Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Sustainability, Markets, and the Fed in Focus
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- 0:23Speaker 2: So lion Elbasel. If you don't know the company, takers
- 0:25Speaker 2: lyb It's basically a chemicals company. It's thirty billion dollar
- 0:29Speaker 2: chemicals company, think things like plastic. It is also doing
- 0:33Speaker 2: a lot of shift into sustainability, retrofitting certain plans to
- 0:36Speaker 2: make greener stuff. And this stuff is important because it's
- 0:39Speaker 2: things we use every single day and the most mundane things,
- 0:42Speaker 2: and it's difficult to really decarbonize those sectors. Joining us
- 0:46Speaker 2: now is Tracy Campbell, Executive VP of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs,
- 0:49Speaker 2: but she's held many positions within the company.
- 0:52Speaker 3: Tracy, great to see you.
- 0:53Speaker 4: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here, and who
- 0:55Speaker 4: doesn't want to be in midtown Manhattan on a day
- 0:57Speaker 4: like today. Thank you.
- 0:58Speaker 2: That means it's nice out right. Okay, we'll take your reustry.
- 1:02Speaker 2: So let's just start with the macro for a second,
- 1:04Speaker 2: because for those for those viewers who don't know. Devis
- 1:07Speaker 2: Hell makes all the stuff we need, plastics, ethylene, all
- 1:11Speaker 2: the things. How's it going, like, what's demand like right now?
- 1:15Speaker 4: You know, demand has been very steady, certainly in the Americas,
- 1:18Speaker 4: and I think demand got a bit of a boost
- 1:20Speaker 4: yesterday the economy did as well. So we're excited about that.
- 1:23Speaker 4: And while yes, some of the global markets are substantially weak. China,
- 1:28Speaker 4: for example, is an important market, but we're not as
- 1:31Speaker 4: exposed there as others. And of course you're up's a
- 1:33Speaker 4: bit slow to recover as well. But no, we're really
- 1:35Speaker 4: excited about about the demand that we're seeing here in
- 1:37Speaker 4: the Americas. And I've been in the industry for more
- 1:40Speaker 4: than thirty five years. I've lived through this cycle of
- 1:42Speaker 4: low demand and strong demand, and we don't subscribe to
- 1:47Speaker 4: this doom and gloom that you hear out there. So
- 1:49Speaker 4: we're excited about the recovery that we're going to see because,
- 1:52Speaker 4: as you said, Alex, we make the materials that people
- 1:54Speaker 4: count on every single day, and that's fundamentally not changing.
- 1:58Speaker 5: How does a company like yours and any global petro
- 2:01Speaker 5: chemical company, plastics company, how do they balance the business requirements,
- 2:05Speaker 5: grow the business, invest delivered profits for shareholders, and then
- 2:09Speaker 5: make this transition to maybe a cleaner business. How do
- 2:12Speaker 5: you guys balance that?
- 2:13Speaker 4: In general, we see it as an end When you
- 2:16Speaker 4: think about the value play that we have for more
- 2:20Speaker 4: sustainable products, whether they're more circular, perhaps they're low emission products.
- 2:24Speaker 4: We believe that that's a value proposition for the company
- 2:28Speaker 4: as itself, and we have a play there because we
- 2:30Speaker 4: can bring these products to market at scale. We're not
- 2:34Speaker 4: doing it for the greater good of society, while that's
- 2:36Speaker 4: an added benefit, We're doing it because we believe it's
- 2:39Speaker 4: a creative to earnings in the long run. So there
- 2:41Speaker 4: are consumers and brand owners out there that are looking
- 2:44Speaker 4: for those materials.
- 2:45Speaker 3: So in what sense does this happen.
- 2:47Speaker 2: Is it like we're going to use greener feedstock to
- 2:50Speaker 2: make stuff, Is it we're going to use alternative energy,
- 2:53Speaker 2: renewable energy to run our plant? Or is it we're
- 2:56Speaker 2: going to capture any sort of emissions? And then with it,
- 3:00Speaker 2: like what's the strategy?
- 3:03Speaker 4: There are multiple strategies there, and I think you hit
- 3:07Speaker 4: on quite a few of them. If you think about
- 3:08Speaker 4: our strategy as a company. We still believe that our
- 3:11Speaker 4: core petrochemical business is here to stay. However, we can
- 3:16Speaker 4: change the way we operate the feedstocks we use the
- 3:20Speaker 4: type of like you said, renewable energy and things like
- 3:23Speaker 4: that to lower the emissions that are being generated as
- 3:27Speaker 4: we make these materials. You know, another core piece of
- 3:30Speaker 4: our strategy is to really again leveraging our core business
- 3:34Speaker 4: to fund a much less capital intensive ecosystem for circular products,
- 3:39Speaker 4: for things waste materials being brought back into our system
- 3:43Speaker 4: and using those as the feedstocks essentially for the products
- 3:47Speaker 4: of the future. So really, there is renewable energy, there
- 3:51Speaker 4: is low carbon emissions, There is technology out there for
- 3:53Speaker 4: carbon capture and utilization. All of these are part of
- 3:56Speaker 4: the transition, including hydrogen for example, to bring either fossil
- 4:00Speaker 4: based materials or renewable and recyclable materials to the market
- 4:04Speaker 4: that we're looking at all of those.
- 4:06Speaker 5: I know, I mean, your company is truly a global company.
- 4:08Speaker 5: Roughly half the revenue in the US, half your revenue
- 4:11Speaker 5: outside the.
- 4:12Speaker 4: US, roughly, right, How is it?
- 4:14Speaker 5: How are the requirements or the environments for maybe migrating
- 4:19Speaker 5: your company to a more eco friendly business model. Is
- 4:22Speaker 5: it different in the US and it is outside the US?
- 4:24Speaker 4: I think the pace of change is different in different
- 4:27Speaker 4: parts of the world, but we see that change happening
- 4:30Speaker 4: on a global scale. For example, in Europe earlier today,
- 4:34Speaker 4: fact in Germany you'll see our press release soon. We
- 4:37Speaker 4: are laying the foundation stone of our advanced, our first
- 4:41Speaker 4: scalable advanced recycling unit, and we see the Germans sort
- 4:45Speaker 4: of and the Europeans advancing quickly right with respect to
- 4:48Speaker 4: embracing circular and low carbon. But it is we are
- 4:51Speaker 4: seeing the same trends here in the United States and
- 4:53Speaker 4: even with our joint ventures and our activity in Asia.
- 4:56Speaker 4: So it's just happening at a different time scale, but
- 4:59Speaker 4: the momentum and energy and the excitement around those products
- 5:02Speaker 4: is really not different. The policies might be a little
- 5:05Speaker 4: bit different depending on what country we're operating in, but
- 5:07Speaker 4: our direction is still the same. So we're very excited
- 5:10Speaker 4: about that announcement today in Germany.
- 5:11Speaker 3: So talk me about costs for a second.
- 5:13Speaker 2: So the working theory is that when you make stuff green,
- 5:19Speaker 2: it costs more. So a is that even true? And
- 5:23Speaker 2: if it is, how do you offset those costs? I mean, yeah,
- 5:27Speaker 2: and how do you offset it? Like do you wind
- 5:28Speaker 2: up having the cost end user have to pay more,
- 5:31Speaker 2: or there are different ways it's offset, even if it's
- 5:33Speaker 2: from policy like tax credits.
