Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Facebook Is Real Business, But Google Is Better For Ad Exposure
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg P and L Podcast. I'm Pim
- 0:08Speaker 1: Fox along with my co host Lisa Abramowitz. Each day
- 0:11Speaker 1: we bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews
- 0:15Speaker 1: for you and your money, whether you're at the grocery
- 0:17Speaker 1: store or the trading floor. Find the Bloomberg P and
- 0:20Speaker 1: L Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg dot com.
- 0:32Speaker 1: The shares of Facebook, they continue their decline to about
- 0:36Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy five dollars right now. That drop
- 0:40Speaker 1: being reflected because of the poor report that the company
- 0:44Speaker 1: gave after the close of trading yesterday, surprising many analysts
- 0:47Speaker 1: joining us now. Colin gillis Director of Research at Chatham
- 0:50Speaker 1: Road Partners. Colin gillis always a pleasure if someone said
- 0:55Speaker 1: to you, gee, I'm an analyst who covers Facebook and
- 0:59Speaker 1: I just got by what they reported. What are you
- 1:03Speaker 1: feeling right now? It's a painful day to watch Facebook shares,
- 1:08Speaker 1: but a little bit of perspective is needed. Right the
- 1:12Speaker 1: shares are just back to the level they were at
- 1:14Speaker 1: in May. We knew that Facebook was going to be
- 1:16Speaker 1: continuing to invest in security. We knew there's gonna be
- 1:19Speaker 1: some concerns around the g d p R, right, the
- 1:22Speaker 1: General Data Protection Regulation that's happening in Europe. So the
- 1:26Speaker 1: magnitude of the pullback is severe. But this is still
- 1:31Speaker 1: a real company, and it's still a real business, and
- 1:33Speaker 1: it's still in an area where we're gonna see material growth. Alright.
- 1:37Speaker 1: So Colin, is this a buying opportunity? You know it is.
- 1:41Speaker 1: But what I always tell people is, if you're looking
- 1:44Speaker 1: at the space right and you want to have exposure
- 1:47Speaker 1: to know Internet advertising, why not just own Alphabet You've
- 1:52Speaker 1: got a very similar type of company, the same revenue stream,
- 1:56Speaker 1: but you've got a more diversified suite of services, right,
- 1:58Speaker 1: you know, Alphabet a A Google has eight platforms with
- 2:03Speaker 1: a billion users, right, whether it's Gmail, Chrome, Maps, YouTube, Android,
- 2:08Speaker 1: the play Store, and Google Drive. So they have a
- 2:11Speaker 1: much broader diversity of products, whereas Facebook really just has
- 2:15Speaker 1: their core platform and Facebook and to a separate degree, Instagram.
- 2:20Speaker 1: When does the bleeding stop in terms of the stocks
- 2:22Speaker 1: sell off at Facebook? Do you believe right that that
- 2:25Speaker 1: that's the number one question that's being asked, and you
- 2:28Speaker 1: know it's gonna take several days to shake out. Um,
- 2:31Speaker 1: you know, the concern is the forward guidance. Right, we
- 2:34Speaker 1: are going to see revenue decelerate and we are going
- 2:36Speaker 1: to see expenses likely to tick up, but it may
- 2:39Speaker 1: not be as bad as people are expecting. So, just
- 2:42Speaker 1: like what we saw with the March quarter results, right
- 2:45Speaker 1: where people were expecting the worst, it didn't come in
- 2:48Speaker 1: quite as bad. And that's why they bit it back
- 2:50Speaker 1: up to these record levels. You know, let's let it
- 2:53Speaker 1: settle down for a little bit. I do think that
- 2:57Speaker 1: Facebook is a real business. I think the advertise users
- 3:00Speaker 1: are not going to disappear, and I do think that
- 3:02Speaker 1: people are still going to continue to use it. Right,
- 3:05Speaker 1: there is some saturation that's happening. They have total about
- 3:08Speaker 1: two and a half billion users across all their platforms.
