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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am

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Speaker 1: Eastern on Apple, Cocklay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: FedEx coming out with results it's seen as economic belt whether,

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Speaker 2: even as it clearly has its own issues to work through,

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Speaker 2: namely this overhaul of its businesses. Lee Costco is our

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Speaker 2: senior transport, logistics and shipping analyst here at Bloomberg Intelligence

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Speaker 2: and Lee a good report here from FedEx, whose shares

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Speaker 2: are right now up about two percent. A forecast that

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Speaker 2: came in better than most people expected, including the range

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Speaker 2: that it offered.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely was a nice print for their third quarter,

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Speaker 3: which includes their peak season in December. It shows us

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Speaker 3: that they're really executing on their plan. The beat was

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Speaker 3: really driven by their express business or their parcel business.

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Speaker 3: Their freight business, which is their less than truckload business,

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Speaker 3: continues to struggle. That's really not a company specific thing,

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Speaker 3: that's an industry thing. The LTL market has been pretty

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Speaker 3: weak over the last year, and we expect that weakness

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Speaker 3: to continue. I think people were encouraged about the fact

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Speaker 3: that they raise their full year guidance. You know, they

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Speaker 3: did put out a twenty five dollars EPs target for

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty nine when they had their analyst AA a

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Speaker 3: couple of months ago. You know, we've written over the

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Speaker 3: last month that, you know, we think that might be

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Speaker 3: conservative if the company continues to execute on its restructuring

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Speaker 3: plan and assuming that the you know, the economy doesn't

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Speaker 3: create from here all a recession. You know, I think

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Speaker 3: that you know, its numbers can be can be made.

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Speaker 4: Lee.

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Speaker 5: I know it looks that some of my banker buddies

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Speaker 5: got to this company at some point because they are

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Speaker 5: going to spin off their freight unit.

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Speaker 6: I guess sometime in June. What are you looking for there?

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Speaker 6: What's the what's what? What's the story there?

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Speaker 5: Do you think?

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Speaker 6: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: So, I think they're following the footsteps of UPS. UPS

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Speaker 3: also had a lesson truckload business. They spun out whether

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Speaker 3: they sold excuse me to a t f I, a

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Speaker 3: Canadian company. Uh. And you know, I think what these

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Speaker 3: parcel carriers want to do is they want to focus

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Speaker 3: on you know that they're parcel carriers and not some

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Speaker 3: of these ancillary businesses. You know, I think this will

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Speaker 3: really sharpen FedEx's focus. U The LTIL business or the

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Speaker 3: FedEx's LTL business is a great business. It's the largest

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Speaker 3: lesson truckload carrier in North America. It'll be an interesting spinoff.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we'll see where valuations are by the time

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Speaker 3: they spin it off in June. You know, like I mentioned,

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Speaker 3: tonnage has been kind of depressed. So obviously maybe they're

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Speaker 3: not getting the most that they possibly can, I mean

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Speaker 3: because of the timing. But I think it is it

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Speaker 3: is a good thing for them to do, and only

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Speaker 3: are doing that, you know, they're they're they're doing things

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Speaker 3: that that they that was you know, unheard of maybe

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Speaker 3: three five years ago. You know, they're combining their air

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Speaker 3: and ground networks, and they're doing things within their businesses

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Speaker 3: to really drive overall productivity. You layer on top of

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Speaker 3: that technology investments to enhance productivity. You know, this could

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Speaker 3: be a company that can you know, generate earnings you know,

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Speaker 3: north of that twenty five dollars number that they put

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Speaker 3: out for twenty twenty nine.

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Speaker 2: Lee final question too. We have about thirty seconds left.

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Speaker 2: We know FedEx has sued the federal government for refunds

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Speaker 2: on tariffs, any update, any progress on that front. Is

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Speaker 2: this a meaningful number?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, honestly, I don't know much about that. They really

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Speaker 3: didn't talk that much about it on the earnings call,

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Speaker 3: but it would probably be would be a pass through

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Speaker 3: that they get back to their customers, so it's not

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Speaker 3: really going to impact their bottom line, and if it does,

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Speaker 3: it'd probably be, you know, not meaningful.

