the advertising business. Well,
- 28:06Speaker 5: now they're into the advertising business. Can you And this
- 28:08Speaker 5: is your Balily book, this is where you guys operated
- 28:11Speaker 5: Mountain and how do you think they're gonna do here?
- 28:15Speaker 5: And then what's that mean for the industry?
- 28:18Speaker 9: I think they'll do well in the long term, but
- 28:22Speaker 9: I think in the short term they're struggling, still struggling
- 28:25Speaker 9: a bit there. And the reason why is it coming
- 28:28Speaker 9: into the television advertising market with a very traditional kind
- 28:32Speaker 9: of revenue model like that like upfront and go, let's
- 28:36Speaker 9: sell only to the thousand largest advertisers. Meanwhile, you have
- 28:41Speaker 9: companies that are treating advertising like a digital advertising market,
- 28:45Speaker 9: and that's my own company, Mountain, that's Amazon in particular.
- 28:49Speaker 9: And you see Amazon's ad business for TV. They had
- 28:53Speaker 9: the confidence that next week they're just flipping their entire
- 28:56Speaker 9: customer base over to an ad supporting model. That's because
- 29:00Speaker 9: they have tremendous confidence on the ability to monetize it.
- 29:03Speaker 9: And the reason for that is they have all of
- 29:06Speaker 9: these digital app buyers on their search business on the
- 29:08Speaker 9: Amazon dot Com website. So I think Netflix to really
- 29:12Speaker 9: grow the app business, they have to stop operating in
- 29:15Speaker 9: the past on the business, you know, using an old
- 29:18Speaker 9: kind of traditional media business model. They have to enter
- 29:22Speaker 9: the future. That's what Amazon's doing, That's what Mountain has
- 29:24Speaker 9: led the way up. And if they do that, they're
- 29:26Speaker 9: going to be very successful. As a matter fact, I
- 29:28Speaker 9: think if they do that, the stock the company can
- 29:31Speaker 9: double in size. I think Netflix is almost a start
- 29:34Speaker 9: when you look at you know, in terms of like
- 29:36Speaker 9: they Jef's IPO, when you look at the potential on
- 29:39Speaker 9: the app business if they if they do it right.
- 29:41Speaker 2: So walk me through the amount of Okay, so if
- 29:44Speaker 2: if I'm going to advertise on CBS and I'm going
- 29:47Speaker 2: to advertise on Netflix, how much am my pan for each? Like,
- 29:50Speaker 2: how is that calculus going to change? And also would
- 29:53Speaker 2: I put ads on both?
- 29:55Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 29:55Speaker 9: And so as a traditional we'll call it brand media buyer,
- 30:00Speaker 9: you will definitely you'll just go where the audience that
- 30:03Speaker 9: you're trying the reaches, you know, and and in traditional
- 30:06Speaker 9: media it's age and it's it's very traditionally targeted, and
- 30:10Speaker 9: you're happy to do both. The problem that you're kind
- 30:12Speaker 9: of alluding to is the brand advertising market is not
- 30:16Speaker 9: growing grows half a percent a year, So if you
- 30:18Speaker 9: enter that segment of the market, you are in a
- 30:21Speaker 9: market share war from day one. And you're seeing that
- 30:24Speaker 9: in Netflix growth rate on advertising it's growing relatively slow.
- 30:28Speaker 9: But if you go over the digital market where Google
- 30:31Speaker 9: and Meta and Amazon Mound operate, you know, there it's
- 30:35Speaker 9: it's like millions of e commerce companies who are eager
- 30:38Speaker 9: to be on Netflix, who are eager to be on
- 30:40Speaker 9: every TV network, and there's a lot more growth there.
- 30:44Speaker 9: So Netflix, Amazon's doing it right. I think my general
- 30:47Speaker 9: thing is Netflix will have a good year on advertising.
- 30:51Speaker 9: Amazon will have a great year, and I think eventually
- 30:54Speaker 9: Netflix will see, you know, see where the real growth
- 30:57Speaker 9: is and and pivot over to there. And that that's
- 31:01Speaker 9: how it works.
- 31:01Speaker 6: Mark.
- 31:02Speaker 5: I mean, if if you know anybody who's looked at
- 31:04Speaker 5: broadcaster cable television over the last several years, in terms
- 31:07Speaker 5: of the advertising.
