Daybreak Weekend: US Jobs, South Africa Conference, South Korea Shareholder Meetings

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This is Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend, our global look at the
top stories in the coming week from our Daybreak anchors
all around the world. Straight Ahead on the program, we'll
look ahead to March jobs data in the US and
what they may need for fit policy. I'm Nathan Hager
in Washington.
I'm Caroline Hetka in London. While we're looking at the
drive for investment in South Africa, I'm.
Doug Krisner looking at the movement to reform corporate governance
in South Korea.
That's all straight ahead on Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend on Bloomberg
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Good day to you. I'm Nathan Hager.
We begin today's program with the latest read on the
labor market in the US. The March non farm payrolls
report comes out Friday at eight thirty am Wall Street Time,
and here with us now is the man who's going
to break those numbers as soon as they cross your
Bloomberg terminal later this week. Michael McKee is with US
International Economics and Policy correspondent for Bloomberg Radio and Television.
So great to talk with you ahead of Another Job's Friday, Mike.
Of course, we saw that surprise job's loss in the
February numbers. Can you make any expectations for March?
Well, you can't have a whole lot of confidence, but
this is going to be released on time and all
the data will be included, and we won't have any
lingering problems from the government shutdown that we can really anticipate.
So I think at this point it will get attention
as a realistic view of where the labor marks it
was in the month of March. The issue is what
does that really mean to the FED at this point?
And I go back to Jay Poll at the last
FED me to get the news conference where he said
that we don't know what's going to happen, and we
don't know exactly why we saw the big drop in
February jobs and why we might see it reverse. Because
we've seen a big change in the number of people
who are in the labor force, and we may not
need so many jobs, and so the companies may not
be hiring so many people. So whether it's a sign
that the economy is falling off if the numbers are low,
or a sign that the economy is hanging in there
if they're high, we're going to have to kind of
guess at that for this moment.
Well, before we get a little bit more into what
the numbers could mean going forward, let's talk about what
we are expecting looking back. What is the expectation among
economists about what we could see in terms of that
March number.
Well, remember the original February number was a negative ninety
two thousand, So the bet is we see one hundred
and fifty thousand turnaround where we get about fifty thousand
jobs during the month of March, which would fit in
with the guestimation of economists for how many we need
to keep the unemployment rates steady given the decline in
the labor force, and the forecast is that the unemployment
rate stays at four point four percent, So it's kind
of a conservative let's go with the median view by economists,
But I don't think anybody would be surprised if we
saw another decline or if we saw a bounce back
to some of the numbers we were seeing in the fall.
So we could have a pretty significant range one where
the other sounds like in terms of what this could
mean though for the Fed's planning going forward, since we
do have that uncertainty that you mentioned that Chairman Powell
talked about, I mean, how do we gauge what the
FED could be considering here?
Well, the thing to keep in mind is that at
this point, the next meeting for the FED is at
the end of April. We are going to get this
job's report at the beginning of April, and then we'll
get a couple of inflation reports before we get to
the April twenty nine FED meeting. So this is the
last big employment number. And if you're on the side
of the FED that says we're worried about the economy
falling off, then if we get a bad number, it'll
help make the case that maybe you want to go
back to rate cuts. If we don't get a bad number,
then they can focus more on inflation, which is likely
to go higher in March just because of the war,
and we'll see oil prices push up headline inflation, and
we'll see what tariffs are still doing. So there's more
of a concerned on the inflation side then on the
job side. But jobs will still be important to because
the last one we get before the meaning well, is.
There a concern among economists about whether the job market
could be affected if the war continues for an extended
period of time.
Is that something that's being considered.
Well, it's something that's theoretically possible. It depends on how
long the war goes and what kind of costs are imposed.
If you get high enough gas prices and higher inflation
in other areas of the economy and people stop spending
because they can't afford it or don't want to spend
into inflation, then you see a decline in demand, and
then you see companies don't need to have as many
employees and so they may let some people go. That's
the classic recession set up. There's not really a feeling
that that's going to happen. Now we're talking about gasoline
prices going back to levels they've been at four so
people are somewhat used to that and somewhat used to
dealing with it. But depending on how long the war
goes and what happens, It's certainly a possibility down the road.
All right, Mike, thanks for this As always, that's Michael McKee,
international economics and policy correspondent for Bloomberg Radio and Television.
Again, look out for those March jobs numbers.
This Friday morning at eight thirty am Wall Street Time,
Let's take a look now at some stocks making news
in the week ahead. I'm Nathan Hager, joined by Bloomberg
Equities reporter Alexandra Semenova, getting us ready for some stocks
that are going to make news on earnings.