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Speaker 2: Stay with us more from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live

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Speaker 1: weekdays ten am. He's derned on Apple, Cocklay and Android

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Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 5: Well up, potential mega m and a trade reported today

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Speaker 5: Potential Unilever is in talks to sell its food business

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Speaker 5: to McCormick and what would be the biggest overhaul of

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Speaker 5: the company since it was founded almost a century ago.

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Speaker 5: We're talking this business could be worth about thirty three

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Speaker 5: billion US dollars, so that would be a sizeable trade there,

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Speaker 5: for sure. Let's get down into the details here. We

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Speaker 5: can do that with Diana Gomes. She is a senior

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Speaker 5: equity research channels.

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Speaker 6: To Bloomberg Intelligence. She's based in London, Diana.

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Speaker 5: This would be a big, big move for Unilever's what's

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Speaker 5: the strategy here?

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Speaker 4: Yes, thank you. So the strategy for Union Lever would

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Speaker 4: be really to simplify and refocus more on the higher

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Speaker 4: growth imium skincare wellbeing beauty portfolio, which is what the

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Speaker 4: company is trying to do in order to reach about

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Speaker 4: two thirds of sales in the midterm. So it is

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Speaker 4: not surprising that Unilever is considering a split. I believe

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Speaker 4: the questions are more out that will be structured.

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Speaker 6: So is this a move?

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Speaker 5: I mean, I see the stocks of just fractionally today.

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Speaker 5: Is this something that was expected by the street? Is

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Speaker 5: this something the street would support? Is this evaluation that

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Speaker 5: seems reasonable?

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Speaker 4: So the valuation we pam up with we calculated a

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Speaker 4: potential nine times if it too a bit multiple or

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Speaker 4: potential three point two billion euros of a BIT nine

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty six for the foods business as part of

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Speaker 4: unil Ever, which would be aligned with packaged food multiples

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Speaker 4: and slightly below Union versus multiple at the moment, which

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Speaker 4: accounts for the fact that foods has been a slower

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Speaker 4: growth segment for unil ever, but it's still margin a creative,

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Speaker 4: it's cash creative, so a quick sale at a non

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Speaker 4: favorable value would not be something that I see, you know,

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Speaker 4: ever working for. But in the prior days, we have

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Speaker 4: seen more chatter in the market about unil ever potentially

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Speaker 4: spitting up some considerations for a split, spin off, a sale.

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Speaker 4: There are many ipodsis being put out there, so it

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Speaker 4: is not coming as a complete surprise. I believe the

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Speaker 4: details are quite thin at the moment, so it's difficult

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Speaker 4: to just say so.

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Speaker 5: But I think we've seen a lot in the consumer

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Speaker 5: products state space just over the last several weeks several months,

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Speaker 5: a lot of companies re examining kind of their their

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Speaker 5: portfolio brands. And because there's been a lot of competition

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Speaker 5: from private label there's been you know, a lot of

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Speaker 5: inflation author that has been pinching the consumer, it seems

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Speaker 5: like a lot of these companies are re examining their portfolios.

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Speaker 5: Should we expect more of this going forward.

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Speaker 4: Yes, definitely. So that's a trend that we see continuing

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Speaker 4: through through the year. And it is also possible that

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Speaker 4: the current uncertain environment from the geopolitics risk potential boost

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Speaker 4: to inflation as well, which would further squeeze consumers, is

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Speaker 4: prompting strategic thoughts as well. We and and that's the

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Speaker 4: that's the backdrop under which this this comes. So not

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Speaker 4: completely surprised given that foods would potentially be the segment

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Speaker 4: more vulnerable in Lever's portfolio. But companies have been trying

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Speaker 4: to simplify and get more focused. So that's the investment

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Speaker 4: in their premium innovation allows them to better differentiate themselves

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Speaker 4: from private toyable, more affordable options in the market, sometimes

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Speaker 4: from smaller players.

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Speaker 5: So Diana, who's typically investing in these big consumer products

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Speaker 5: companies like Procter and Gamble, Unilever, because I see, you know,

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Speaker 5: kind of their stock prices are kind of flatish over time,

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Speaker 5: not a lot of movement. They do have nice dividend

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Speaker 5: yields three four five percent. Are these investors that in

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Speaker 5: their portfolio they just want these stocks to represent stability.