- 31:07Speaker 6: It's pretty much all healthcare.
- 31:10Speaker 5: You know, it's basically letting you know of all the
- 31:12Speaker 5: conditions you're probably suffering from or could be suffering from.
- 31:15Speaker 5: And here's the little acronym we're going to put to it,
- 31:18Speaker 5: so you can remember the name. You can go ask
- 31:20Speaker 5: your doctor for this or that drug or you know, procedure. Yeah,
- 31:25Speaker 5: I mean there's no Yeah, I don't see general motors.
- 31:28Speaker 5: I don't see Coca cola anymore. I don't you know
- 31:30Speaker 5: all that kind of stuff. What is the future of
- 31:33Speaker 5: advertising for broadcasting cable television?
- 31:35Speaker 9: Is there one be well that that's what we essentially,
- 31:40Speaker 9: that's what we've been talking about. Now, compare that to
- 31:43Speaker 9: looking at ads on meta you know, on Instagram, it's
- 31:46Speaker 9: all e commerce, it's all products you may be interested in,
- 31:50Speaker 9: and you know, disruptive companies and things like that. So
- 31:54Speaker 9: the TV industry is in a transition. You know, NBC
- 31:57Speaker 9: made an interesting announcement at cs cs IS at the
- 32:01Speaker 9: start of the year in Vegas. It's a big, big
- 32:03Speaker 9: part of the show is advertising is all these big advertising companies,
- 32:07Speaker 9: and they announced that sixty percent of the ads that
- 32:10Speaker 9: run on NBC linear, you know, cable and streaming, they
- 32:14Speaker 9: expect to be targeted against people's interests and not just
- 32:18Speaker 9: their age. And that's a big, big difference because now
- 32:21Speaker 9: that starts to enable e commerce companies and other companies
- 32:25Speaker 9: to treat television like they're treating Instagram. And so that's
- 32:28Speaker 9: a transition from traditional media to digital media for television
- 32:33Speaker 9: and that that that that is happening, and you know,
- 32:36Speaker 9: going back to Netflix. Netflix kind of sees easy money
- 32:40Speaker 9: in the old way, but I think the long term
- 32:42Speaker 9: they have to be part of that. And the answer
- 32:45Speaker 9: your question is all of those TV networks are going
- 32:48Speaker 9: to adapt, They're going to go where all the emerging
- 32:50Speaker 9: companies are with the emerging ad dollars.
- 32:52Speaker 2: So anecdotally, we cut the core when my daughter was
- 32:56Speaker 2: really little, right, but we're watching Hulu and we have
- 32:59Speaker 2: as on Hulu, and she literally is like what is this?
- 33:02Speaker 4: Like why am I w And she's like what's with
- 33:04Speaker 4: all the car commercials? She's like who's buying all these cars?
- 33:07Speaker 4: Like what do I care about that? Like she literally
- 33:09Speaker 4: like blew her little brain about, like what actually was happening?
- 33:11Speaker 2: I thod that that was quite funny, But I think
- 33:14Speaker 2: it's a deeper point to what you're saying on like
- 33:16Speaker 2: how to reach younger people who have like no concept
- 33:19Speaker 2: of traditional television and what advertising actually is.
- 33:23Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean it's the death of Another way to
- 33:26Speaker 9: stated is we're going to watch the death of broadcasting
- 33:29Speaker 9: and broadcast ads and see the you know, the growth
- 33:33Speaker 9: of you know, match dads, so to say, ads that
- 33:36Speaker 9: are really tuned to your household and to your daughter's
- 33:40Speaker 9: interests and your interests and things like that, and all
- 33:43Speaker 9: the advertisers want the ladder and they're slowly amandoning forma.
- 33:47Speaker 9: They're moving away from the broadcasting and moving more in
- 33:50Speaker 9: the digitally targeted television advertising.
- 33:53Speaker 5: All right, Mark, Always good to touch base with you.
- 33:55Speaker 5: Mark dougas founder and CEO of Mountain.
- 34:00Speaker 1: Listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays
- 34:04Speaker 1: at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android Auto
- 34:07Speaker 1: with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live
- 34:10Speaker 1: on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just
- 34:13Speaker 1: Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 34:18Speaker 5: Andrew Auerbach she joins us. She's head of private investments
- 34:21Speaker 5: at Cambridge Associates.