- 5:36Speaker 4: You know, when technology it's new, and when you're transitioning technology,
- 5:40Speaker 4: yes there are investments that need to be made, need
- 5:43Speaker 4: to be made to accelerate that transition. So you know,
- 5:46Speaker 4: I don't think in the long run the materials will
- 5:48Speaker 4: cost more. But the transition, of course is what where
- 5:52Speaker 4: the investment is tricky, right, and we need to look
- 5:55Speaker 4: at that. But if you look at consumer demand for
- 5:57Speaker 4: these materials, if you look at the governments programs that
- 6:01Speaker 4: are out there to accelerate the transition. The unit that
- 6:04Speaker 4: I spoke about that we're laying the foundation stone in
- 6:06Speaker 4: Germany just this morning was a recipient of a European
- 6:11Speaker 4: Innovation Fund, you know, millions of dollars to help us
- 6:13Speaker 4: with transition. But we really see the consumers stepping up,
- 6:16Speaker 4: the brand owners stepping up, and I think over time
- 6:19Speaker 4: the technology to make this transition. Tax credits for example
- 6:22Speaker 4: for hydrogen production, for hydrogen consumption are important as well.
- 6:26Speaker 4: So I really see a lot of activity in that
- 6:28Speaker 4: space to help us transition.
- 6:30Speaker 5: Jason from Omaha, Nebraska Rights and how have ocean Freight
- 6:34Speaker 5: costs affected the US ability to export our cheaper plastics
- 6:38Speaker 5: to the rest of the world ocean.
- 6:40Speaker 4: You know, I'm not an expert on ocean rates anymore. Okay,
- 6:44Speaker 4: at one point in my career, I can still plan
- 6:46Speaker 4: on radio. Yeah I can still Yeah, pretend. But you
- 6:48Speaker 4: know what we think about as our company, we really
- 6:53Speaker 4: focus on differentiating our assets in terms of feedstock advantages,
- 6:58Speaker 4: technology advantages, scale advantages. So do we have assets in
- 7:03Speaker 4: regions that depend on ocean freight. Absolutely, we have JVS
- 7:07Speaker 4: in the Middle East, We're growing there. We have owned
- 7:11Speaker 4: assets in the United States, and yes, we do export
- 7:13Speaker 4: these materials and we stay on top and we actually
- 7:16Speaker 4: have a supply chain organization and is constantly looking at
- 7:19Speaker 4: the optimization of freight to make sure we can deliver
- 7:21Speaker 4: those materials to market very competitively.
- 7:24Speaker 2: In terms of all of it, the transition, dealing with
- 7:29Speaker 2: current slowdown in Europe and Asia, etc. And this comes
- 7:32Speaker 2: from Ryan Hornan. So see, I'm going to ask your question,
- 7:35Speaker 2: do you think that animal spirits will awaken and we
- 7:38Speaker 2: get more M and A in the chemical space with
- 7:40Speaker 2: those low rates? And I would add on, are you
- 7:42Speaker 2: kind of forced to make acquisitions or even boltons as you're.
- 7:45Speaker 3: Also making this energy transition.
- 7:48Speaker 4: You know, growth is important to us, and I talked
- 7:50Speaker 4: about growing and upgrading our core and even growing this
- 7:52Speaker 4: circular and low carbon economy that we're looking at. So
- 7:56Speaker 4: I think M and A is always part of our
- 7:59Speaker 4: part of our optionality.
- 8:00Speaker 6: Right.
- 8:01Speaker 4: You've seen us grow our footprint in the Middle East.
- 8:05Speaker 4: I lived in Asia recently where we grew some footprints,
- 8:08Speaker 4: we grew some joint venors over there. So I think
- 8:10Speaker 4: M and A is always going to be in the
- 8:11Speaker 4: cards for us. And we do see ourselves as a
- 8:14Speaker 4: consolidator and a very efficient, scalable provider of these circular
- 8:18Speaker 4: and low carbon solutions. So there's a lot of activity
- 8:21Speaker 4: that we're doing there to consolidate feedstock acquisition, to build
- 8:25Speaker 4: these integrated hubs in order to have a very scalable
- 8:28Speaker 4: and optimized delivery system for these materials of the future.
- 8:32Speaker 4: So M and A is always an option for companies
- 8:35Speaker 4: of our size for sure.
- 8:36Speaker 5: Again, as a global company, I'm guessing you guys have
- 8:38Speaker 5: a vested interest in all this talk coming into Washington
- 8:42Speaker 5: to various degrees various parties about tariffs and things like that.
- 8:45Speaker 5: Does that impact your business? Has it impacted your business
- 8:48Speaker 5: over the last four or five years.
- 8:49Speaker 4: And you know, tariffs to me are I'm a believer
- 8:52Speaker 4: in a free market economy, right, and I think tariffs
- 8:54Speaker 4: in the long run tend to hurt to hurt that.
- 8:58Speaker 4: So you know, we really are positioning our company need
- 9:02Speaker 4: to be resilient no matter the outcome of any election
- 9:05Speaker 4: in the world. So you know, we're making sure that
- 9:07Speaker 4: we've got the right products, the right assets. We have
- 9:09Speaker 4: that differentiation to really be successful regardless of whether a
- 9:14Speaker 4: particular person wants to have tariffs or not.
- 9:16Speaker 3: So that was a very That was an SVP answer.
- 9:20Speaker 4: I try to be an enterprise thinker.
- 9:22Speaker 3: It's fair.
- 9:23Speaker 2: It's fair when we talk about the cost situation. And
- 9:26Speaker 2: this also plays into Paul's tariff question. Do you secure
- 9:30Speaker 2: customers for your products and that then help you build
- 9:35Speaker 2: the product, or after it's done, you have to go
- 9:37Speaker 2: out and sell them And what is both?
- 9:39Speaker 3: What do both of those processes look like?
- 9:41Speaker 4: We work with brand owners and with customers to build
- 9:44Speaker 4: the future materials and to help design those applications, so.
- 9:48Speaker 2: They have to commit to stuff. They have to be
- 9:49Speaker 2: like we will give you this much money for this
- 9:51Speaker 2: much product.
- 9:52Speaker 4: We work with them right from the early stage of
- 9:54Speaker 4: concepts through designed through perhaps a long term contract for example.
- 9:58Speaker 4: But yeah, having that being solutions provider requires us to
- 10:03Speaker 4: really develop those materials together.
- 10:04Speaker 2: Is it hard to come up with those numbers right
- 10:06Speaker 2: now with your customers in terms of pricing?
- 10:10Speaker 7: You know?
- 10:11Speaker 4: I don't think so. I think it's always been. We've
- 10:13Speaker 4: always worked with our customers and with downstream, so the
- 10:16Speaker 4: entire value chain to really design the materials that you know,
- 10:19Speaker 4: consumers like ourselves are looking for. So yes, as we
- 10:22Speaker 4: work through that process, we're looking at our cost to
- 10:25Speaker 4: deliver the material, the intermediate, the converter costs, the custom
- 10:28Speaker 4: consumer costs. But I don't think. I don't think the
- 10:31Speaker 4: uncertainty is any more, you know, is any higher than
- 10:36Speaker 4: it's ever been. Frankly, I think it's just something that
- 10:38Speaker 4: we're always making sure that we design for all options
- 10:42Speaker 4: and we have the flexibility to pivot if we need to.
- 10:45Speaker 3: All Right, Tracy, so great.