- 3:11Speaker 1: There's only three billion people who have access to the internet. Okay,
- 3:14Speaker 1: but Colin, you know some people could say, as you said,
- 3:18Speaker 1: this is a real business. They still can count more
- 3:20Speaker 1: than two billion people. You know, this is a huge
- 3:24Speaker 1: proportion of the globe that uses the platform. So perhaps
- 3:28Speaker 1: the flaw lies with the management, the executives who didn't
- 3:32Speaker 1: guide the market better, who didn't basically indicate, look, things
- 3:36Speaker 1: are slowing down, just hold your horses and and sort
- 3:39Speaker 1: of and provide better expectations for what's to come in
- 3:42Speaker 1: real time. Yeah, you could say that, and you could
- 3:45Speaker 1: also say that they did try to, you know, give
- 3:48Speaker 1: certain signals right that that this was was coming um
- 3:51Speaker 1: and that the market did not pay any attention to
- 3:52Speaker 1: those signals, right, And that's why we're getting the reset
- 3:55Speaker 1: that's happening today. Colin tell us about Amazon, Right, So, Alexa,
- 3:59Speaker 1: which company will become the trillion market cap first? And
- 4:03Speaker 1: we're going to find that out today after Amazon print.
- 4:07Speaker 1: And you know, Amazon is one of these companies that
- 4:11Speaker 1: has built this incredible ecosystem right around their their prime
- 4:14Speaker 1: member systems, and it is a strong contender to become
- 4:18Speaker 1: the first company to rease that trillion dollar market cap.
- 4:20Speaker 1: So again, an unbelievable run into this earnings print today, right. Uh,
- 4:26Speaker 1: you know, we're looking at something a fifty year to date,
- 4:29Speaker 1: So I wouldn't be necessarily surprised if there is, you know,
- 4:32Speaker 1: as a hiccup because expectations are so strong. But that
- 4:35Speaker 1: being said, for the for the longer term, for the
- 4:38Speaker 1: longer term view, Amazon is an incredible opportunity to own.
- 4:42Speaker 1: So Amazon is sort of this interesting company because they
- 4:45Speaker 1: don't see incredible margins, they actually aren't as profitable as
- 4:51Speaker 1: their dominance would suggest, because that's their whole business model, right,
- 4:54Speaker 1: basically to offer the lowest price uh in order for
- 4:58Speaker 1: bigger market share. So what two investors have to see
- 5:01Speaker 1: to keep that going to the one trillion to our valuation, right,
- 5:05Speaker 1: And what they do is is it's the degree of
- 5:07Speaker 1: leverage that is baked into that Amazon business model. And
- 5:12Speaker 1: when when you look, when you play around and you see,
- 5:15Speaker 1: you know what a small decrease in marketing spend UM
- 5:19Speaker 1: or you know some improvement in shipping costs or you
- 5:22Speaker 1: know a tick up UH in in AWS. Right. You
- 5:26Speaker 1: know services that UM are not physical goods, right, but
- 5:30Speaker 1: more digital goods. Right. That's the area where people want
- 5:33Speaker 1: to be focusing in on to to to see that profitability.
- 5:36Speaker 1: And quite honestly, right, you know they've run the core
- 5:38Speaker 1: business at break even, right. All the profit is coming
- 5:41Speaker 1: from AWS to to get that market share. But you've
- 5:44Speaker 1: got one million prime customers. They are winning the entire
- 5:49Speaker 1: retail battle, and um, that profitability will come just quickly. Colin,
- 5:56Speaker 1: is there any other company that you need to own
- 5:58Speaker 1: other than Amazon and Alphabet? It wouldn't be Apple in
- 6:03Speaker 1: my mind right, you know, certainly you know Apple prints
- 6:05Speaker 1: next week. Um, they're lagging so far behind in my view.
- 6:09Speaker 1: You know, there's the thesis is is that services will
- 6:12Speaker 1: will make up for a saturated smartphone marketplace. But I
- 6:16Speaker 1: don't see Apple having the chops in AI. I see
- 6:19Speaker 1: Siri lagging behind Alexa and Google, and so I'd be
- 6:23Speaker 1: concerned about that. Colin Gillis, thank you so much for
- 6:26Speaker 1: joining us today. Colin Gillis is director of research at
- 6:28Speaker 1: See our partners take a look at small and mid
- 6:43Speaker 1: cap stocks with Davils and Blubertocks editor, columnist and blogger
- 6:46Speaker 1: at M Live. Go on the Bloomberg. The Russell two
- 6:49Speaker 1: thousand is up, even though you are seeing some turbulence
- 6:53Speaker 1: in the broader indices. Oh, absolutely, Lisa, and the Russell's
- 6:57Speaker 1: gain amounts to nine tents of a percent, quite a
- 7:00Speaker 1: contrast with the SMP five hundred, which is lower by
- 7:03Speaker 1: a tenth of a percent. The Russell's sharpest game by
- 7:07Speaker 1: far belongs to Supervalue, whose ticker is s VU. The
- 7:11Speaker 1: grocery wholesaler and supermarket owner has risen sixty four and
- 7:17Speaker 1: a half percent after agree to a two point nine
- 7:20Speaker 1: billion dollar takeover by United Natural Foods No Supervalue, had
- 7:23Speaker 1: been under pressure from activist investor Blackwell's Capital to consider
- 7:26Speaker 1: a sale United National Their ticker U and f I.