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Speaker 4: That is one of the key elements for that staples

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Speaker 4: that have been known for for that stability on income

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Speaker 4: and some attractive dividend iills as well. So we see

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Speaker 4: further buiveex and dividend growth still possible into the year,

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Speaker 4: but obviously, with the potential for volume growth to not

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Speaker 4: pick up as much as was initially expected free the war,

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Speaker 4: it does raise some questions there.

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Speaker 6: Stay with us.

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Speaker 2: More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming.

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Speaker 6: Up after this.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live

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Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple Corplay and Android

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Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 6: Let's go over to the consumer side.

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Speaker 5: When you think about where consumers spend money, well for

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Speaker 5: enjoyment and entertainment and all that kind of stuff. They

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Speaker 5: can go take a cruise, they can go to a casino,

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Speaker 5: go to a theme park, all that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 5: But if the consumer may face some additional challenges going forward,

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Speaker 5: what does it mean for those businesses?

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Speaker 6: What does it mean for those businesses?

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Speaker 5: Credits out there, Jody Lourie, She's a Bloomberg Intelligence credit

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Speaker 5: analy Jody, how do you think about some of the

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Speaker 5: industries you follow again, kind of the cruise industry, the

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Speaker 5: gaming industry, the theme park business, hotels, all that kind

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Speaker 5: of stuff. What's your view of the consumer and what

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Speaker 5: are your companies telling you.

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Speaker 7: So, I think, Paul, there's a couple of things to

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Speaker 7: tackle here. First of all, of course, there's the pressure

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Speaker 7: from the Iron War, which at the end of the day,

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Speaker 7: I think there's more of an echo effect event, and

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Speaker 7: it's more just adding to some of the pressures that

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Speaker 7: the consumer is already feeling. We've been talking about the

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Speaker 7: K shaped economy. We've been seeing some of the effects

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Speaker 7: of the K shaped economy in hotels, in theme parks,

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Speaker 7: in cruise lines, in gaming, but we haven't necessarily seen

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Speaker 7: a broader scale effect of this inflation pressure on the

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Speaker 7: consumer when it comes to higher income consumers, and so

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Speaker 7: I think that's where you're going to start seeing a

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Speaker 7: little bit more of that creep in and that pullback

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Speaker 7: by the consumer. But I think at the end of

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Speaker 7: the day, when you look at the companies, a lot

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Speaker 7: of them are really well positioned. It's only the low

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Speaker 7: twist rated companies that we are concerned about. The ones

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Speaker 7: that are operating on a tight sort of cushion at

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Speaker 7: the moment, such as six Flags, such as Hurts, the

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Speaker 7: names that really are trying to get their balance sheets

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Speaker 7: in order and trying to address fundamental issues at their

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Speaker 7: companies that we're concerned about at this moment, right, especially

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Speaker 7: when you.

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Speaker 2: Look at especially when you look at the fact that

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Speaker 2: traders are now betting on the possibility of a rate

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Speaker 2: hike as well. Not only have they priced out rate

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Speaker 2: cuts for the rest of this year, they're now looking

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Speaker 2: at possibly the FED needing to increase interest rates because

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Speaker 2: of rising inflation. A rate hike would really be bad

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Speaker 2: news for a lot of these weak barrors with a

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Speaker 2: lot of debt coming up, wouldn't it.

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Speaker 7: It would absolutely scarlet And I think the key here though,

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Speaker 7: is that a lot of the companies have been proactive

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Speaker 7: in terms of deleveraging, and so for twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 7: we actually don't have that much debt outstanding for a

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Speaker 7: lot of the companies that we cover. It's really as

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Speaker 7: you get in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight, when

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Speaker 7: it's that prolonged sort of view, that's when you start

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Speaker 7: feeling the pressure. If this is a sort of you know,

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Speaker 7: one year blip or so, I don't think it's really

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Speaker 7: going to affect them. I mean, we didn't anaunce us

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Speaker 7: on a company like Carnival, for example, which you know

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Speaker 7: they've been working their way towards investment grade ratings. They