- 10:46Speaker 2: I've been trying to get Tracy on for like since
- 10:48Speaker 2: what February March LA here. Yeah, yes, it's great to
- 10:52Speaker 2: be Thank you so much, really appreciate I know you're
- 10:54Speaker 2: here for Climate Weeks. I'm looking forward to what will
- 10:55Speaker 2: come out and yes as well, Tercy Campbell joining us.
- 10:59Speaker 3: There your titles long is SVP of No, I'm trying
- 11:04Speaker 3: to find it.
- 11:05Speaker 5: I've got executive stainability over affairs.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Oh, come on an email, Alex, come on, all right, trades,
- 11:11Speaker 2: appreciate that. Joining us from mine elvisl on all things
- 11:14Speaker 2: energy transition when it comes to petro chemicals.
- 11:18Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 11:22Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecard Play and Android
- 11:25Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business. You can also listen live
- 11:28Speaker 1: on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just
- 11:32Speaker 1: say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 11:36Speaker 2: Markets at a record there's some serious volume coming into play.
- 11:40Speaker 2: I was talking to one market technician who was like,
- 11:43Speaker 2: we get options expiration tomorrow. You gotta reshuffle your delta,
- 11:46Speaker 2: which I guess is a fancy option word. So that's
- 11:48Speaker 2: why you're seeing a lot of the flows here. Emily
- 11:50Speaker 2: Rowland is co chief investment strategist for John Hancock Investment Management,
- 11:54Speaker 2: and she joins us. Now, Emily, do I just blame
- 11:56Speaker 2: technicals an options expiration or is this some serious, real fomore.
- 12:01Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 12:01Speaker 8: No, I think that that's probably some noise that does
- 12:04Speaker 8: a curve periodically. You know, Look, markets are celebrating today.
- 12:07Speaker 8: We're near new all time highs or kissing them, as
- 12:10Speaker 8: you said earlier, and I think there's a lot of
- 12:13Speaker 8: relief around this Dubvish pivot that the Fed has taken.
- 12:16Speaker 9: Here.
- 12:16Speaker 8: There was a bit of confusion in the markets yesterday
- 12:20Speaker 8: after Powell came out and told us not to get
- 12:22Speaker 8: too excited that more fifty basis point CODs aren't coming.
- 12:26Speaker 8: But I think overall, it was a Dubvish FED meeting
- 12:28Speaker 8: and it looks like markets can continue sunning themselves on
- 12:32Speaker 8: soft Landing Island.
- 12:35Speaker 2: Very nice Netflix Season one.
- 12:38Speaker 5: Hey, we've actually got a yield curve that's steepening here.
- 12:42Speaker 5: We got the two year at three point five eight percent,
- 12:44Speaker 5: ten years three point seven two percent.
- 12:46Speaker 7: What does that tell you?
- 12:48Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean you're bond yields came a long way
- 12:51Speaker 8: prior to this Dubvish FED meeting yesterday, So I think
- 12:54Speaker 8: you're seeing a little bit of repricing there across the curve.
- 12:59Speaker 8: You know, I think that we could see some chopping
- 13:02Speaker 8: rates from here as we kind of navigate through this
- 13:05Speaker 8: environment where there's kind of some better than expected economic data.
- 13:10Speaker 8: You know, maybe we're continuing to see some broad deceleration,
- 13:14Speaker 8: but again, this deceleration is happening slowly enough that it's
- 13:18Speaker 8: sort of providing this perfect backdrop for the Fed to,
- 13:22Speaker 8: you know, to continue to implement rate cuts amidst a
- 13:25Speaker 8: decelerating economic environment. It's going to happen in choppy fashion,
- 13:30Speaker 8: but for now, I think you're kind of going to
- 13:31Speaker 8: see rates hold steady. As yesterday was a big event.
- 13:34Speaker 8: We've gotten through it and we'll see what happens from here.
- 13:37Speaker 2: So do you chase here or is there something on
- 13:39Speaker 2: your shopping list or is it just a rotation at
- 13:41Speaker 2: this point?
- 13:42Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean we would look at any backup in
- 13:44Speaker 8: bond yields is a nice opportunity to lean in income.
- 13:48Speaker 3: There is still elevated.
- 13:49Speaker 8: Of course, yields have come down a lot over the
- 13:51Speaker 8: course of this summer, but we still don't think that
- 13:54Speaker 8: bonds have fully sniffed out this disinflationary, lower growth environment.
- 13:58Speaker 8: So we'd like higher quality areas like mortgage backed securities,
- 14:02Speaker 8: investment great corporate bonds, sprinkle in a little bit of
- 14:05Speaker 8: treasuries there. So we think there's a buying opportunity there.
- 14:09Speaker 8: You know, stocks are fully reflective of this soft landing backdrop.
- 14:13Speaker 8: We continue to embrace higher quality stocks, and we're looking
- 14:17Speaker 8: for areas that provide quality at a reasonable price as well,
- 14:21Speaker 8: so we would be leaning into things like healthcare stocks.
- 14:24Speaker 8: We're legging into more defensive areas of the market like
- 14:27Speaker 8: utilities and infrastructure equities. And we continue to see US
- 14:31Speaker 8: mid cap stocks is a big beneficiar area of onshoring
- 14:34Speaker 8: activity and the fiscal spending that's still happening against this
- 14:39Speaker 8: this this decent economic backdrop.
- 14:43Speaker 5: Emily, when you get big moves into market like we're
- 14:45Speaker 5: seeing today, that kind of just raises the valuation flag
- 14:47Speaker 5: for a lot of investors. How are you kind of
- 14:49Speaker 5: thinking about valuation any equity markets?
- 14:52Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean it's not great, I'll tell you. You know,
- 14:54Speaker 8: certainly with markets you know, bumping up on twenty one
- 14:57Speaker 8: twenty two times forward earnings, I think are well priced
- 15:01Speaker 8: for this soft landing scenario that we've been talking about.
- 15:03Speaker 8: You know, and you look at areas like technology stops
- 15:06Speaker 8: which are trading at thirty times forward earnings, which is
- 15:09Speaker 8: about as high as we've gotten over the last cycle.
- 15:12Speaker 8: It's not the fifty times forward earnings that we saw
- 15:15Speaker 8: in the late nineteen nineties. So I think the froth
- 15:18Speaker 8: is is a bit of a concern. But I would
- 15:20Speaker 8: tell you that valuations just simply aren't a catalyst for
- 15:24Speaker 8: a market rotation. They haven't been historically. I think you'd
- 15:27Speaker 8: need to really see some kind of shift in the
- 15:30Speaker 8: economic regime. You'd have to see a big shift in
- 15:32Speaker 8: earnings trends to really see that market leadership change. And
- 15:36Speaker 8: you know, you can blame a lot of things on
- 15:38Speaker 8: the multiple expansion that we've seen in technology, but you
- 15:41Speaker 8: can't blame the denominator. The earnings have been there for
- 15:44Speaker 8: these companies, which makes us continue to be constructive there.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Which also the reason of the question, how where do
- 15:50Speaker 2: you go in terms of large, mid small? So I've
- 15:54Speaker 2: been reading a lot about, particularly from Bank of America,
- 15:55Speaker 2: how maybe this is the time for midcaps? And mid
- 15:57Speaker 2: caps hit a record high yesterday, they outro foot today,
- 16:00Speaker 2: they outperformed yesterday, Like, is not the sweet spot for
- 16:03Speaker 2: that environment that you're talking about?