- 7:32Speaker 1: That stock has one of the Russell's biggest losses in
- 7:35Speaker 1: response to the deal. It's down thirteen and a half percent. Now.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Another stock lifting the index is Annika Therapeutics tooker a
- 7:44Speaker 1: n i K, the maker of orthopedic products, is up
- 7:48Speaker 1: twenty two percent. Anaka's second quarter earnings were more than
- 7:52Speaker 1: twice analyst average estmate in the Blueberg survey, and sales
- 7:55Speaker 1: beat projections. And you've got an even bigger gain in
- 7:58Speaker 1: John Bean Technologies ticker j A b T. It's up
- 8:00Speaker 1: almost twenty five The food and beverage technology company posts
- 8:05Speaker 1: a second quarter profit in revenue. Of the top Deestmates
- 8:07Speaker 1: and UH, the Russell's steepest decline belongs to l s
- 8:12Speaker 1: B Industries ticker l x U, the chemical companies, down
- 8:15Speaker 1: fourteen and a half percent. LSB had a wider second
- 8:19Speaker 1: quarter loss than analysts expected. Thank you very much, Dave Wilson.
- 8:23Speaker 1: Remember to send Dave an email at d Wilson at
- 8:25Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot net to sign up for his daily free
- 8:28Speaker 1: email newsletter. Well, you know, Lisa, we've been talking on
- 8:31Speaker 1: a regular basis about the high cost of real estate
- 8:34Speaker 1: in places such as Seattle, Silicon Valley as well as Austin, Texas.
- 8:39Speaker 1: But it appears that there might be a slowdown on
- 8:43Speaker 1: the way. And here to tell us more about it
- 8:45Speaker 1: is Pressant Gopal, us real estate reporter from Bloomberg News,
- 8:49Speaker 1: joining us from our one oh six one Boston Newberry
- 8:53Speaker 1: Studios in Boston. And you can follow Pressant on Twitter
- 8:57Speaker 1: at Mr Gopal and are god Paul? Alright? Mr Gopaul?
- 9:03Speaker 1: Tell us about the potential slowdown in these pretty hot
- 9:06Speaker 1: real estate areas well. I guess you could say it
- 9:10Speaker 1: was bound to happen, right, So, prices have just been
- 9:13Speaker 1: um rising at a very rapid pace for for years now. Uh,
- 9:18Speaker 1: they're out pacing uh income growth. It's, you know, more
- 9:22Speaker 1: than twice income growth right now. So um, and then
- 9:26Speaker 1: you throw in the increase in mortgage rates, and you
- 9:28Speaker 1: could see that people who are stretching can only stretch
- 9:32Speaker 1: so much. All right, So here's what I'm struggling to understand.
- 9:36Speaker 1: Mortgage rates haven't gone up that much. Uh, and you
- 9:40Speaker 1: have seen a dearth of inventory in recent years. That's
- 9:43Speaker 1: what people say. People aren't actually selling their homes. So
- 9:46Speaker 1: how is this sort of how do you how do
- 9:49Speaker 1: you sort of prove that it really is mortgage rates
- 9:50Speaker 1: that's causing the slowdown. Well, I mean it's it's the
- 9:54Speaker 1: one thing that has changed. But if you think about it,
- 9:57Speaker 1: mortgage rates. You know, the prices that we had, you
- 10:00Speaker 1: had the low mortgage rates baked in so on a
- 10:03Speaker 1: you know, percentage basis percentage point. You know, if you
- 10:06Speaker 1: look at the how much mortgage rates increased in terms
- 10:08Speaker 1: of what it's done to UM monthly payments, it is
- 10:12Speaker 1: somewhat significant. And then throwing in the uh, these home prices,
- 10:18Speaker 1: you could you know, people, especially on the bottom end
- 10:20Speaker 1: where prices are rising the most, UM, are starting to
- 10:23Speaker 1: feel that, you know, homebuilder today, UM Politic Group just
- 10:27Speaker 1: had their earnings and they actually, uh, they had a
- 10:30Speaker 1: drop in orders and UM they blamed the increase in
- 10:34Speaker 1: in mortgage rates UM and they said it was that
- 10:38Speaker 1: they were seeing a slowdown, especially with the first time