- 34:22Speaker 6: I guess we're a little located at Boston. There you go, Andrew,
- 34:25Speaker 6: Thanks so much for joining us here.
- 34:26Speaker 5: I love you to just kind of give us a
- 34:28Speaker 5: lay of the land about the private equity venture capital
- 34:33Speaker 5: marketplace here today. Is the money still flowing there, our
- 34:37Speaker 5: deals still getting done.
- 34:39Speaker 6: What's the lay of the land look like.
- 34:42Speaker 10: Yeah, it's great to be here again and check in
- 34:46Speaker 10: with you all on the state of the private markets today.
- 34:49Speaker 10: And the lay of the land is wintry and a
- 34:51Speaker 10: little baron.
- 34:52Speaker 4: If I might.
- 34:54Speaker 10: Transaction volumes have been pretty low for most of twenty three.
- 34:59Speaker 10: We're hoping it picks up a little.
- 35:01Speaker 4: Bit more in twenty four. But to just give you.
- 35:03Speaker 10: One one indicator of how tumbleweeds are rolling through the
- 35:07Speaker 10: town square. The rate of distributions back to limited partners, right,
- 35:11Speaker 10: they're the investors in private investment funds, private credit funds,
- 35:14Speaker 10: what have you. Distributions back to LPs are at their
- 35:18Speaker 10: lowest point in about twenty five years. That's relative to
- 35:22Speaker 10: the market size. The market's grown, but that is that's
- 35:26Speaker 10: a heavy statistic in a January, you know. And so
- 35:30Speaker 10: there's more work to be done here, and the gps
- 35:32Speaker 10: are getting at that work well.
- 35:33Speaker 5: I mean, is it primarily been driven by this interest
- 35:37Speaker 5: rate environment we've been in here? It's tough to get
- 35:39Speaker 5: deals done, to get liquidity for the LPs if I'm
- 35:42Speaker 5: sitting on an investment here.
- 35:44Speaker 6: Is it primarily driven by the interest rate environment?
- 35:47Speaker 10: Exactly? Exactly? With the with the zero interest rate environment
- 35:52Speaker 10: exiting stage left and interest costs doubling overnight, it's definitely
- 35:57Speaker 10: created a throttle back in GP's ability to work with
- 36:02Speaker 10: our companies to generate attractive exit opportunities. And then buyers
- 36:07Speaker 10: like there's a big there's a big bid ask gap
- 36:09Speaker 10: right now and you're observing this all over the place,
- 36:12Speaker 10: as are we. Because the next buyer can't borrow the
- 36:15Speaker 10: same amount of debt to buy the company, and so
- 36:17Speaker 10: they won't and they won't pay for that. They won't
- 36:20Speaker 10: they won't pay as much either, And so we're waiting
- 36:23Speaker 10: for a bit of a capitulation moment maybe to unlock
- 36:27Speaker 10: a little bit of of the pent up demand for
- 36:30Speaker 10: exits right now that the LPs are waiting for.
- 36:32Speaker 2: I mean, Andrew, I think the market would love that.
- 36:35Speaker 2: In the meantime, it does feel though there's been lots
- 36:39Speaker 2: of different ways to access money to give it back
- 36:41Speaker 2: to LPs, and LP's going to private equity be and like,
- 36:43Speaker 2: I'm not going to invest more money until you giving
- 36:45Speaker 2: my old money back and then leverage upon leverage upon leverage.
- 36:48Speaker 2: Is there trouble brewing here? Like, what's an unintended consequence?
- 36:53Speaker 10: Yeah? So you're absolutely right, and so transaction volumes are down.
- 36:57Speaker 4: Fundraising for twenty three.
- 37:00Speaker 10: I think you'd have to go back about eight years
- 37:02Speaker 10: to find another year that matched in terms of volumes
- 37:06Speaker 10: are down, Right, We have to look back eight years
- 37:07Speaker 10: to find another year that had this much capital coming in.
- 37:11Speaker 10: And you're right about the leverage on leverage, Alex's the
- 37:14Speaker 10: risk here is that gps are feeling the pressure and
- 37:17Speaker 10: they're looking for ways to deliver some kind of distributions
- 37:20Speaker 10: to LPs, and there's certain things they're doing. I'll do
- 37:24Speaker 10: anything for a distribution, but I won't do that is
- 37:27Speaker 10: sort of the environment we're in. LPs aren't liking some
- 37:30Speaker 10: of the financial engineering efforts that are going on, navloans
- 37:34Speaker 10: being one of the hotter topics, if you will, in
- 37:37Speaker 10: the LP and GP community right now.