- 16:05Speaker 8: Yeah, midcaps are the sweet spot for us. You know,
- 16:08Speaker 8: when you go down into small caps, you're looking at
- 16:10Speaker 8: companies that are unprofitable, they have higher interest burdens. You know,
- 16:14Speaker 8: the Rustle of two thousand is comprised about forty percent
- 16:17Speaker 8: of that index is comprised of companies that don't make money.
- 16:21Speaker 8: They could do really well in an early cycle environment,
- 16:24Speaker 8: but we just don't think that we're there yet. And
- 16:26Speaker 8: you see these little rallies in small cap equities based
- 16:29Speaker 8: on the idea that rates are coming down. But remember
- 16:31Speaker 8: rates are coming down because there's a challenge with growth,
- 16:34Speaker 8: and we think that that does not benefit the most
- 16:37Speaker 8: cyclical areas, namely small caps. Moving up into MidCap equities,
- 16:42Speaker 8: you get a big overweight to the industrial sector. So
- 16:45Speaker 8: think about the relative sector composition there, and we think
- 16:48Speaker 8: mid cap industrials are massive beneficiaries of the spending that's
- 16:53Speaker 8: happening in the US. There's a manufacturing renaissance happening right
- 16:56Speaker 8: now in the US Midwest due to onshoring and due
- 17:00Speaker 8: to things like the Chips Act and the Infrastructure and
- 17:02Speaker 8: Jobs Act. So we want to look to mid caps
- 17:04Speaker 8: as a way to capture that. They're also trading at
- 17:07Speaker 8: the deepest discount to their large cap counterparts since the
- 17:11Speaker 8: late nineteen nineties, so you're not overpaying for this theme.
- 17:15Speaker 5: Emily, how do you feel about the earnings backdrop here
- 17:17Speaker 5: for the.
- 17:17Speaker 8: Market, Well, I love it going into the third quarter
- 17:21Speaker 8: because the bar is low. It's actually analysts are penciling
- 17:26Speaker 8: in four point three percent earnings growth as we look
- 17:31Speaker 8: forward to the next quarter's earning.
- 17:33Speaker 3: Season, So we love a low bar there.
- 17:35Speaker 8: I think we should enjoy it while we can because
- 17:38Speaker 8: Q four earnings growth is penciled in to be about
- 17:41Speaker 8: fifteen percent, and then analysts are looking at fifteen percent
- 17:44Speaker 8: into next year. So not only is the market trading
- 17:47Speaker 8: at an elevated valuation, but that's also against expectations that
- 17:51Speaker 8: we're going to see about fifteen percent earnings growth next year.
- 17:54Speaker 8: That's probably a bit optimistic, so we may see a
- 17:58Speaker 8: challenge to that right now. Multiple expansions helping as we
- 18:01Speaker 8: continue to embrace the fad pivot here and the soft landing,
- 18:05Speaker 8: but ultimately the earnings need to come through as stock
- 18:09Speaker 8: prices over time, we're going to follow profits and follow earnings,
- 18:12Speaker 8: so we think that's going to be critical to watch
- 18:14Speaker 8: as we look forward.
- 18:15Speaker 3: Emily, great stuff.
- 18:16Speaker 2: Really good to see you, Emily Roland, co, Chief Investment
- 18:18Speaker 2: Strategies for John Hancock Investment Management, joining us.
- 18:23Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
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- 18:33Speaker 1: get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 18:38Speaker 2: It's a good moment to check in on media stuff
- 18:41Speaker 2: and media deals. And I read that really interesting article
- 18:43Speaker 2: in the Wall Street Journal about how there's going to
- 18:45Speaker 2: be a show on Amazon where people get to basically
- 18:48Speaker 2: compete to get a slot in the in their big
- 18:52Speaker 2: Amazon dot com store. So they're describing it as like
- 18:54Speaker 2: Shark Tank meets Home Shopping Network, which.
- 18:57Speaker 3: I don't know. For me, you would actually watch this
- 18:59Speaker 3: one hundred percent? Would you not? Okay, you're not gonna
- 19:03Speaker 3: watch it. Paul, No, that's not his thing. KEITHA helped
- 19:05Speaker 3: me out.
- 19:06Speaker 2: Keithan wrong or not them, Boomberg Intelligence US media analyst.
- 19:08Speaker 2: This sounds brilliant to me. Did you see this article?
- 19:12Speaker 6: I did not, but it definitely sounds intriguing.
- 19:14Speaker 2: So it's a new competition show next month. Entrepreneurs are
- 19:17Speaker 2: going to pitch their products to a studio audience as
- 19:19Speaker 2: well as to judges including Amazon executives and some celebrities.
- 19:23Speaker 2: Like Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow and designer Christian Siriano, and
- 19:26Speaker 2: then finalists will have their inventions sold in a new
- 19:29Speaker 2: Amazon Buy It Now online store.
- 19:31Speaker 3: That's synergy, That's what I'm saying.
- 19:33Speaker 2: Yes, whether or not you watch it, that has some synergy.
- 19:36Speaker 2: So she's not gonna watch it. I'm I the only
- 19:38Speaker 2: one that gonna watch thinks, So all right, fine, fine,
- 19:40Speaker 2: all right, you talk now, Paul.
- 19:41Speaker 5: All right, Keitha, thanks so much for joining us here.
- 19:43Speaker 5: What I want to talk to you is about is
- 19:45Speaker 5: just kind of where are we these days, Githa on
- 19:48Speaker 5: cable networks, staying on cable systems like the old days.
- 19:52Speaker 5: I know, Warner Brothers Discovery. They have a new deal
- 19:56Speaker 5: with Charter. Talk to us about that and why it's important.
- 20:00Speaker 6: This was a really big deal for Warner Brothers Discovery.
- 20:03Speaker 6: And the reason it's such a big deal is, of course,
- 20:05Speaker 6: one thing is ninety percent of Warner Brothers Discoveries profits
- 20:09Speaker 6: actually come from its television networks. But the reason it
- 20:11Speaker 6: was so critical, and especially from a timing perspective, was
- 20:14Speaker 6: because Warner Brothers has just lost its rights to NBA programming.
- 20:19Speaker 6: And remember NBA is one of the main draws for TNT,
- 20:23Speaker 6: which is their most expensive channel right now in their
- 20:27Speaker 6: network lineup, and so there's been a lot of fear,
- 20:31Speaker 6: you know, amongst investors that Warner Brothers TV revenue, especially
- 20:35Speaker 6: it's affiliate fee revenues, is going to be a tremendous risk.
- 20:39Speaker 6: And so this deal actually with Charter, it was actually
- 20:41Speaker 6: coming up for renewal only next year, but I guess
- 20:45Speaker 6: David Zaslav wanted to go ahead and assuage investor fears,
- 20:48Speaker 6: and so he signed this deal a whole year in advance,
- 20:51Speaker 6: maintaining the same affiliate fee revenue trajectory. So it's kind
- 20:55Speaker 6: of it's definitely provides some temporary relief from an outlook
- 21:00Speaker 6: perspective for Warner Brothers.
- 21:02Speaker 2: All right, fine, see, but you know they're struggling because
- 21:04Speaker 2: there's cool shows like this like Shark Tank and a
- 21:06Speaker 2: home shopping network on Amazon now whatever. Fine, all right,
- 21:10Speaker 2: so what are their questions? Are still a bubbling up
- 21:12Speaker 2: in the media community. There was a great piece on
- 21:15Speaker 2: By your Succession a couple of weeks ago talking about
- 21:18Speaker 2: that what else are you focusing on?