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Speaker 7: obviously are feeling the strain of something like Iran and

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Speaker 7: it's going to possibly affect booking levels for a lot

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Speaker 7: of their consumers. But at the end of the day,

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Speaker 7: for someone like Carnival, they've been proactively deleveraging, which is

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Speaker 7: certainly a positive, and when we've looked at similar times

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Speaker 7: in the past, it really hasn't affect EBIT of margins

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Speaker 7: that much. Net income might be a different story, but

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Speaker 7: EBIT margins not that much, which is a little surprising

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Speaker 7: for us. I think where we're sort of hesitant to

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Speaker 7: feel really comfortable for a company that's unheedged on their

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Speaker 7: fuel exposure is more in that secondary and tertiary effects

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Speaker 7: related to something like this massive event, and also the

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Speaker 7: consumer feeling pressure. By that I mean is consumers if

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Speaker 7: they're not spending on the scuba diving, if they're not

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Speaker 7: spending on the random excursions the same way, you're not

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Speaker 7: going to have that gravy of cash flow that a

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Speaker 7: lot of these companies feel.

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Speaker 5: It's the first weekend of March Madness, which makes me

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Speaker 5: think about sports books, and my favorite sports book in

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Speaker 5: Vegas is that Caesar's Palace.

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Speaker 6: It is just awesome to take care of you there.

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Speaker 6: And I noticed Jody that.

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Speaker 5: Caesar's is I guess there's some reports that maybe they

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Speaker 5: were going to be taken private by Tilman and Fertita.

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Speaker 5: What does that mean for its bonds? What does that

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Speaker 5: mean for bonds of other kind of leader companies out there.

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Speaker 7: Well, Paul, we've been a little bit concerned about some

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Speaker 7: of our companies just because we're towards that tail end

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Speaker 7: of a really good momentum of the past few years

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Speaker 7: post COVID, and so for someone like Caesar's, while they

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Speaker 7: do have change of control provision, which what that is

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Speaker 7: is that's a protection measure for anybody who owns their

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Speaker 7: bonds to put back the bonds at one hundred and

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Speaker 7: one percent of par while those bonds do have that,

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Speaker 7: there's reports by Wall Street Journal and others that indicate

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Speaker 7: that Caesars may have found loopholes or around their relationship

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Speaker 7: with Vichy Properties, which is the one that owns about

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Speaker 7: fifty percent of their properties. They have a sale lease

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Speaker 7: back with Viacci. So not to get into too much detail,

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Speaker 7: but if they're looking at ways to skirt conversations with

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Speaker 7: key counter parties. I'm a little bit concerned when it

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Speaker 7: comes to creditors, particularly when you look at where the

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Speaker 7: bonds are trading, and they're trading so much below par.

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Speaker 7: I think that's a sign that maybe perhaps whatever deal

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Speaker 7: might be forming is not necessarily going to be credit

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Speaker 7: or friendly. Then if you think about Caesar's in general,

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Speaker 7: the long history legacy Caesars, what happened with their LBO,

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Speaker 7: what happened with their restructuring. Now we have El Dorado

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Speaker 7: as the management team. They're the ones who bought Caesar's

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Speaker 7: and took on the Caesars name. At the end of

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Speaker 7: the day, though, I think a lot of investors have

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Speaker 7: a hard time getting over a name that burned them

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Speaker 7: in the past. Feeling comfortable with this discussion going forward.

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Speaker 7: We have a lot of companies within our sectors. We

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Speaker 7: actually just publish something yesterday on it looking at the

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Speaker 7: risk related to activist investors for a lot of our

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Speaker 7: companies and what that could mean for these credits.

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Speaker 6: Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live

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Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Easterned on Applecarplay and Android Auto

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Speaker 1: with the Bloomberg Business App, listen on demand wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.

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Speaker 6: The Business of Sports.

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Speaker 5: Nobody does it better than our next guest, Randa Williams,

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Speaker 5: US sports business reporter for Bloomberg News. He doesn't mail

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Speaker 5: it in from home like the rest of these folks

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Speaker 5: live in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studiing.

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Speaker 6: We appreciate that.