- 10:40Speaker 1: buyers pre Shan. We spoke earlier today with Doug Duncan,
- 10:45Speaker 1: economist at Fannie May. He said houses that have yet
- 10:49Speaker 1: to be built are already being purchased that you can't
- 10:52Speaker 1: find a home. What are your thoughts? Uh, Well, you know,
- 10:57Speaker 1: there's there's some truth to that. So there is a
- 11:00Speaker 1: real shortage of inventory. So you know, it sounds like
- 11:04Speaker 1: it conflicts with what I've just been saying. But you know,
- 11:07Speaker 1: the inventory levels are very low historically. They're just starting
- 11:11Speaker 1: to rise now from that very low level. So it's
- 11:14Speaker 1: kind of like, um, you know, maybe we're on the
- 11:17Speaker 1: cusp of a turning point um where you know, things
- 11:22Speaker 1: still remain strong, but you know they're they're not uh,
- 11:26Speaker 1: you know, prices aren't accelerating. Price coross isn't accelerating anymore
- 11:30Speaker 1: in inventories which have been just dropping um month after
- 11:34Speaker 1: month or now starting to rise, especially in the UH
- 11:38Speaker 1: in the hottest markets. So one thing that I think
- 11:42Speaker 1: is sort of underlying this discrepancy, maybe we could call it,
- 11:46Speaker 1: is that there seems to be a two tier market,
- 11:48Speaker 1: which is affordable homes for people who perhaps are first
- 11:51Speaker 1: time buyers or who are starting families, and homes that
- 11:55Speaker 1: sell for more than a million dollars and are in
- 11:58Speaker 1: urban areas um. And that there seems to be plenty
- 12:02Speaker 1: of the higher end homes for sale, but the inventory
- 12:06Speaker 1: of lower end homes, isn't there Is that an accurate
- 12:10Speaker 1: assessment of what's going on. Yeah, you know, it's actually
- 12:13Speaker 1: even within the markets, right, So if you look at
- 12:16Speaker 1: some of those price your markets, Uh, there's a shortage
- 12:21Speaker 1: of starter homes in those markets. Um. You know, there
- 12:24Speaker 1: may be more expensive homes in the markets, but there
- 12:27Speaker 1: aren't as many of the entry level homes. And that's
- 12:30Speaker 1: sort of what's making it really hard for folks to
- 12:34Speaker 1: get into, um the housing market. Uh. And prices you
- 12:38Speaker 1: know are rising much faster on the bottom of those markets,
- 12:40Speaker 1: you know, the lower end homes those persons rising much
- 12:43Speaker 1: faster than they are for the for the more expensive homes.
- 12:46Speaker 1: Not just real quick, here are we heading for another
- 12:48Speaker 1: housing crash? Huh? You know, I wish I had my
- 12:51Speaker 1: crystal ball, I spend it out. Well, I'm not hearing
- 12:56Speaker 1: that from a lot of people, so I think a
- 12:57Speaker 1: lot of at least you know, they were wrong the
- 13:00Speaker 1: last time, of course, but uh they're saying that, you know,
- 13:03Speaker 1: we have a still a strong economy, and um, this
- 13:07Speaker 1: is just all an affordability problem. And if prices actually
- 13:10Speaker 1: fall a little bit, it actually helps because people will
- 13:14Speaker 1: be able to get back in you might see more
- 13:17Speaker 1: sales as a result. Prosianco Paul, thank you so much
- 13:21Speaker 1: for being with us. Always a pleasure to speak with
- 13:23Speaker 1: you in your story today on the Bloomberg was really
- 13:25Speaker 1: good on this issue. Proshanko Poul's US real estate reporter
- 13:28Speaker 1: for Bloomberg News. Marijuana is a growing business and a
- 13:47Speaker 1: growing number of professionals are entering the field in a
- 13:50Speaker 1: host of very traditional ways. And here joining us now
- 13:54Speaker 1: is Richie Gautam. He's executive chairman of M. Harden Group,
- 13:57Speaker 1: which is based in Denver. He's here with us in
- 13:59Speaker 1: our and three studios in New York. RICHI, Um, you
- 14:03Speaker 1: worked at Goldman Sachs, you managed money with a private office.