- 21:21Speaker 6: The carriage continues to be a big, you know, a
- 21:24Speaker 6: big bone of contention across the whole TV space, Alex.
- 21:27Speaker 6: I mean, yes, we had this Warner Brothers Discovery each
- 21:29Speaker 6: Other deal, which was somewhat of a low drama deal,
- 21:32Speaker 6: but there was one that was high drama, and that
- 21:34Speaker 6: was actually Disney with Direct TV. Those two companies were
- 21:38Speaker 6: fighting it out. There was a blackout of all Disney
- 21:40Speaker 6: programming on DirecTV systems for almost two weeks until finally
- 21:44Speaker 6: both of them caved. And you know, Disney obviously wanted
- 21:47Speaker 6: to have carriage free increases, which I think at got.
- 21:50Speaker 6: What Direct TV was really looking for was more flexibility
- 21:53Speaker 6: and you know, programming and packaging, and they got that.
- 21:56Speaker 6: So we're seeing kind of all these deals become really
- 21:59Speaker 6: contentious as kind of the whole video A landscape keeps shifting,
- 22:03Speaker 6: so carriage continues to be a really big thing. And
- 22:06Speaker 6: then the other thing is, of course, we have you know,
- 22:08Speaker 6: the M and A chatter coming up every now and then.
- 22:10Speaker 6: The most recent one, of course, was direc TV with
- 22:13Speaker 6: Dish that will obviously have huge implications for the entire
- 22:17Speaker 6: TV landscape.
- 22:19Speaker 5: So let's switch gears a little bit to a business
- 22:22Speaker 5: that I think is actually investors still like, and that's
- 22:25Speaker 5: just a theme park business. We think theme parks, we
- 22:27Speaker 5: think the Walt Disney company. I'll be down a Walt
- 22:30Speaker 5: Disney World in a few weeks doing some due diligence.
- 22:32Speaker 5: But Comcast also has a big theme park business. Talk
- 22:37Speaker 5: to us about their theme park business and the investments
- 22:39Speaker 5: they're making and how important it is to that company.
- 22:42Speaker 6: Oh, absolutely so with Comcast. I mean when we think
- 22:44Speaker 6: of Comcasts, we always think of the cable business, and
- 22:46Speaker 6: rightly so. Cable actually makes up eighty percent of their ibadah.
- 22:50Speaker 6: But the one area that has kind of been ignored
- 22:52Speaker 6: for Comcast I think over the past few years has
- 22:54Speaker 6: been their NBC division, and NBC through Universal of course,
- 22:57Speaker 6: not only owns TV Networks studios, but also the theme parks.
- 23:00Speaker 6: And the big thing for Comcasts and its theme parks
- 23:03Speaker 6: is they're actually opening a whole new theme park next year,
- 23:06Speaker 6: which is Epic Universe in Orlando. It actually doubles their
- 23:10Speaker 6: entire Orlando footprints, So they go from about eight hundred
- 23:12Speaker 6: acres right now in Orlando to almost sixteen hundred acres
- 23:16Speaker 6: with this park, and it's going to obviously do you know,
- 23:19Speaker 6: so much for their attendance. So right now, Universal attracts
- 23:23Speaker 6: about thirty million subscribers domestically to their parks. Of course,
- 23:27Speaker 6: the big behemoth is Disney with about eighty two hundred
- 23:30Speaker 6: million almost domestically. But with this we think Comcast actually
- 23:34Speaker 6: kind of gets closer to Disney, right, they can get
- 23:36Speaker 6: about forty forty five million visitors to their domestic parks
- 23:41Speaker 6: on an annual basis, so it's going to do a
- 23:43Speaker 6: whole lot for their attendance. And really, Paul, as we
- 23:45Speaker 6: kind of see the business going out, we think, you know,
- 23:48Speaker 6: theme parks almost it used to be a few years ago,
- 23:50Speaker 6: theme parks was about twenty five percent of NBC's profit.
- 23:54Speaker 6: In a few years, we think theme parks can actually
- 23:56Speaker 6: be fifty percent of NBC's profit.
- 23:58Speaker 3: That's fascinating. Well, it's it is and it's not.
- 24:01Speaker 5: It's good because the theme bark business is growing, but
- 24:03Speaker 5: it also reflects the fact that their cable network business
- 24:06Speaker 5: is declining dramatically and that's the cashal historically.
- 24:09Speaker 2: A good point, I guess. I wonder though too, that
- 24:12Speaker 2: is that also more recession proof or not? Like what
- 24:15Speaker 2: goes first? Ad spending for a linear TV or people
- 24:19Speaker 2: not taking their kids to Disneyland.
- 24:20Speaker 3: Is there an Avengers theme park. Do we note? I
- 24:22Speaker 3: don't know why am I asking Paul? All right?
- 24:25Speaker 2: Anyway, thanks Ethan, We appreciate you. Geith the wrong and
- 24:28Speaker 2: not then. Bloomberg Intelligence US media analysts.
- 24:33Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
- 24:36Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecar Play and Android
- 24:40Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen
- 24:43Speaker 1: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
- 24:46Speaker 1: Just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 24:51Speaker 2: All right, let's get to David Koodlan now, a founder
- 24:53Speaker 2: and CEO and chief investment strategist, I should say at
- 24:55Speaker 2: Mainstay Capital Management, He joins us. Now, hey, David, are
- 24:59Speaker 2: you buying into this record rally?
- 25:00Speaker 10: Here?
- 25:01Speaker 11: We're buying into this record rally.
- 25:04Speaker 9: I know that there are many who are still concerned
- 25:06Speaker 9: about a recession, that are worried at that price, the
- 25:11Speaker 9: price of stocks at these levels, we're at new highs.
- 25:15Speaker 9: But look what we've seen here now, with this cut
- 25:20Speaker 9: yesterday and what we have going forward, we're you know,
- 25:25Speaker 9: if there's such a thing as a Goldilocks scenario, we're
- 25:28Speaker 9: about as close as we can be to it. So
- 25:31Speaker 9: you know, I've had the expression for the last two years,
- 25:35Speaker 9: the recession that's always six months away. The recession is
- 25:38Speaker 9: always six months away. GDP now right now Atlanta GDP
- 25:42Speaker 9: now for the third quarters at two point nine percent.
- 25:46Speaker 11: We had three percent growth in the second quarter.
- 25:49Speaker 9: We're looking for We're still looking for that soft landing
- 25:51Speaker 9: that the FED rarely pulls off, so more of a
- 25:55Speaker 9: mid cycle slow down and then we slowly reaccelerate and
- 25:59Speaker 9: we don't get that recession. And if that's the case,
- 26:02Speaker 9: twelve months later after a first rate cut, stocks are
- 26:06Speaker 9: higher and significantly higher. If you get a recession after
- 26:10Speaker 9: a first rate cut, stocks are lower. So that's what
- 26:14Speaker 9: we're pivoting on. But we're still optimistic and constructive on
- 26:18Speaker 9: stocks at this point.
- 26:21Speaker 5: So, David, I think when I listen to some folks
- 26:23Speaker 5: that are still constructive on the market, they just kind
- 26:25Speaker 5: of I think they hang their hat on a couple
- 26:26Speaker 5: of things, which is one, I've got to fed the
- 26:28Speaker 5: cutting rates, and I've got a pretty decent earnings environment.