- 37:39Speaker 5: All right, talk to us about what has been one
- 37:41Speaker 5: of the most amazing growth stories I've seen in financial
- 37:43Speaker 5: services over the last a dozen years, which has been
- 37:45Speaker 5: private credit. What's your thoughts on that marketplace, that asset
- 37:51Speaker 5: class and kind of the deals that are getting done there.
- 37:55Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, so as we said, you know, we
- 37:58Speaker 10: were just talking about going from fourth to first gear
- 38:02Speaker 10: in the private equity markets. Because of interest rates increasing
- 38:05Speaker 10: as significantly as they have, it's really created a moment
- 38:09Speaker 10: for private credit, if you will, to shine, and in
- 38:12Speaker 10: that sense, the returns available for private credit investors because
- 38:16Speaker 10: interest rates are now what they are, because the transaction
- 38:20Speaker 10: environment is slower, private credit may be able to put
- 38:23Speaker 10: more bells and whistles in the forms of covenant actual
- 38:25Speaker 10: covenants on certain tiers of the market, and so things
- 38:30Speaker 10: are looking things are looking up from a private credit perspective,
- 38:33Speaker 10: while interest rates are staying at the levels that they are,
- 38:36Speaker 10: and in some ways, think about mezzanine think about private
- 38:39Speaker 10: middle return private credit strategies, they could deliver a thirteen
- 38:43Speaker 10: percent return to an investor. It's kind of knocking on
- 38:46Speaker 10: the door of certain private equity firms that might not
- 38:51Speaker 10: be measuring up right now. So there's we're watching some
- 38:54Speaker 10: stuff unfold this year that's going to be very interesting.
- 38:57Speaker 2: How much what do you like right now? If I
- 39:00Speaker 2: was gonna put money to work? How much should I
- 39:01Speaker 2: be putting into work?
- 39:02Speaker 4: And where.
- 39:06Speaker 10: Wonderful questions And actually there's a lot of tech. There's
- 39:09Speaker 10: a lot of discussion around this right because the public markets,
- 39:12Speaker 10: as we know, have recovered quite strongly, and you've been
- 39:14Speaker 10: talking about that, and where those pockets of opportunity are
- 39:18Speaker 10: private markets take anywhere from let's argue five, seven, ten
- 39:21Speaker 10: years to really watch those absolute returns roll in. And
- 39:25Speaker 10: so part of the debate right now, alex is should
- 39:28Speaker 10: we keep it in publics or should we move to privates?
- 39:30Speaker 10: Now I live in private, I live in privates, and
- 39:33Speaker 10: so within privates, depending on what you're looking for. That
- 39:37Speaker 10: private credit that Paul's talking about very interesting. If you
- 39:40Speaker 10: have a fixed income allocation you'd like to offset with
- 39:44Speaker 10: a little bit more of a return in the private
- 39:46Speaker 10: credit realm, I'll give you some. I'll give you an
- 39:49Speaker 10: interesting a spec from private equity. You know, venture valuations
- 39:53Speaker 10: have been coming down significantly and we're watching the returns
- 39:57Speaker 10: come down and it's definitely a lot of capitals cleared
- 40:00Speaker 10: out of that particular market. And as we talk about
- 40:04Speaker 10: it here at Cambridge Associates, venture is looking very interesting
- 40:07Speaker 10: right now, precisely because capital has been coming off to
- 40:11Speaker 10: the sidelines.
- 40:12Speaker 6: All right, Andrew, always a fascinating discussion. You always appreciate
- 40:15Speaker 6: getting some of your time.
- 40:16Speaker 5: Andrew Hourback, Head of Private Investments at Cambridge Associates.
- 40:20Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast, available on Apples, Spotify,
- 40:25Speaker 1: and anywhere else you will get your podcasts. Listen live
- 40:28Speaker 1: each weekday ten am to noon Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com,
- 40:32Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app.
- 40:35Speaker 1: You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube
- 40:39Speaker 1: and always on the Bloomberg terminal