- 14:07Speaker 1: You're at the original investor four years ago with M
- 14:09Speaker 1: Hardin Group. Why did you get into this business? So
- 14:14Speaker 1: as an investor, we were attracted to the market four
- 14:16Speaker 1: years ago. It was such a new market and a
- 14:18Speaker 1: developing market within the US, and we had an existing
- 14:23Speaker 1: relationship with one of the founders of M Hardin who
- 14:26Speaker 1: brought us into uh into the industry to really understand
- 14:29Speaker 1: the marketplace and how it was so fragmented from state
- 14:32Speaker 1: by state that we wanted to take advantage of the
- 14:34Speaker 1: opportunity by creating what is now known as M Martin
- 14:37Speaker 1: the management company, and the industry being marijuana mostly medical
- 14:42Speaker 1: or everything predominantly medical. Today it's obviously changing with more
- 14:46Speaker 1: recreational coming online, but our business today over is focused
- 14:50Speaker 1: on the medical market. Tell people about your business, what
- 14:53Speaker 1: actually do you do. M Martin's a management company. So
- 14:56Speaker 1: we started the business managing cannabis assets on behalf of
- 15:00Speaker 1: license owners. So anyone who came into the industry and
- 15:02Speaker 1: got a license, whether it was Colorado or other states,
- 15:05Speaker 1: frankly didn't have the operational background to run a cannabis asset. Really,
- 15:09Speaker 1: no one had that background coming into the space in
- 15:11Speaker 1: the legal framework. So M Hardan set up a management
- 15:14Speaker 1: company to come in and operate the assets turn key
- 15:17Speaker 1: on behalf of the license owner. So not too dissimilar
- 15:19Speaker 1: from a real estate owner hiring a Marriott or Starwood
- 15:22Speaker 1: to come in with a flag and operate a turnkey hotel.
- 15:25Speaker 1: So our hotel flag was the original genesis of the business. So,
- 15:30Speaker 1: for example, you have actual workers that are employed by
- 15:34Speaker 1: M Hardan that are working in green houses, that are
- 15:38Speaker 1: working in retail establishments. There's three D sixty two employees
- 15:42Speaker 1: across the US managing cultivation, processing, and retail facilities and cannabis.
- 15:47Speaker 1: And for cultivation it's indoor grows, outdoor and greenhouse facilities.
- 15:52Speaker 1: How big do you think the marijuana industry could become
- 15:55Speaker 1: in the US if the recreational aspect is legalized? So
- 16:00Speaker 1: the numbers point to a seven billion or so industry
- 16:02Speaker 1: size today in the US that's growing to billion over
- 16:05Speaker 1: the next few years. We also have exposure to Canada,
- 16:08Speaker 1: which is about a half a billion dollar industry today
- 16:10Speaker 1: growing to six or seven billion. That growth is really
- 16:14Speaker 1: predicated by the opening of the recreational market in those
- 16:17Speaker 1: in those states and jurisdictions. So so long as recreational
- 16:20Speaker 1: opens up the way that we expect it to, you'll
- 16:22Speaker 1: have that lift. So one big question is, once you
- 16:25Speaker 1: do get a legalization, what stops the Philip morris Is
- 16:29Speaker 1: of the world from plowing right into this field and
- 16:32Speaker 1: using their vast distribution and cultivation networks to blow everybody
- 16:37Speaker 1: else out of the water. And what would you say
- 16:38Speaker 1: to that Philip Morris doesn't grow cannabis, And growing cannabis
- 16:42Speaker 1: is a real specialty commodity. It takes a lot of
- 16:45Speaker 1: experience and and efficiencies to bring product to market. So
- 16:49Speaker 1: many folks outside looking into this space really think it's
- 16:52Speaker 1: just a plant, you grow it, and really don't put
- 16:55Speaker 1: a quantum of risk on on what it takes to
- 16:57Speaker 1: bring product to market. We have mastered that says of
- 17:00Speaker 1: bringing legal cannabis to the market, passing health standards, optimizing
- 17:05Speaker 1: space capture, and all of these production facilities. Our business
- 17:08Speaker 1: has produced and sold. Our license facilities are produced and
- 17:11Speaker 1: sold over one hundred thousand ms of this product since
- 17:14Speaker 1: we started. That's a number that no one can match.
- 17:16Speaker 1: And that includes Philip Moore's. Now you've got the different segments, right,
- 17:21Speaker 1: you have cultivation, yes, processing, and then ultimate retail sale.