- 26:31Speaker 11: That's pretty good. But one of the things that we.
- 26:33Speaker 5: Just don't know it's an election year, and I don't
- 26:36Speaker 5: know what that means for the markets. How do you
- 26:38Speaker 5: guys talk about that to your clients.
- 26:41Speaker 11: I'm glad you brought that up.
- 26:43Speaker 9: You know, we get preoccupied with politics as it relates
- 26:48Speaker 9: to our investment strategy. And when I say that, I
- 26:52Speaker 9: mean at average investors out there. You know, there are
- 26:55Speaker 9: investors that believe if so and so gets elected, it's
- 26:59Speaker 9: the We're it's doomsday.
- 27:04Speaker 11: If so and so gets elected, it's nirvana.
- 27:06Speaker 9: What we find out is, and this is why we'll
- 27:09Speaker 9: have volatility over the next couple of months until the election,
- 27:13Speaker 9: is the market's hate uncertainty. So it's about getting that
- 27:15Speaker 9: uncertainty out of the way. But then it's not as
- 27:18Speaker 9: much about whether it's Democrat or Republican as far as
- 27:21Speaker 9: where we invest. As tactical asset allocators, we want to
- 27:26Speaker 9: look at the difference in policies. There's differences in policies
- 27:29Speaker 9: and energy and a lot of areas between these two candidates,
- 27:33Speaker 9: and depending on how the House and Senate go in
- 27:37Speaker 9: terms of taxes and everything, So that matters as far
- 27:40Speaker 9: as technically how we invest. But the people that go
- 27:43Speaker 9: to cash because they're scared, concerned, wait and see end
- 27:48Speaker 9: up typically in election years, end up suffering an opportunity costs,
- 27:52Speaker 9: and that's exactly what's happened this year so far for
- 27:55Speaker 9: people that have stepped to the sidelines.
- 27:58Speaker 2: Is there a risk by pivot back to the fit
- 28:00Speaker 2: per second, so put elections on the side. Is there
- 28:03Speaker 2: a risk that we're going to see kind of more
- 28:05Speaker 2: growth and demand resurface in a particular way because we're
- 28:08Speaker 2: in that rate cutting cycle, because we got that jumbo
- 28:11Speaker 2: rate hike. And is that a risk eventually for resurgence
- 28:15Speaker 2: and inflation?
- 28:17Speaker 7: It is.
- 28:18Speaker 9: It is a risk. But what we've seen so far
- 28:22Speaker 9: is inflation is on this glide path to the Fed's target.
- 28:27Speaker 9: If anything, I think with the disinflationary forces that will
- 28:31Speaker 9: come back into effect as we get by all the
- 28:34Speaker 9: effects of the pandemic. You know, we may overshoot the
- 28:39Speaker 9: two percent, but we're certainly on a glide path to
- 28:41Speaker 9: two percent. And right now, you know where we are
- 28:46Speaker 9: with the labor market.
- 28:48Speaker 11: We had some good news today.
- 28:50Speaker 9: You know, there's still some concern out there about credit
- 28:54Speaker 9: card debt, credit card industry, auto loan delinquencies, things like that,
- 28:58Speaker 9: But we balance that all out and we think the
- 29:01Speaker 9: inflation problem is gone. It's now about labor unemployment. We
- 29:08Speaker 9: get to the point where that needs to be rates
- 29:11Speaker 9: come down to, you know, if it's the long term
- 29:13Speaker 9: neut rate of three percent here through twenty twenty five
- 29:17Speaker 9: for the Fed funds rate. We're in a good environment
- 29:21Speaker 9: for stockstill. We know they're expensive, but stocks can be
- 29:25Speaker 9: we know, overvalued or undervalued for a very very long time.
- 29:29Speaker 5: All right, David, So what sectors are screening well for
- 29:33Speaker 5: you these days? Again, we've had an S and P
- 29:35Speaker 5: five hundred index move about twenty percent year today. But
- 29:38Speaker 5: I know not everybody's participated. So how are you guys
- 29:40Speaker 5: approaching maybe like sector selection.
- 29:43Speaker 9: Right, So you know one area for sure that that's
- 29:47Speaker 9: been troubled for quite a while, you know, especially a
- 29:51Speaker 9: while back here with some of the a few of
- 29:54Speaker 9: the bank failures. But banks, financial services look very good.
- 30:00Speaker 9: As the yield curve continues to steepen. NIM improves net
- 30:04Speaker 9: interest margin for the banks. We're finally getting that yield
- 30:07Speaker 9: curve steepening. So we like the financials a lot. We
- 30:11Speaker 9: still like technology a lot, the AI story. But what
- 30:17Speaker 9: we're able to do now we can broaden into value,
- 30:21Speaker 9: we can broaden into cyclicals, we can broaden into small
- 30:24Speaker 9: caps and diverse, diverse fire portfolios from the Magnificent seven
- 30:29Speaker 9: to these other areas. You know, small cap companies are
- 30:33Speaker 9: far more reliant on debt and with interest rates coming down,
- 30:37Speaker 9: their costs of capital coming down, maybe coming down a
- 30:40Speaker 9: lot over the next year. That's good for small caps
- 30:43Speaker 9: and that's what we've been seeing recently in IWM or
- 30:46Speaker 9: the Russell two thousand index.
- 30:48Speaker 3: Mid caps sweet spot.
- 30:50Speaker 9: You like them mid caps as well. Mid caps the
- 30:53Speaker 9: same thing. Small and mid caps just become more attractive,
- 30:58Speaker 9: and mid caps a kind of that sweet spot in between.
- 31:01Speaker 9: You know, it's been a large cap dominated stock market
- 31:04Speaker 9: for quite a while.
- 31:05Speaker 11: We've had a lot of headcake at fakes.
- 31:07Speaker 9: With small cap in MidCap, but we think they now
- 31:10Speaker 9: have a runway with raids coming down.
- 31:13Speaker 5: All right, David, thank you so much for joining us.
- 31:15Speaker 5: Always appreciate getting a few minutes of your time. David Kudlap,
- 31:18Speaker 5: he's the founder, he's the CEO, and he's a chief
- 31:20Speaker 5: investment strategist at Mainstay Capitol Management.
- 31:23Speaker 11: I call him the boss.
- 31:24Speaker 7: There.
- 31:24Speaker 5: I guess basically.
- 31:27Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 31:31Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on applecard Play and Android
- 31:35Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen
- 31:37Speaker 1: live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station.
- 31:41Speaker 1: Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 31:45Speaker 11: All Right, the FED cuts rates.
- 31:48Speaker 5: One of the beneficiaries I would think.
- 31:49Speaker 11: Would be real estate people.
- 31:51Speaker 5: People if you want to build a building, develop a building,
- 31:53Speaker 5: if you want to rent in a building, buying a building.
- 31:55Speaker 5: I mean, it's got to be good for them, right,
- 31:57Speaker 5: Money's cheaper. Let's talk to somebody who actually does it
- 31:59Speaker 5: for being. Mickey enough Tally, chairman and Sea of the
- 32:02Speaker 5: Naught Tally Group, joined by Abigail Dulo, our market's reporter
- 32:05Speaker 5: for Bloomberg News, got them all here in a Bloomberg
- 32:07Speaker 5: Interactive Broker studio. Let's talk luxury condos. I'm asking for
- 32:12Speaker 5: a friend here Mickey talks about the luxury condo business.
