CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 28 June 2024

Health Care

“Think about it, look at newspapers around you. Rumours on bird flu, potential pandemic. Look at the U.S., tuberculosis is back, outbreaks in New York, outbreaks in Long Island, outbreaks in Chicago. What is clear is that especially since the pandemic COVID-19, diagnostic, whether it's for life science and research or clinical diagnostics, has become a really key part of the health care value chain.” Thierry Bernard, CEO, Qiagen NV [major multination diagnostics testing provider]

"Improving pathology volumes for the half year to date have been offset by lower-than-expected average fees due to the softer GP market, and general inflationary pressures." Market Statement, Healius Ltd

Luxury Goods

“Multiple listed luxury businesses have described softening demand trends and increased promotional activity, over and above the typical seasonal promotions, leading to a tougher margin environment” Market Statement, Cettire Ltd

Cost-of-Living Effects

“If they were to buy two dresses, they’re gonna buy one. You’re seeing that. It’s not easy times.” Jere Calmes, CEO, The Iconic

“Looking short term into the retail industry, it is very volatile. The customer is very dependent on external factors” Daniel Erver, CEO, H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB

“While the QSR [Quick Service Restaurants] sector is one of the most resilient, it is not immune to the ongoing cost-of-living pressures facing consumers. As expected, trading conditions were softer in the second half given the dual impacts of inflation across all input lines and weaker consumer sentiment.” Kevin Perkins, Interim CEO, Collins Foods Ltd

Regional Newspapers

“I speak to a lot of our 230 member publishers quite often and some members who have deals — for example over Christmas — had to pay staff out of their own pockets to keep going. That’s how close to the wire some of these mastheads are running” Andrew Schreyer, President, Country Press Australia

Interest Rates & Tax Cuts

“Given the economic environment, we expect financial stress will rise over the next 12 months” Shayne Elliot, CEO, ANZ Group Holdings Ltd

“I don’t think consumer sentiment is great when interest rates are going up, so potentially, yes [a rate rise could damage us], but you do have the tax cuts coming in July, right? It’s hard to read” Anthony Scali, CEO, Nick Scali Ltd

Investment Banking

“I think we certainly are seeing more activity on the M&A front with the bankers. I think we're seeing a little bit better hiring than we did…and I think if you look at the trends historically, as banking fees go up, historically banking hiring has followed that.” Frederick Snow, CEO, FactSet Research Systems Inc‍

Nuclear & Uranium

"I think it's well socialised and well documented. The turnaround in the uranium market over the last couple of years. We're seeing strong uranium demand driven by global decarbonisation, and we continue to see supply tightness due to underinvestment for the last decade. We're seeing a shortage of existing production in the market today with a growing deficit over the next few years, continuing out well into the 2030s." Ian Purdy, CEO, Paladin Energy Ltd

Corporate Sector

“We know productivity and flexibility in travel booking is just as important as the cost of travel. We know this because more than half of our customers’ bookings are rebooked or rescheduled; agility in travel management is essential.” Melissa Elf, Managing Director, Flight Centre Corporate

Human & Machine Evolution

“Looking back, evolution of humanity, 200,000 years back. Human[s] used to drive evolution…Some time in 3 years to 5 years, AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] will come. Beyond that, AGI will drive evolution. In the past, geniuses have driven the evolution of humanity. Different geniuses stimulated each other and delivered evolution. But going forward, AGI stimulates AGI and drive evolution. Because AGI is much smarter than human[s]. So smarter AGIs stimulates smarter AGIs [and] accelerates evolution. It's non-stoppable. Then ASI [Artificial Super Intelligence] will come. I think ASI will come some time in 10 years. So, it’s 10,000 times smarter than human[s]." Masayoshi Son, CEO, Softbank Group Corp

Japanese Economy

"Without evolution, your competitors can start selling in cheap price so that they're going to take over your place. The Japanese economy right now, not growing in the past 30 years or so is probably because we don't see much of the evolution of the industry in Japan" Masayoshi Son, CEO, Softbank Group Corp

Global Supply Chain & Trade

“At the enterprise level, revenue growth inflected positive this quarter as expected. While we saw modest yield improvement and signs of volume stabilization across segments, we have not yet seen a notable increase in demand.” Rajesh Subramaniam, CEO, FedEx Corporation

Cruises

“We are hitting records on top of previous records, which clearly tells us the strength and demand we have been building is continuing into next year and beyond.” Josh Weintsein, CEO, Carnival Corporation Plc‍