CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 2 August 2024

Video Games & Entertainment

"Traditional entertainment is being challenged as consumer preferences change and technology continues to disrupt business models. We're in a fundamentally different position. We have already navigated our shift in distribution, consumption is only growing and becoming more concentrated in our franchises, and we are unlocking new business models." Andrew Wilson, CEO, Electronic Arts Inc [EA Games]

Consumer Health

"Consumer trends vary by region, but overall, we are seeing volume growth start to rebound as inflation cools. Consumer incomes are rising, which helps to reduce the inflation-driven financial strain on many households. As a result, private label growth in our categories is decelerating while branded share growth is improving." Dirk Van de Put, CEO, Mondelez International Inc

“What we are seeing is consumers being more cautious about what they’re spending in the last couple of months. I think the market has gone exceptionally discount-driven.” Scott Fyfe, CEO, David Jones

“So as you can imagine, some categories are performing better than others in this macro environment. As I mentioned, our luxury category is still positive. That has been for 6 straight quarters. So I think there's more pressure on the less affluent customers in the consumer market.” Jamie Iannone, CEO, eBay Inc

Live Music & Entertainment

"We're looking right now at our stadium [events] pipeline for '25. It's bigger right now than it was 2 years ago for '23...And as we've always predicted post COVID, we'd be back to an 8%, 9% compounded annual growth as an industry on the top line, and we'll see that come back to life next year and probably more." Michael Rapino, CEO, Live National Entertainment Inc

Money Transfers

"Additionally, and contrary to the general market sentiment, the World Bank data would indicate pricing increased on an aggregate basis year-over-year. Even with increased growth in digital money transfer services, the global average cost to send remittances increased. This is supportive of our belief that higher interest rates are forcing more rational competition and driving out marginal players who may have been making uneconomic business decisions." Devin McGranahan, CEO, The Western Union Co.

Debt & Private Equity

"The AU/NZ debt buying market has remained subdued, with sale volumes still substantially lower than pre-COVID levels." Market Statement, Credit Corp Ltd

“In conjunction with this more active market, we saw meaningful growth in deal flow during the second quarter.” Robert DeVeer, CEO, Ares Capital

Mining & Resources

“We are only at the foothill of this mountain, and there's so much more to come.”  Jakob Stausholm, CEO, Rio Tinto Ltd‍

Geopolitical & Conflicts

“DroneShield is looking to capitalise on strong momentum experienced in the first half of 2024 and favourable geopolitical environment with the use of drones continuing to headline armed conflicts globally.” Market Statement, DroneShield Ltd

Textiles

“Australia is the second-highest consumer of textiles globally…With 200,000 tonnes per annum of textiles being landfilled in Australia the direct carbon emissions from textiles in Australia are also significant.” Kane Blackman, CEO, Good Sammy Enterprises [an Australian social enterprise company]

Microchips

“Maybe one way to think about that [growth] is the AI workloads that some of these chips need to run. At the time these chips were conceived, some of the [large language] models that they're being tasked to run were never even invented yet” Rene Haas, CEO, Arm Plc

Inflation

“We've seen inflation cool but to varying degrees across carded and non-carded categories.”  Michael Miebach, CEO, Mastercard Inc

Social & Dating

“We think that doomsday scenarios around dating apps are way overblown, and you can start to see that in our results this quarter. We have product work to do, but once we do that, we are confident that the growth potential for our business is significant. Dating apps are still the best way for people to meet, and we intend to continue to capture that opportunity.” Bernard Kim, CEO, Match Group Inc [owner of Tinder]

Buildings & Renewables

“Now in buildings…the energy performance and buildings directive that is coming in Europe will accelerate the renewal of buildings” Peter Herweck, CEO, Schneider Electric SE

“We are seeing more and more evidence on the problems that arise as the penetration of renewable energy increases, with surplus of solar PV and transmission rates and electricity demand falling behind. This is what we call the new trilemma.” Rafael Mateo Alcalá, CEO, Acciona Energy

Wool Market & China

“My sense is that if you’ve got a quality product and an efficient supply chain, you can compete globally and having a very strong, consistent market is actually helpful…Do we enjoy them manipulating price, holding back their buying and then ramping up their buying? No, we don’t enjoy that, but then we don’t enjoy a lot of things that happen to Australia in the world.” Mark Allison, CEO, Elders Ltd

Lithium

“The market is not improving. It’s actually probably getting a little worse. We’re using the term ‘lower for longer’ from a pricing perspective, and we have to be able to operate through that downturn.”  Kent Masters, CEO, Albemarle Inc