- 32:15Speaker 5: I know that's an area of the market that you
- 32:17Speaker 5: know very well.
- 32:17Speaker 7: You're very active.
- 32:19Speaker 11: It's a sense of how the market is in New
- 32:20Speaker 11: York City these days.
- 32:21Speaker 7: Right, So the market is actually good.
- 32:23Speaker 12: We opened last week three sales offices at the same
- 32:27Speaker 12: day in the same week, which is the right quote
- 32:29Speaker 12: for us, and all.
- 32:31Speaker 7: Three so we have three new projects starting three new projects.
- 32:34Speaker 12: They're already under construction, but we we launched sales Upper
- 32:39Speaker 12: west Side, Upper east Side, and Williamsburg on the waterfront.
- 32:43Speaker 7: All three are doing very well.
- 32:45Speaker 12: There is not much inventory in New York City and
- 32:48Speaker 12: buyers are looking for the right product.
- 32:51Speaker 10: So the FED cut reads yesterday, of course by fifty
- 32:53Speaker 10: basis points. That certainly helps you, I imagine with some
- 32:56Speaker 10: of your carrying costs. But given the fact that you
- 32:58Speaker 10: are catering to a high net worth individual, how many
- 33:02Speaker 10: cash deals do you see or does this really help
- 33:05Speaker 10: you know your buyers as well?
- 33:06Speaker 12: Right, So it's very interesting the more expensive apartments we
- 33:11Speaker 12: see cash type of deals. But when we do it,
- 33:15Speaker 12: for example in Williamsburg, we have a lot of the
- 33:17Speaker 12: inventory trading between two to five million. Those are buyers
- 33:22Speaker 12: that usually take mortgage and the cut, the rate cut
- 33:26Speaker 12: is obviously helping them a lot, and I suspect that
- 33:29Speaker 12: we'll see much more activity in the market in the
- 33:32Speaker 12: next twelve to eighteen months.
- 33:35Speaker 2: What is the competition like to get the apartments?
- 33:39Speaker 10: Like?
- 33:39Speaker 2: Is there the kind of competition that we would have seen,
- 33:41Speaker 2: say five years ago for these kind of properties.
- 33:44Speaker 12: Yes, so there is not much inventory and definitely there
- 33:47Speaker 12: is not much of quality inventory. The reason is that
- 33:52Speaker 12: it was very and it's still very difficult to get
- 33:56Speaker 12: construction loans. So for example, developers are just on the
- 34:00Speaker 12: sideline they can get the construction loans. There are not
- 34:03Speaker 12: too many projects under construction in New York.
- 34:06Speaker 7: That's number one.
- 34:07Speaker 12: Number two, construction cost insurance costs are just really almost
- 34:12Speaker 12: doubled then five years ago, So it's very difficult to
- 34:16Speaker 12: get to a point that the project make financial sense,
- 34:20Speaker 12: which means that there is very low inventory.
- 34:23Speaker 10: So you're saying that there's very low inventory. And yet
- 34:26Speaker 10: I've certainly been a part of the speculation. Other people
- 34:28Speaker 10: have been part of the speculation that some of these
- 34:30Speaker 10: massive buildings out here on Billionaire's Row, or even some
- 34:33Speaker 10: up on the Upper east Side, one of which I
- 34:36Speaker 10: know for a fact a few years ago, a big
- 34:38Speaker 10: bulk of it was empty, even though you never would
- 34:40Speaker 10: have guessed that from the website. So as all that
- 34:42Speaker 10: inventory that would seem to be floating out there in
- 34:45Speaker 10: these fancy buildings, has that been eaten up?
- 34:47Speaker 7: No? So well, no, no, no, yes, But it's all
- 34:52Speaker 7: about quality. First of all.
- 34:54Speaker 12: Whatever someone decided to call this fifty seven billionaire Row,
- 35:00Speaker 12: this is a different market, really mainly relying on foreigners.
- 35:05Speaker 12: How many New Yorkers really want to live on fifty
- 35:08Speaker 12: seventh Street. Think about schools, think about kindergarten whatever, right,
- 35:13Speaker 12: you need the infrastructure. It doesn't feel as a residential neighborhood.
- 35:17Speaker 12: Beautiful views, big buildings, right, So those are cater to foreigners.
- 35:22Speaker 7: So we had the Russians, they're not buying anymore.
- 35:24Speaker 12: We had the Chinese, they're not buying anymore, and so
- 35:27Speaker 12: on and so forth. And every time there is a
- 35:29Speaker 12: wave of foreigners that are coming to New York. Because
- 35:32Speaker 12: New York is still the capital. I see it as
- 35:35Speaker 12: the capital of the world, right, but this is a
- 35:37Speaker 12: very different market.
- 35:39Speaker 7: It's also about quality.
- 35:40Speaker 12: Yes, there are a couple of buildings that are not
- 35:43Speaker 12: selling well. But when you dive into the detail and
- 35:47Speaker 12: you walk those buildings and you look at those apartments,
- 35:51Speaker 12: they're not good. They're not well designed, they're not well esthetically,
- 35:55Speaker 12: they are not good, you know whatever. Maybe they're in
- 35:58Speaker 12: a busy area. So it's all about the buyers are
- 36:01Speaker 12: very sophisticated. Buyers know what they want and when they
- 36:05Speaker 12: see a product that is well designed, were located, and
- 36:09Speaker 12: reasonable price to the market to whatever the market they're buying.
- 36:13Speaker 7: There's not much inventory in this segment of the market.
- 36:16Speaker 10: That's really interesting to hear about a divergence within the
- 36:18Speaker 10: high end. There would not have necessarily anticipated that.
- 36:20Speaker 5: All Right, So you call me up and you want
- 36:22Speaker 5: a construction loan. Why am I making a loan to you?
- 36:25Speaker 5: And maybe I'm not making them to other people?
- 36:27Speaker 12: You're right, and I have an answer on the two sides.
- 36:30Speaker 12: Because part of our business is debt business. We are
- 36:35Speaker 12: lending to other developers, so we're running also a debt fund.
- 36:39Speaker 12: And it's all about reputation, and it's all about can
- 36:44Speaker 12: this developer can really get the project done?
- 36:48Speaker 7: And the commercial lenders are looking at you.
- 36:51Speaker 12: Okay, if you ask for a loan and they look
- 36:53Speaker 12: at your reputation, what you have done? I mean, are
- 36:57Speaker 12: you capable to do it? Do you have enough equity?
- 37:00Speaker 12: And if you're underwriting make financial sense? And if you
- 37:04Speaker 12: are dreaming dreams and the project that you have in
- 37:07Speaker 12: mind is not going to make financial sense, you're not
- 37:10Speaker 12: going to get financing, definitely, not from the commercial lenders.
- 37:13Speaker 7: You might be able to.
- 37:14Speaker 12: Get financing at ten over sofa, right, Okay, you're not
- 37:20Speaker 12: going to make it right.
- 37:21Speaker 7: So you really want to be in.
- 37:23Speaker 12: The mid threes to low force over soffur and that's
- 37:28Speaker 12: the only way you're going to make it.
- 37:30Speaker 2: Are there any deals you think to taking office buildings
- 37:33Speaker 2: and converting them. I know, I feel like this is
- 37:35Speaker 2: a pretty sensitive topic. Like some are like, yeah, I
- 37:37Speaker 2: can totally make money up of that.
- 37:38Speaker 7: No.