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Speaker 5: Rinda, I'm so glad that you here because to me,

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Speaker 5: I've been following closely this WNBA collective barting agreement because

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Speaker 5: what I think we've all noticed over the last several

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Speaker 5: years is just the explosive growth of Women's National Basket,

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Speaker 5: women's sports and general. But certainly the WNBA and boy

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Speaker 5: I did not think the economics for them reflected that agreement.

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Speaker 8: I remember when Kaylyn Clark was drafted. I think all

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Speaker 8: of us Bloomberg included around the story that she was

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Speaker 8: going to be making either it was seventy six thousand

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Speaker 8: dollars or seventy eight thousand dollars. You think about the

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Speaker 8: growth that she brought to the league as well as

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Speaker 8: many many others. I mean, the league was growing before

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Speaker 8: she arrived as well. And then she in her rookie class,

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Speaker 8: Angel Reeves and Cameron Brinkin so many more served as

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Speaker 8: a title wave and so their salaries didn't reflect that.

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Speaker 8: But they will soon.

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Speaker 6: They will soon.

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Speaker 2: But there was a lot of bad blood between the commissioner,

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Speaker 2: Kathy Engelbert and the players and the players' union leading

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Speaker 2: up to the agreement that they'll come to something together.

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Speaker 2: Where do they go from here? Because I wonder how

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Speaker 2: much of that kind of cast a paul over how

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Speaker 2: they work together going forward.

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Speaker 8: It's a great question. And I think there was a

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Speaker 8: picture that was posted, but I want to say it

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Speaker 8: was by the women's the union side of things, and

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Speaker 8: they toasted when they got a deal, and everyone looks happy,

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Speaker 8: and of course they have to have a deal in

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Speaker 8: order for the league to continue.

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Speaker 7: Right.

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Speaker 8: At the same time, there were some very very strong

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Speaker 8: comments made that you know, in all my years of

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Speaker 8: covering sports, both professionally and then as a kid, I've

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Speaker 8: never heard anyone make comments like Nifista Collier said about

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Speaker 8: Kathy Engelbert. And you know, we also reported that Kathy

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Speaker 8: had conversations about whatever her next chapter was, meaning that

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Speaker 8: she could depart the league. Now, is that still a

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Speaker 8: factor now that a deal is close to being done,

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Speaker 8: we're going to find out probably in the months and

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Speaker 8: maybe a year or so to come. I think that

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Speaker 8: the next time she talks will be at the WNBA Draft,

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Speaker 8: and I have no doubt that someone will ask about it.

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Speaker 5: Well, we know across sports globally, the main main driver

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Speaker 5: of the economics is the rights fees.

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Speaker 6: Media rights fees.

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Speaker 5: Where's the WNBA these days?

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Speaker 8: So that was a big part of this, was that

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Speaker 8: the WNBA agreed to a new media rights deal I

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Speaker 8: believe it was in twenty twenty four with Amazon, ESPN

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Speaker 8: and Comcast. And so that deal is going to pay

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Speaker 8: them at minimum two hundred million dollars a year. And Okay,

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Speaker 8: so when the players were having conversations, they're like, listen,

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Speaker 8: we're seeing expansion fees rise. We're seeing our media rides

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Speaker 8: field fees rise. And so they were like, if all

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Speaker 8: of this money is rising, where is it? When is

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Speaker 8: it going to come down to us? And the league

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Speaker 8: and the players saw two completely different ways for a

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Speaker 8: long time, but they got on.

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Speaker 2: Middle ground, all right, and it's about time.

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Speaker 6: Frankly, I agree.

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Speaker 2: I mean, let's talk about college basketball because it is

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Speaker 2: March March twentieth and March madness is in full swing

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Speaker 2: here at Bloomberg. Of course, we have our brackets for

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Speaker 2: a cause. If you have a Bloomberg terminal's b r

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Speaker 2: KT go where. We've invited folks to put together their

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Speaker 2: bracket and appoint the charity that they would get a

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Speaker 2: winning donation if they do come out ahead. And these

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Speaker 2: are always full of surprises, absolutely.

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Speaker 8: I mean, yesterday we saw Duke almost get upset by it.