Starting this Tuesday. With Nike.
You know, alex that the struggle for this company has
been real.
Yeah, Nathan. It is going to be an important company
for investors to watch, giving its role as a retail
and consumer bellweather. Its results will test whether it's long
promise turnaround is gaining traction or not so. All in all,
Nike anticipates low sing go digit revenue declines in a
gross margin contraction year over year for the fiscal third quarter,
and analysts are also anticipating soft global sales momentum through March. China,
of course, remains the swing factor for this company. Its
turnaround still runs through China, where sales have been deeply
negative and remain a major drag on both revenue and earnings.
So any sign of stabilization for that sector, even something
that is just less bad, could shifts sentiment quickly. Sales
in China are estimated to be down sixteen percent, with
operating margin down five hundred bases points, and in North
America there are early signs of improvement helping offset some
of the weakness in direct to consumer and international markets.
When it comes to the stock reaction that people anticipate
on the earnings, options markets are implying a seven point
six percent share move post earning, so going to be
interesting to see the market reaction to its results. And
looking at some of the Wall Street analyst reactions ahead
of the reports, UBS lowered its price target on the company.
Deutsche Bank did as well.
Okay, so it sounds like the bar is pretty low
when it comes to Nike, right, I mean, if they
can come out and you know, beat earnings, does that
imply that we could see a pretty significant boom for Nike.
It certainly does, you know, indicate that if they do
surprise to the upside, if they say anything positive, then
we could see a pretty strong reaction from the results,
hence that nearly eight percent move that investors are pricing in.
Also on Tuesday, we hear from Beyond Meat or are
they calling themselves Beyond now? Did they drop the meat
from that? I can't remember.
Yeah, Remember, it's hard to keep up. So they have
a new overhand that we are monitoring, which is accounting
and control issues. So they delayed their earnings results after
identifying accounting errors and material weakness tied to inventory. That's
raised questions about its internal controls and for investors now
the focus isn't just on the fundamentals from the earnings report,
but about governance and execution risk as well, depending on
what they say about those issues. So the company had
found errors, and it's previously issued financial statements for the
first three quarters of twenty twenty five. Management had tried
to assure investors that these aren't material errors and they're
going to get them fixed pretty quickly. But investors will
be keen to hear what they say during the earnings
call about those accounting mishaps. And then on the fundamental side,
Beyond Me is facing shrinking sales and ongoing losses. The
company expects preliminary net revenues of about sixty one million
for the fourth quarter of twenty twenty five. That aligns
with prior guidance of between sixty million and sixty five
million dollars, and the company is still expecting to post
a loss, highlighting how far it remains from any sustained profitability.
This comes, of course, as consumers just pull back from
their product due to higher prices, competition from cheaper animal protein,
and a broader shift toward less processed food.
Yeah.
I mean, it's got to be tough just from the
fact that traditional meats have gotten more expensive these days
as well, So definitely keeping an eye on that stock
as well. And then on Thursday we get results from
OURH I think a lot of us might remember this
one better is restoration hardware, but this could be really
interesting to hear from a furniture maker in this environment.
It certainly will be because this company was kind of
at the center of some of the tariff volatility last year.
So our AH is expected to experience sales gains extending
into twenty twenty six, a positive they are given its
unique position with high end consumers and a small share
of the home furnishings market and sales growth is projected
to slow a bit to a six quarter low in
the fiscal fourth quarter, falling a slight softening in twenty
twenty five. Our Ah is moving forward with its hospitality
and international expansion strategies, so investors will be keen to
hear what updates they have on that. Those, of course,
could lead to stronger market share, but they also involve
execution risk and concerns still remain about the impact from
tariffs and any ongoing investment spending. You might remember that
the company had trimmed its fullier outlook before citing pressures
from tariffs, and famously, last April, its CEO drew attention
during the company's earnings call after blurting out a curse
word watching their stock decline as tariffs were implemented. So
that's an interesting one to remember, and it's going to
be really important to hear what they say about tariffs.
Yeah, a lot of potential headwinds still for all of
these companies. It sounds like the bar is pretty high
all around.
Yeah, I mean, the earnings reports will be a make
or break moment for equity investors given all the updates
we're expected to get on the impact of oil prices
on their businesses and on the continued unwind of tariffs.
Okay, alex thanks for this.