- 17:26Speaker 1: How do you scientifically or technically offer consistency across all
- 17:32Speaker 1: that are there testing facilities or like in any kind
- 17:36Speaker 1: of let's say drug you know from the pharmaceutical industry,
- 17:38Speaker 1: you want to make sure that what you're buying from
- 17:40Speaker 1: one pill bottle is the same as you're getting from
- 17:44Speaker 1: another pill bottle. All right, that's a great question. So
- 17:47Speaker 1: the genesis of our businesses on the cultivation side, we
- 17:49Speaker 1: were cultivators first. We we had we bolted on the
- 17:52Speaker 1: processing expertise, and we bolted on the retail management side
- 17:56Speaker 1: over the years. Cultivation is the driver of the consistency,
- 18:00Speaker 1: and our facilities that we've stood up, whether it's in
- 18:03Speaker 1: Hawaii or in Halifax, have a very standardized approach to operations,
- 18:07Speaker 1: to production and ultimately the consistency of the product. Folks
- 18:11Speaker 1: right now have more of a niche approach where you
- 18:13Speaker 1: have one particular facility type in California another in Colorado.
- 18:17Speaker 1: We've standardized the process of bringing product to market, which
- 18:21Speaker 1: ultimately will yield to pharmaceutical products with consistency, recreational products
- 18:26Speaker 1: with consistency across multiple jurisdictions. So you're planning currently in
- 18:30Speaker 1: initial public offering and you've raised money, certainly in the
- 18:33Speaker 1: debt markets. I'm just wondering, does the fact that you're
- 18:35Speaker 1: dealing with a currently mostly illegal substance complicate your fundraising abilities?
- 18:42Speaker 1: Not necessarily complicated. And we've been obviously as an investor
- 18:45Speaker 1: in this business four years ago and understanding the nuances
- 18:48Speaker 1: of the industry. What we've done is take the knowledge
- 18:51Speaker 1: of how to raise capital in general from prior experiences
- 18:54Speaker 1: and other industries and just a general landscape of capital
- 18:57Speaker 1: sources today and we've really focused are in tris in Canada.
- 19:01Speaker 1: Canada is where we're going to list. Canada is our
- 19:04Speaker 1: h for all intents and purposes are booking center and
- 19:06Speaker 1: the booking center for many of these cannabis companies that
- 19:08Speaker 1: are public today. So we've spent the last year and
- 19:11Speaker 1: a half um putting together our Canadian capital market strategy.
- 19:16Speaker 1: Of our company today is owned by Canadian institutions long
- 19:19Speaker 1: only money that have really had limited experience in the cannabispace,
- 19:23Speaker 1: but they bought our opportunity because it's a managing company.
- 19:26Speaker 1: We have actual revenue, actual earnings, actual operational experience. So
- 19:30Speaker 1: we've already planted an institutional shareholder base in our company.
- 19:34Speaker 1: We've already planted the Canadian landscape there and that's where
- 19:37Speaker 1: the source of capital has come from, and that's where
- 19:39Speaker 1: we will be listed. RI should just give you about
- 19:41Speaker 1: twenty seconds here. What's the biggest mistake people make when
- 19:45Speaker 1: they hear about investing in the cannabis industry and they
- 19:48Speaker 1: want to get into it understanding that there's a difference
- 19:51Speaker 1: between a license owner and an asset manager. So there
- 19:54Speaker 1: are plenty of companies out there that own licenses. Very
- 19:57Speaker 1: few of them actually have the operational expertise to scale
- 20:00Speaker 1: their businesses, and that's what we have. I want to
- 20:02Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. Richid is the
- 20:05Speaker 1: executive chairman of m hard Dean Group. They are based
- 20:08Speaker 1: in Denver, giving us details about raising capital and the
- 20:13Speaker 1: intricacies of the legal cannabis industry. A rocky period for
- 20:31Speaker 1: the automobile industry. There has been widespread disruption on a
- 20:36Speaker 1: variety of levels. We have tariffs, we have the peak
- 20:40Speaker 1: Auto sort of meme that's been going around here to
- 20:44Speaker 1: talk about all that is. Scott Painter, founder of Fair
- 20:47Speaker 1: f a i R. Based in Santa Monica, California. Um, Scott,
- 20:52Speaker 1: you are the former chief executive and founder of True Car.
- 20:55Speaker 1: Can you just tell us before we get into a
- 20:57Speaker 1: wood summer calling Carmen Geddon which was yesterday, UM, can
- 21:01Speaker 1: you just explain what is fair? Sure? Fair is an
- 21:05Speaker 1: app that represents a completely new form of ownership. It's
- 21:08Speaker 1: a way to get a car on your phone, and
- 21:10Speaker 1: you subscribe to it in the same way that you
- 21:12Speaker 1: get your your data, your content, your music, your movies.
