This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus global business finance and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Hi, everyone, welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. This week mark the first one hundred days of President Trump in office his second term, something we dig into along with his tough talk and actions on tariffs and the uncertainty that ensued.
Also, most of the remaining mag savit, including Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon, all reporting earninggs. We highlight Apple and its legendary supply chain that may get a big reboot.
Plus the Saudi Prince who's back in the spotlight and also happens to be friends with President Trump's first buddy.
And from Grand American resorts to lux cruzes offering up diamond dust facials and bottomless caveat are in Champagne, the Bloomberg Pursuits team on the travel guide to Maximize your Summer.
That's pretty good to be I was going to say sign you up right totally totally.
Hey.
First up, As we mentioned, this week mark President Trump's first one hundred days in office. It's a period that has included an avalanche of executive orders that started on inauguration day, letting go of federal workers, hiring back some, scaling back departments, then kind of beefing them up again kind of, I guess, introducing tariffs, then dropping back on some, and just generally taking actions that are potentially reshaping the US government and how it's viewed around the world.
We broke down President Trump's second term so far with Bloomberg News national politics reporter Hadrianna Loenkron and Beth Fuey, partner at FGS Global. She's in the company's strategic communications division, where she advises clients on messaging and media strategy and reported on politics for years at many outlets, including CNN and The Associated Press.
You know, Beth, I wonder what's more important, meaning whether or not he has had the president that is, successes are failures in the first one hundred days, or whether or not we look at the first one hundred days as an indicator of what's to come in the next three and a half or more than three and a half years of what's left in the Trump White House.
Well, look, most of the success of a presidential administration really is in the early part of the administration, when the president typically has the highest job approval. Congress is more than willing, especially Congress like this a fully Republican the president's own party, willing to let the president's agenda take precedence. It typically slows down after the early days
of the first part of the administration. President Trump, as we've all discussed, has done more than probably any other president in one hundred days to make his mark. The question is how long is that going to last. Much of it's being challenged in court. We've seen poll after poll after poll showing President Trump is losing popularity quickly, that many of the things that he has undertaken in this first hundred days have been met by skepticism and
frankly fear by a lot of Americans. So it's unclear whether he's going to be able to keep this up for much longer.
Heyron to give us, as we do reflect on these first one hundred days, give us what you see as some of the successes, some of the wins, but also areas where the president really has not succeeded some of those losses in the first one hundred days.
Absolutely, and as someone I mean I covered him very closely on the campaign trail, and I think that there are some things that he said he would do that he has headed in that direction of the border is the first thing that comes to mind, and that was something where even when I was talking to people and voters, it was often ranked above the economy for them, whether they were in Iowa or they were in Phoenix. And so this was something where we can see the border
crossings have gone down. On the deportation front, those numbers appeared to have also gone down. And so you know, has he hit the millions and millions of numbers that he's touted that has not yet happened happened, but his administration has pointed to the border crossings as an area
of success. And then, as we all know, the tariffs, tariffs or something that he has said he would do on the campaign trail, and he has done them in a sense that you know, he has put in some of those terraffs and he's flip flopped and taken some back. He's offered pauses for some exemptions, and really that's offered a lot of confusion for the markets as we all know. And more importantly then the question is what does that
mean going forward? Does that suggest to other industries that they can come in and you know, have meetings and then they can get some of the same reductions that people just recently in the auto industry received.
When you advise your firm's clients and policy and messaging around White House moves and actions, I am curious what's top of mind and is there an expectations that things will settle down in a bit or not necessarily?
Sure. Well, we advise a lot of different types of clients, and of course many of them are concerned about the impact of tariffs on their consumers and their customers.
UH.
The issue of DEI, of course, is a is a major factor for a lot of companies in the United States. There was an effort to really push DEI and and and and embrace the ethos of diversity, equity and inclusion. UH. Just in the last few years, that of course has has changed the Trump administration and many companies are trying to figure out how to embrace the value that they place on on diversity while not sort of advertising that this is something that's important to them as a company,
for fear of retribution from the administration. There's a lot of fear out there. Generally, I would say, it's it's a it's a it's a very different atmosphere than we've seen under other presidencies, where you might like the president or not, or approve of his policies or not. The sense of fear of not knowing what's coming and and trying to prepare but not ever one hundred percent sure of what you're preparing for leaves a lot of a lot of consumers, a lot of companies off balance.
Hadriana on that, just just advise us a little bit about what you're what you've been reporting on at the White House. To BET's point about the way, and I think a lot of people would say, we kind of see that on display when it comes to cabinet meetings, when we see really the way that these cabinet officials talk so much about the serving at the pleasure of the president.