As always, that's Alexander Semenova, equities reporter for Bloomberg News,
and coming up on Bloomberg day Break weekend, we'll look
ahead to the sixth South Africa Investment Conference. I'm Nathan
Hager and this is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Day Break Weekend,
our global look ahead at the top stories for investors
in the coming week. I'm Nathan Hager in Washington. Up
later in the program we'll look to shareholder meetings in
South Korea. But first in the coming days, the South
African government will intensify its efforts to attract two million
rand in new investment commitments over the next five years.
The upcoming South Africa Investment Conference, due to take place
in Johannesburg, will be an attempt to build on the
success of the country's previous five year investment cycle, which
surpassed its fundraising goal, but will geopolitical tensions and uncertain
trade relationships threaten new commitments for more, Let's go to
London and bring in Bloomberg Daybreak europe Anker Caroline Heger Nathan.
Amongst the aims of the sixth South Africa Investment Conference
is a desire to translate momentum into capital deployment, strategic
partnerships and measurable economic outcomes. The country has some momentum, now,
expanding at the fastest pace in three years. In twenty
twenty five, helped by stronger output in agriculture, in terms
of trade and in finance industries, GDP grew by one
point one percent, according to report earlier this month. Twenty
twenty five's figures represent the fastest pace of expansion since
twenty twenty two, but the gains come after a period
of stalling. South Africa's economy has underperformed for more than
a decade, growing by an average of less than one
percent annually. Because of it electricity shortages and logistics snarl
ups that have curbed mining and manufacturing production and also
deterred investment. Now, a prolonged war in Iran and sustain
higher oil prices threatened progress once again. Speaking to Bloomberg
earlier this month, South African Finance Minister Inot god Guana
described the situation as worrying.
As I've indicated oil process. If they could, they begin
to go up South Africa as a price taker, and
that will have implication patrol and inflation envision impactful for us.
So the war is worrying.
What are the potential implications for the debt profile of
South Africa which has been rising. And then, of course
you and your government have pledged to stabilize debt levels.
Can you continue to commit to that in this environment?
And then we will continue to commit to a destabilisation
process of We'll have to take into account to what
the nature of the shocks. At the moment, we've not
been able to model the shocks, but we'll have as
time goes on. We have hoped that is going to
be four weeks, as President Trump as said. If it
is four weeks, then that is going to be fine.
But it goes beyond four weeks, we'll have to have
to pencil down the implication.
That was South Africa's Finance minister in a god Guana
speaking to Bluebergs, Tom Mackenzie, Ana Edwards and Lizzie Burden.
So will South Africa make good on its growth protections
or could geopolitical tensions derail plans? So joining me now
Blueberg's Chief for Africa correspondent Jennifer Zabasaja and Africa Economists
if on Mango. Thank you so much for being with me. Jennifer,
can I start with you? Do we expect to see
any important names or businesses at this conference in the
next few days.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Look, this is
a very important conference for the South African gouvern. It's
the sixth South African investment conference that we've seen and
if you speak to the government, they really do champion
this event as one for the investors in the business
community and also civil society and public to come together
and talk about some of the nation's progress and what
it will take to see some more progress, potentially that
comes through capital or other forms of reform. And so
we always tend to see the president there. So President
Sera Ramaposa, the deputy Finance Minister, is supposed to be there,
as well as the Minister of Trade of course, Parkstow,
which will be it'll be very interesting to hear from him,
especially considering a lot of the back and forth that
we've been hearing about trade and tariffs in South Africa's
position when it comes to the business community. Our expectation
is that potentially we will see the CEO of Anglo
American there as well as the CEO of Votercom, So
very different sectors there, but just illustrating just how varied
potentially the attendees are and really a lot of what
potentially will go into some of the progress and the
growth of the economy that South Africa needs to see
and investors want to see.
Yeah.
Absolutely, there has been lots of fanfare, hasn't there ahead
of this event, Yvonne. Recent projections for South Africa are
encouraging despite a long period of lack luster growth. What
has the country done to turn its economic story around?
What's it going to be telling people?
Yes, So I think the growth number that came out
for twenty twenty five is symbolic of the reforms we've
been seeing. We saw growth double its pace to one
point one percent last year from a zero point five
percent in the previous year, and that's a reflection of
reforms that we've seen in the power sector that have
resulted in the return of more reliable power. Also in
the logistics sector that's also helped ease trade on that front.
So those have manifested in an pickup in demand. We're
seeing househood consumption pick up. That's also on the back
of lower inflation and easing of rates that's helped credit
driven demand pick up. And I think most encouraging is
that we've seen a return of growth in growth fixed
cap deformation, particularly the second half of twenty twenty five,
suggesting that we're seeing a recovery on that front as well.