- 21:17Speaker 1: But there's no long term commitment. You just simply download
- 21:20Speaker 1: the app, scan your driver's license, link a form of
- 21:23Speaker 1: payment shop and you can sign with your finger. So, Scott,
- 21:26Speaker 1: the reason why I wanted to start with the model
- 21:28Speaker 1: of your business is because it sort of points to
- 21:33Speaker 1: a real seismic shift in the automobile industry. Do you
- 21:37Speaker 1: think that the weakness that we're seeing today, certainly led
- 21:40Speaker 1: by Ford, but also in GM and Chrysler, do you
- 21:43Speaker 1: think that the weakness really comes as much from this
- 21:47Speaker 1: changing model of car ownership as it does from tariffs. Well,
- 21:54Speaker 1: I think that this is a really interesting time to
- 21:55Speaker 1: be in the auto industry. If you're an incumbent automaker,
- 21:58Speaker 1: you're certainly thinking about how do you regain the trust
- 22:00Speaker 1: and the relationship with modern consumers who have almost binarily
- 22:04Speaker 1: said they don't want to go into a dealership and
- 22:06Speaker 1: do battle. They don't want the long term commitment. So
- 22:08Speaker 1: I think you're seeing all sorts of new business models arrive, arise,
- 22:13Speaker 1: and you've got a lot of diversification happening, happening. I
- 22:16Speaker 1: think most of the carmakers at this point are almost
- 22:19Speaker 1: invested in just about any new ownership model that comes
- 22:22Speaker 1: up on the horizon. Just recently we saw you know,
- 22:25Speaker 1: GM in er the peer to peer market as well,
- 22:27Speaker 1: which is, you know, sort of a big question mark
- 22:30Speaker 1: as to whether or not customers are going to go
- 22:31Speaker 1: for it, but it does show that they are willing
- 22:34Speaker 1: to be flexible and explore options that they never would
- 22:36Speaker 1: have before. Now you have been in the autumn more
- 22:40Speaker 1: of connected to the automobile industry in one way or
- 22:43Speaker 1: another since you were fourteen years old, correct, You know,
- 22:47Speaker 1: I think that great entrepreneurs and great companies solve real problems.
- 22:51Speaker 1: I think the problem of buying and owning a car
- 22:54Speaker 1: is something that really technology can offer a great solution for.
- 22:58Speaker 1: And I do think that, you know, it should be simpler,
- 23:00Speaker 1: it should be more accessible, and I think you know,
- 23:02Speaker 1: technology can offer that and delivered incredible savings. All right.
- 23:06Speaker 1: What I was going with that is, do you believe
- 23:08Speaker 1: over the course of your career that the large automobile
- 23:12Speaker 1: manufacturers such as four GM and now Fiat Chrysler, have
- 23:16Speaker 1: they been leaders or are they followers when it comes
- 23:20Speaker 1: to connecting with customers. Well, I think historically they have
- 23:24Speaker 1: not been leaders. I think that right now though, they
- 23:26Speaker 1: are absolutely leading and innovating and doing almost anything they
- 23:31Speaker 1: can to reset that relationship with our consumers. So it
- 23:34Speaker 1: is a time where the smartphone and technology and transparency
- 23:39Speaker 1: have really created a real transformational opportunity. And I think
- 23:43Speaker 1: that companies like Tesla and Uber and all of this
- 23:48Speaker 1: have really changed the paradigm where it's no longer just
- 23:52Speaker 1: about making a good product, it is about really shaping
- 23:56Speaker 1: that relationship and how you buy and how you engage
- 23:59Speaker 1: the car, and so new ownership models like what we're
- 24:01Speaker 1: building at fair I think, really have a lot to
- 24:03Speaker 1: do with it. Certainly, there's a lot of exogenous stuff
- 24:06Speaker 1: tariffs and the industry and the health of the industry
- 24:09Speaker 1: that are certainly affecting all of this, But keep in
- 24:11Speaker 1: mind there's also a new and a used car business.
- 24:15Speaker 1: The used car business by dollar volume is twice as
- 24:18Speaker 1: big as the new car business, and by velocity it's
- 24:21Speaker 1: three times larger. So what are you seeing in the
- 24:23Speaker 1: used car market right now? Well, right now, I think
- 24:26Speaker 1: we're getting to a place where we've got really great
- 24:28Speaker 1: information if you're a buyer for a used car, though,
- 24:31Speaker 1: the used car prices are coming down. In fact, over
- 24:33Speaker 1: the last twelve months we've seen used car wholesale and
- 24:37Speaker 1: retail pricing drop more ratably than we have over the
- 24:42Speaker 1: last one thirty years, almost a decline, and that's in
- 24:46Speaker 1: large part because we've been at peak production for the
- 24:49Speaker 1: last three or four years, and that's creating an oversupply situation.