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Speaker 8: I was at a CBS watch party yesterday and everyone

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Speaker 8: was on edge. And then of course BYU lost to Texas,

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Speaker 8: and so that first round in that second round are

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Speaker 8: always always dangerous. And I mean Ken is leading right now,

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Speaker 8: so I mean it sounds like if he continues down

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Speaker 8: this track, you know he'll be the winner.

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Speaker 6: I am close on his heels. I'm in the top

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Speaker 6: four percent. How many points do you have right now?

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Speaker 6: Twenty six?

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Speaker 5: I'm five sixty eight out of eight and seventy two

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Speaker 5: people rank.

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Speaker 6: I have Duke winning.

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Speaker 5: I just pencil and Duke then I worked backwards. Oh

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Speaker 5: and yesterday, let's not forget Carolina loss.

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Speaker 8: Oh here we going?

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Speaker 5: Where'd you got to school again?

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Speaker 6: In case anyday exactly so it was. It was a

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Speaker 6: very good day yesterday. So how big is this.

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Speaker 5: For, you know, the media side of the business, because

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Speaker 5: it just seems a lot of people are concerned and

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Speaker 5: upset with college athletics in general because it's maybe gone

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Speaker 5: swung too far the other way with nil and the

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Speaker 5: transfer portal, and it's lost some of its cachet a

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Speaker 5: little bit. Are we seeing that the numbers anywhere?

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Speaker 8: I think you're seeing it across competition more than you

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Speaker 8: are with the numbers, because I mean, you look at

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Speaker 8: Duke's game yesterday. Again, I don't want I mean to

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Speaker 8: shame you because they came out on top, but you

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Speaker 8: know you have more of these results and more upsets

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Speaker 8: happening because college players are being paid more so they

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Speaker 8: have the choice to go and play for a smaller

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Speaker 8: school that might be close to home, or maybe go

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Speaker 8: somewhere far away that offered them an incredible price. Now,

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Speaker 8: from the media rights perspective, Duke loses, and I can

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Speaker 8: guarantee you there are media executives who are not going

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Speaker 8: to be happy. And so Duke Kansas, all the blue

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Speaker 8: chip schools. The farther they go, normally, the better the rights, the.

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Speaker 2: Better the ratings and because of name, image and like this,

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Speaker 2: these athletes and the transferportal, these athletes can go to

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Speaker 2: schools where last year, you know, wasn't even on the map.

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Speaker 2: So which schools look most interesting based on the players,

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Speaker 2: the players who have come over from other teams.

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Speaker 8: Which schools look I need to be in college to

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Speaker 8: answer that question, because ultimately I would jump school I

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Speaker 8: would jump schools every single year someone was paying me more.

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Speaker 8: That's the right thing to do, I mean, that's unfortunately,

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Speaker 8: that's a manipulative. Part of this is that if you

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Speaker 8: are in a transferportal, Let's say you make eighty thousand

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Speaker 8: dollars your freshman year, then you make one hundred and twenty,

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Speaker 8: then you have a good season that same sophomore year.

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Speaker 8: Now someone's offering you five hundred thousand dollars. Now you're

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Speaker 8: offering now you're being offered a million dollars. Why wouldn't

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Speaker 8: you try to be a college basketball player for as

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Speaker 8: long as you possibly could if you have no aspirations

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Speaker 8: or you're not good enough to go to the NBA.

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Speaker 6: And that's what's happening.

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Speaker 5: And that ties into a story that Janet Lauren had

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Speaker 5: yesterday from bloom reviewsa that some of these kids leaving

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Speaker 5: the IVY League.

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Speaker 6: Which didn't used to happen, No, because they can.

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Speaker 5: Then because Ivy League does not play pay Neil money.

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Speaker 5: But if you have a good season the IVY League,

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Speaker 5: maybe a power school, we'll pay you. So boy, it's

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Speaker 5: a whole new world. I would again, I just kind

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Speaker 5: of characterize it as the wild West, and there is

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Speaker 5: allowed to us. There needs to be some regulation, and

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Speaker 5: I think we're starting to move that way.

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Speaker 6: There's a growing recognition there.

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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,

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Speaker 1: and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live each

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Speaker 1: and always on the Bloomberg terminal.

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Speaker 4: Yeah