So ivon just compare this, how does the growth in
South Africa compare to its regional pairs.
That's a good question. So I've just mentioned that growth
doubled its pace in South Africa, but it's still alls
far short of what we're seeing in the region. Sub
Sahara Africa is expected to grow it around four percent
this year, So that gives you a good idea of
the sort of growth rates we're seeing on the continent
and the fastest growing countries, particularly in Eastern Africa, where
we're seeing growth in the mid to high single digits,
also in West Africa, with countries such as Qurtujuan Senegal
also growing pretty rapidly. So compared to its peers, Yes,
South Africa's growth is rather weak, but when we compare
ourselves here to where we're coming from. It is a recovery.
Jennifer tell us about the political situation in South Africa
then and how that is affecting and influencing economic policy
then as South Africa tries to boost growth.
Yeah, I think, you know, South Africa has been balancing
quite a bit of different developments. I think when it
pertains to some of the bilateral relationships that it has,
and also when you look at just what's going on
ongoing in the Middle East with the war in Iran
and the potential stance of the Bricks Nations, which of
course South Africa makes up part of that, and the
challenge that the Bloc has had in at least coming
to some sort of consensus on the stance of where
they position themselves at this point. And just to Avon's
point about some of the growth that we had seen
over the past few years, it really is a priority
for this government to actually show not just South Africans
but also the investment community that they really can accelerate
some of the promises that they are making. And so
time and time again we hear the government trying to
at least put forward this rhetoric that illustrates that they
are non aligned when it comes to some of the
conflicts and the politics of today, but that behind the scenes,
I think is a bit more complex, as some of
our Bloomberg reporters have been able to uncover in the
past few days and weeks.
Yeah, indeed, so that's on the view of the Yvonne
ware geopolitics that's happening from the South African perspective, of course,
is layered with this period of strained relations with the
United States, and that's also huge important to consider, isn't
it what's been happening recently on that front.
Yeah, we've seen relations between South Africa and the US
really deteriorate sharply since President Trump came back into the
White House last year. We saw that the US president
falsely accusing South Africa of what he believes was subjecting
white farmers to a genocide also seizing their land. We
should note that there have been many findings and reports
that actually deny that claim. We also had seen concerns
about what South Africa had said about their own stances
on relations with Iran and Hamas, and Trump has also
rejected the black economic empowerment policies of South Africa, and
so I think it has been a relationship quite tense
over over the past year, and it doesn't seem like
this is a relationship that is going to be repaired
anytime soon. But it's one that South Africa definitely needs
to repair, especially if you think about its trading relationship.
With the US.
Yeah, okay, interesting points, Jen, Thanks Yvonne. In terms of
then the need to try to drum up investment, external investment,
what is being sought at this investment conference? How important
will it be to South Africa's economic trajectory as it
tries to also build trade and just you know, revive
the economy. What do they want to see from investors?
Do you think?
So investment is important, particularly for countries that run current
count deficits like we do in South Africa. It implies
that you don't have sufficient domestic savings to invest as
much as you'd like in your economy. So in order
to attract investment or what you governments typically do is
try to improve the regulatory environment to just make it
attractive and conducive for investors to come to a country.
So that's the sort of position South Africa's and they're
seeking investment well in logistics sector and the telecommunication sector,
and particularly in sectors that can absorb labor. Do you
know South Africa has a particularly high unemployment rate. One
third of its labor force is without a job, so
investment is particularly important in trying to address that particular
goal for the country I mentioned earlier. We've just recently
seen a pickup in growth fixed capital information after being
in decline for several quarters. Boosting or its attracting more
external investment, particularly foreign direct investment would help in terms
of sustain that recovery on the investment front and help
growth accelerate.
Yeah.
Absolutely, so let's see what can be done then in
terms of South Africa hoping to attract two trillion rand
in new investment commitments over the next few years as
part of this South African summit. My thanks to Bloomberg's
Chief Africa correspondent Jennifer Sabasaja and to our Chief Africa economist,
Yvonne Muhungo for joining me. I'm callin Hebge here in London.
You can catch us every weekday morning for Bloomberg Daybreak
you at beginning at six am in London. That's one
am on Wall Street.