- 24:52Speaker 1: We almost make seventeen million cars. On the new car
- 24:55Speaker 1: side here in the US, We're going to see six
- 24:58Speaker 1: million lease returns coming back into the market over the
- 25:01Speaker 1: next twelve to eighteen months, and that will have a
- 25:03Speaker 1: continued effect on retail and wholesale pricing of used cars,
- 25:07Speaker 1: and that will make used cars a greater value than
- 25:10Speaker 1: they've been over the last decade. Scott, what does that
- 25:13Speaker 1: mean though about where we are in this auto market?
- 25:17Speaker 1: I mean, does this sort of give steam to the
- 25:19Speaker 1: peak auto discussions that we're hearing well? I think that
- 25:24Speaker 1: there's no question that if you look at demand for
- 25:27Speaker 1: cars over a long period of time, it tends to
- 25:30Speaker 1: be very linear, but the industry itself tends to also
- 25:33Speaker 1: behave very cyclically. We go from a peak production and
- 25:37Speaker 1: say two thousand, you know, six seven, where we are
- 25:40Speaker 1: making almost sixteen million cars, down to a low of
- 25:44Speaker 1: almost nine million cars in two thousand nine and ten,
- 25:47Speaker 1: and then now we're back up at historic highs of
- 25:49Speaker 1: seventeen plus million cars being produced. So when those cycles
- 25:53Speaker 1: sort of come through the industry, they have a massive
- 25:56Speaker 1: impact on whether we are buying new cars or buying
- 25:59Speaker 1: used cars. And then you also have very interesting financial contracts,
- 26:03Speaker 1: Whereas in two thousand and nine to get the industry
- 26:06Speaker 1: going again in terms of volume, we actually introduced and
- 26:10Speaker 1: overweighted on leasing. Today almost of premium and luxury luxury
- 26:14Speaker 1: cars are leased. Scott, is there, Ah, Is there a
- 26:20Speaker 1: model that Tesla is following that you believe will ultimately
- 26:24Speaker 1: have to change or can you envision that the industry
- 26:28Speaker 1: is going to follow the Tesla model? Well, I think
- 26:31Speaker 1: that Tesla is sort of leaning in this direction. But
- 26:34Speaker 1: I think that the way that we all go to
- 26:37Speaker 1: the bank to borrow a big pile of money to
- 26:39Speaker 1: buy a depreciating asset is really what has to change.
- 26:42Speaker 1: You've got almost one point five billion cars on planet
- 26:46Speaker 1: or carrying five trillion dollars of consumer automotive debt, and
- 26:51Speaker 1: it's the worst financial decision free somebody just getting started
- 26:54Speaker 1: in life, or somebody who has maybe got a spotty
- 26:56Speaker 1: payment history or is in financial trouble or is just
- 26:59Speaker 1: building a family to go out and get into debt
- 27:02Speaker 1: in order to get transportation and the thing they need
- 27:05Speaker 1: to get a job or to get around. So I
- 27:07Speaker 1: think the model of ownership fundamentally does have to change
- 27:11Speaker 1: because the you know, it's not just a convenience issue,
- 27:15Speaker 1: it's just a bad financial bargain to go out and
- 27:17Speaker 1: borrowed a bunch of money tipped by a depreciating asset.
- 27:21Speaker 1: And finally, Scott, what kind of car do you drive?
- 27:26Speaker 1: You know, I've got about four cars all from Fair.
- 27:28Speaker 1: And you know this, this model really works for anybody.
- 27:33Speaker 1: It doesn't matter whether you have great credit and just
- 27:35Speaker 1: want convenience and you're an early adopter or you're somebody
- 27:37Speaker 1: who's really working a couple of jobs and struggling and
- 27:40Speaker 1: on a budget. Um. But I've got right now, four kids,
- 27:43Speaker 1: and I've got different cars for different different things, but
- 27:46Speaker 1: they're all cars that I subscribed to through Fair. Thank
- 27:49Speaker 1: you very much for being with us. Scott Painter is
- 27:51Speaker 1: the founder of Fair. They are based in Santa Monica, California.
- 27:55Speaker 1: He is the former chief executive and the founder of
- 27:59Speaker 1: True Are. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg P and
- 28:04Speaker 1: L podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews at
- 28:07Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whatever podcast platform. You prefer. I'm
- 28:12Speaker 1: pim Fox. I'm on Twitter at pim Fox. I'm on
- 28:15Speaker 1: Twitter at Lisa Abramo. It's one before the podcast. You
- 28:18Speaker 1: can always catch us worldwide on Bloomberg Radio