- 37:38Speaker 3: Others are like no way, right, So.
- 37:40Speaker 12: There's a lot of hype about that. And from two
- 37:44Speaker 12: thousand to two thousand and seven I converted a lot
- 37:47Speaker 12: of buildings in New York from office to residential, so
- 37:51Speaker 12: I have a lot of experience doing so.
- 37:54Speaker 7: Most of the office buildings.
- 37:57Speaker 12: Their floorplate, each and every floor is just too big,
- 38:01Speaker 12: too deep. Residential you have for each and every bedroom.
- 38:05Speaker 12: You have to have light and air. You have to
- 38:07Speaker 12: have a window, you have to have legal.
- 38:09Speaker 7: Light and air.
- 38:10Speaker 12: There's a certain distance that it needs to be from
- 38:13Speaker 12: the neighbor a building. And when you have a very
- 38:17Speaker 12: for example, here, this floor is very deep, so it's
- 38:21Speaker 12: very good for office, it's very good for studios. It's
- 38:25Speaker 12: not very easy to convert it to residential. So there's
- 38:29Speaker 12: a lot of five.
- 38:30Speaker 2: A really nice floor through the apartment, right, I mean
- 38:33Speaker 2: from both right.
- 38:34Speaker 12: So when you are close to the window, right, that's great.
- 38:38Speaker 12: Here is the problem now when you when you try
- 38:41Speaker 12: to convert it and you have a lot of space
- 38:43Speaker 12: that is not usable, what.
- 38:46Speaker 7: Are you going to do with it?
- 38:47Speaker 12: So it goes back to yes, you can convert those buildings,
- 38:51Speaker 12: but most of those buildings need some type of incentive,
- 38:55Speaker 12: either tax or some type of incentive to help the
- 38:58Speaker 12: developers to convert their And if you really stop for
- 39:01Speaker 12: a second and you ask yourself, how many of those
- 39:03Speaker 12: buildings are really being converted versus all the talk around it,
- 39:07Speaker 12: there are not too many that are doing well.
- 39:10Speaker 10: Speaking of office in terms of the overall commercial real
- 39:14Speaker 10: estate space, I know that you don't do office, but
- 39:16Speaker 10: other developers told us that the weakness from that one space,
- 39:21Speaker 10: that there is an impact on the rest of commercial
- 39:24Speaker 10: real estate.
- 39:24Speaker 3: Do you feel that at all?
- 39:25Speaker 12: So I don't do it for a reason because I
- 39:29Speaker 12: think the residential space, to me, is the most safe
- 39:33Speaker 12: kind of a space of sector in real estate.
- 39:36Speaker 7: But what we see in the office space is very interesting.
- 39:40Speaker 12: The brand new, truly class A office buildings are doing well.
- 39:46Speaker 12: Those that are new with all the amenities and the
- 39:49Speaker 12: state of the art systems, mechanical systems, those are doing well.
- 39:54Speaker 12: But if we look at New York, and not only
- 39:57Speaker 12: in New York, every major urban city does a lot
- 40:00Speaker 12: out of inventory of what we call B and C
- 40:03Speaker 12: type of office buildings, those struggle a lot. Some of
- 40:08Speaker 12: them will need to be converted from one use to another.
- 40:11Speaker 10: But does that weakness there in the possible the faults
- 40:15Speaker 10: that could be coming and just everybody's talking about, you know,
- 40:17Speaker 10: extended pretend values. Does that impact.
- 40:20Speaker 3: Your area at all?
- 40:21Speaker 10: Do you see it pushing out in any way, like
- 40:25Speaker 10: on the financing that sort of right?
- 40:28Speaker 12: No, because because the residential construction lenders are not they
- 40:34Speaker 12: mostly focus on the residential sector, the same as when
- 40:38Speaker 12: we on our that side, we focus.
- 40:40Speaker 7: Only on the residential sector.
- 40:42Speaker 12: I don't lend, I don't I don't know enough about
- 40:45Speaker 12: the office or retail to really make a judgment if
- 40:49Speaker 12: one location or one building is better than either. I
- 40:52Speaker 12: have a general review, but you know it's so specific.
- 40:56Speaker 12: Real estate is so specific, and it's so it's it's
- 40:59Speaker 12: quite sophisticated. I better know what I'm doing before I
- 41:03Speaker 12: land money, so much money, before.
- 41:06Speaker 5: We let you go here. It give us your thoughts
- 41:07Speaker 5: on South Florida, and you've got experience there as well.
- 41:10Speaker 5: Is that are we overdone there?
- 41:12Speaker 10: Is?
- 41:12Speaker 7: It's still right, So so South Florida.
- 41:15Speaker 12: Let's zero in again, because every every market is different.
- 41:19Speaker 12: I think Miami is actually doing well. Of course, it's
- 41:22Speaker 12: all about the very delicate between inventory and demand. But
- 41:26Speaker 12: Miami mature to a point of no return. There's so
- 41:29Speaker 12: many great things. This is not only anymore just okay,
- 41:33Speaker 12: I want to be there a couple of months during
- 41:35Speaker 12: the winter time. I mean there are amazing restaurants, museums, sports,
- 41:41Speaker 12: you know, whatever you want is they're not not too
- 41:44Speaker 12: exactly the level of New York City, but very close
- 41:46Speaker 12: to it. So the market is doing well. We have
- 41:50Speaker 12: we have a very big project in Miami. This is
- 41:53Speaker 12: the fourth sales office that that is open for us
- 41:56Speaker 12: and and and the product is selling well. So what
- 42:00Speaker 12: we see over there, we see different buyers than we
- 42:03Speaker 12: see in New York City.
- 42:05Speaker 5: Just for a cookie thirty seconds, who's your buyer?
- 42:06Speaker 7: Who's your best buyer to walk through the door where?
- 42:09Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's not the Russians, it's not the Chinese.
- 42:11Speaker 11: Who's a good buyer for you?
- 42:13Speaker 12: Just someone that really wants to buy and really looking
- 42:15Speaker 12: for for a product in a specific area, and I
- 42:19Speaker 12: want them to step in and look at my product,
- 42:22Speaker 12: and if you know, if they like it, that's fifty percent.
- 42:26Speaker 7: Of the sale. Right.
- 42:28Speaker 12: They might it might be too expensive for them, it
- 42:30Speaker 12: might be whatever, not the right size for them. But
- 42:34Speaker 12: if they step in and they like the product, it's
- 42:37Speaker 12: fifty percent of the world.
- 42:39Speaker 5: All right, Mickey, thank you so much for joining. I
- 42:41Speaker 5: really appreciate it. Love getting your perspective. Mickey Natally, chairman
- 42:44Speaker 5: and CEO of Naftali Group, talking about the residential real
- 42:46Speaker 5: estate business in Manhattan.
- 42:49Speaker 11: Abigail Do, a little.
- 42:49Speaker 5: Market reporter for Bloomberg News, also joining us, helping us
- 42:52Speaker 5: kind of spend some more time on the real estate business.
- 42:54Speaker 5: I find it fascinating and there's a lot of different pockets.
- 42:57Speaker 5: I'm learning some are doing better than others.
- 42:59Speaker 3: I wasn't there you interested in luxury apartment buying in
- 43:02Speaker 3: his New.
- 43:02Speaker 5: Jersey those days Thursdays River I sold everything I owned
- 43:06Speaker 5: and now safely sconced down the Jersey.
- 43:08Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's a that's definitely something.
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