Nathan, Thanks Caroline, and coming up on Bloomberg day Break Weekend,
we'll look ahead to shareholder meetings in South Korea as
the country's corporate reform drive faces a crucial test. I'm
Nathan Hager, and this is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend,
our global look ahead at the top stories for investors
in the coming week. I'm Nathan Hager in Washington. It's
been a busy month for a show. Sareholder meetings in
South Korea and they'll continue in the weekend. For a
closer look, let's get to Bloomberg's Doug Krisner, host of
the Daybreak Asia podcast.
Thanks Nathan. These are not your typical meetings. They're being
conducted as South Korean President Lee J Mung pushes for
corporate governance reform, and there has been a flurry of
shareholder proposals and activist campaigns. For a closer look, I'm
joined by Bloomberg's Winnie Sue. She is Asia Equities reporter
and Winnie joins from our studios in Hong Kong. Thank
you for being here. I'm going to start with the
big companies, names like Samsung, Hondai, LG familiar names that
certainly dominate the South Korean economy. These are conglomerates. They
are essentially massive family owned enterprises known as chabols. Are
they the primary drivers for this push on corporate reform?
Yeah, they are basically the issue the court issues of it,
just because how much they control of these companies. Right,
Like you mentioned, these family conglomerates control hundreds of corporates
in Korea, and that is an issue because they sit
on the board and they would then prioritize their interests
over the shareholder's interests. And that is what the government
is trying to unwine or unpack to make sure that
these chabels actually have less impact or less say on
the companies and that companies can really push forward for
their value and for the shareholder's value.
As you know, and we've talked about this in the past,
we have seen how the big South Korean firms like
Samsung and sk Heinex have benefited from the trade in
artificial intelligence and how their share prices have helped to
power the South Korean equity market. So, Annie, I'm wondering
whether the chabels are being blamed at all for limiting
the market in any way.
Yeah, absolutely, So, as you mentioned, the most recent catalyst
is that AI demand or the AI drive, But there's
also some expectation going in with President Ejmi on pushing
forward for this value app program so to improve the
corporate governance. And we are talking about, for example, Korean
stocks right now at trading at one point eight price
to book ratio, and that's way below MSCI Asia at
around two point one, and Taiwan even at three point three,
so you can see that it's really been very undervalued.
So investors are saying that if the value there is improved,
we can expect further foreign inflows. And a big reason
to Korea stocks underperformance over the past many many years
is because of this Korea discount and because it's so
undervalued compared to its major global peers, whether it's Micron
or TSMC. That has first stopped foreign investors from investing
in Korean stocks because it's so undervalued, and also local
investors preferring stocks in the US because of this as well.
So that is a core issue why Korean stocks have
been underperforming in the past many many years, and that's
why it's so important for that to be addressed for
Korean stocks to even trail hire.
So as I understand, the history of Chabels goes back
to the nineteen sixties, and I'm thinking that in order
to counter their influence, any type of reform is going
to take a very, very long time.
Yeah, exactly. It is a very big structural issue to change,
and because they have such oversized influence by holding so
many subsidiaries across the country, and also they do have
very cozy relationship with the government as well, so that
is another difficult part to kind of tease out. And
we are though, however, under the latest you know, the
government that we're finally seeing some kind of changes, although
it is taking time. So for example, you're looking at
Samsung and sk Ink now announcing how they are canceling treasuries,
basically the first step of unwinding these kinds of cross shareholding,
and just recently with the finance regulators also coming in
to ban the double listing of basically the parent company
as well as the subsidiary companies. So the goal really
here is that they want to make sure the parent
companies can focus on improving their own value instead of
trying to raise money or to raise their value through
these IPOs of their subsidiary companies. So these small changes
that we are seeing right now are just depths of
kind of unwinding these cross shareholdings that we are seeing.
And I think one thing to point out is that
it's going to take time, and we saw how it
has been taking time in Japan, for example. If we,
you know, take the example of Japan, they have a
very similar system called the daibats, which is also basically
the same word of chabel in Korea. But the thing
is it is a less entrenched system in Japan, and
yet it still has been taking such a long time.
First started back all the way in twenty thirteen under
the then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who started to push
for corporate governance. But for Japan, they really start picking
up in twenty twenty three under the new TSE, the
Tokyo Stock Exchange head, who came up with a series
of measures to improve corporate governance. And Korea right now
is really taking exactsard taking hints from that, so some
of it being for example, they ask companies that have
very low corporate governance to come up with plans to
improve their capital efficiency. They actually ask them to submit
the plans to the exchange. And another example is that
they came up with this list name and jame list
of companies who are trading below book value. So these
push from the regulators in the government of Japan has
helped Japanese stocks to rise to record highs and people
really quote on how it is a fundamental change in Japan,
So we can see some similarities there as well.
What are people saying about the way in which this
corporate reform, this change in corporate governments may begin to
impact the South Korean equity market.
What we've been hearing from investors is that this is
basically the most important catalyst or the more structural change
that they are looking forward to when it comes to
becoming the long term investor for South Korea's market, because
so far, because of that undervaluation of Korean market, the
market really is seeing more of a short term trade
market and hence the very high volatility because people really
don't believe in longer term investing in this market because
of all these issues we talked about, whether it's the
table or the companies not really valuating shareholder value shorholders interests.
So being able to address these problems is very core
when it comes to attracting foreign investors to become the
long term investors for South Korean market, and recently we
are looking at, for example, how South Korean stocks have
been really rising on the AI demand and the AI story,
but the underperformance that we're seeing in the past few
weeks driven by the concerns around the around war or
people profit taking from some of the top performers, that
is also heard in Korean stocks right now. So as
the AGM goes on, people are looking forward for this
to become the next catalyst or the key catalyst for
a rebound for the South Korean stocks that have been
recently struggling because of the lack of the AI story.
Can you give me a sense of the magnitude of
these shareholder proposals? How many are we talking about? How
big is this movement?
Yeah, so this time around, we're talking about more than
you know, two thousand companies going through this AGM season
right now, and we are already based on our data
that we see about sixty shareholder proposals this year. It
is kind of at around a similar level versus last year,
but way more than what we saw back in twenty
twenty one two, for example. So it is quite a
big pickup that we are seeing, and we're also hearing
from fund managers that this time around, companies are more
willing to engage with them, to talk to them ahead
of the meeting versus previously. Even when they write letters
to these companies they might not even get a response.
Winnie will leave it there. Thank you so much, Bloomberg's
Winnie Sue Asia Equities reporter. Joining from Hong Kong, Let's
get to Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett for another market moving conversation
from the APAC region.
Thanks Doug. We go to Beijing next wherein the last
week the China Development Forum took place, bringing together senior
Chinese officials and global executives to discuss economic podlcy. It
was there that we caught up with UBS Group CEO
Sergio or Mati, and he spoke to Bloomberg's Steven Engel
and Stephen began with asking Ramdi how clients are reacting
to the conflict in the Middle East.
We saw clients already diversifying their portfolios early on this year.
You saw much more dispersion in the way they were
looking at maybe shifting away from moredai technology to a
more diversified portfolio. That was a good move considering what
we see in the last few weeks. At these stage,
clients are still broadly speaking calm. We don't see any
major shifting us at allocation. But of course, uh, you
know this, this pressure on the economy will start to
weigh into the market.
So what are your clients directly telling you. I mean,
they're worried about the length of this. Everyone I've talked
to here, they're just they don't know how long this
uncertainty is going to last, and we don't know where
oil prices are going to end up at the end
of the day.
Well, the topic, I would say is not only how
long it's going to go, but really to fully understand
how long it's going to take to digest this, the
shock somehow, the surprise of this crisis, particularly for the
Middle East, I mean, the fact that the entire region
has been destabilized in that way will take some time
to be adjust buy investors and buy the market. So
I would say that I think it's much more important
to understand the second part, the digestions, rather than how
quickly this will we Land. I don't know how long
it is going to go, but for sure I don't
think that we kind of have a situation like that
going on for too long.
How cautious does it make you and your expansion plans?
I know you just got the designation changed in the
United States with your chartered bank there. That's a positive development.
Last year you got full ownership and the securities business
here in China. I mean, does it affect your m
and A outlook and how you plan to grow the
business going forward?
Well?
No, I mean it is not so mean because we
don't really run the business on us stop and go
kind of. So I think that we may tactically have
to slow down certain investments. But of course the direction
of growth in the US, in Asia and across the
is there. So I think that we need to continue
to invest in capabilities in artificial intelligence to make our
processes more efficient. We need to invest in order to
make our client advisor more efficient.
UBS Group CEO Sergio or Madi speaking with Bloomberg Steven
Engel from the China Development Forum, and I'm Charlie Pellett.
You can catch us weekdays on the Bloomberg Daybreak Asia podcast.
It's available wherever you get your podcasts.
Nathan, thanks, and that does it for this edition of
Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend. Join us again Monday morning at five
am Wall Street Time for the latest on markets overseas
and the news you need to start your day.
I'm Nathan Hager. Stay with us.
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