I mean, it was very complimentary. I would say, just listening to the past marathon of a cabinet meeting, and they definitely are seeking his approval, and you know, he has been complimentary toward them as well, shouting out a couple of people, and you know, even someone who not in the room, Tom Homan, the kind of appointed borders are with someone who you know, the President has has given praise sword and so yes, we we are seeing that.
And you know a lot of the reporting that I've done has also looked at the different people in industry and and those who have been you know, the you know, victims of some of the that has been done. And you can see that as well.
Thanks to Bloomberg News National politics reporter Adrianna lowen Kron and Beth Fouey, partner at FGS Global.
We're going to continue our coverage of President Trump's second term. So far, one notable impact is on energy policy. His desire to quote drill baby, drill and amp up fossil fuel exploration in the United States that we've certainly seen, along with rolling back support for clean energy initiatives and programs and climate change. And our next guest is a
former administrator of the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. She's quote in The New York Times saying, quote this is worse than any previous administration and that President Trump quote can do a lot of damage to the agency. When he leaves, he will have left devastation in his way.
We got back with us Gina McCarthy. She's a former EPA administrator in the US and the first White House National Climate Advisor. She's also managing co chair of America Is All In Coalition. This is a group of leaders from all over the US that supports climate It is supported by Michael R. Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies. She and also Senior advisor at Bloomberg Philanthropy, the philanthropic arm of Bloomberg LP, the parent company at Bloomberg TV, and at
Bloomberg Radio. She joins us from Boston. Gina, good to have you back with us. What specific presidential actions, in your view, would or have already had the biggest impact on our environment.
Well, I think that on the whole, we see this entire administration trying to benefit fossil fuels at the expense of low cost plan energy, and I think that's the big takeaway. Look, I know that right now the economy is not going great, and it doesn't surprise me given Trump's policies. But from my small perspective. I'm looking at USPA and they're dismantling the agency. They're finding a way to get rid of everyone that's ever talked about environmental
justice before. The research is the scientists. So what we have here is a tremendous cha challenge ahead to basically make sure that our communities are protected, our economy can continue to thrive, that we have healthy kids living long lives. This is definitely for me, not just the dismantling of EPA, but it is a potential to dismantle the entire federal government. And so we have to all step up.
We have to.
Recognize the challenges of today, and we have to look at how we can stop these rollbacks of rulemakings every single week that we're seeing from this administration that threatens our lives and livelihoods all across the United States and threatens our ability to have allies we can count on internationally.
Gina, remind the world, Remind our audience about kind of what the EPA does, and not just for the United States, but on a global scale. Just give us just a quick quick overview of the things that I think, you know, we just assume things are going to be here We're gonna have clean water, We're gonna have electricity, we're gonna
have highways and all that good stuff. I'm just talking about general of how the US works, but the EPA specifically what that does for every American citizen, our hopes to do for every American citizen.
Well, EPA does have a very focused mission. It's to protect our health in the environment. That's its mission.
Now.
I know there are folks like Liezelden, who's running the agency, who wants to shift it to fossil fuels, but that's essentially what it is, and for decades, what it's been focused on is actually looking at how we keep our water plane, how we keep our EA clean, how we look Internationally. A challenge is like the ozone layer. A challenge is like hydrofluoricobbins. All these challenges plus FLIM These are international efforts that EPA has been participating in for decades.
And EPA is really the most well respected environmental agency, and our sole goal is to protect people, not just in the United States for sure, that's where our major focus is, but internationally they understand the global challenges we're faithing and to work hand in hand with communities and countries all across the world, so that we can learn how best to keep our mission, which is protecting the health of our communities, in restoring and engaging in our
environmental efforts so that we have the ability to live long.
Healthy lives.
That's what it does every single day.
Thanks to Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator in the US and the first White House National Climate Advisor. She's also managing co chair of America is All In Coalition. It's a group of leaders from all over the US that supports climate action and it's supported by Michael R. Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Gina is also a senior advisor at Bloomberg Philanthropy is the philanthropic arm of Bloomberg LP, the parent company Bloomberg Radio.
Coming up, Apple reported earnings this week. It was one of the big ones. All eyes on a lot when it comes to Apple, including its supply chain and AI. We talk about all of it with Bloomberg's Mark German.
Changes need to be made, so they're breaking up their AI team. They are moving the robotics units of hardware engineering. They can't miss on robotics now, that's going to be a big deal down the road maybe five ten years. They moved Siri, which is emblematic, right and something a tangible way to see how behind there are INNAI. To Tim's example, they're moving that to their software engineering department, and now their AI department is basically just focused on models and improvement.
You're listening to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. This is Bloomberg.
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Apple's much awaited quarterly earnings report failed to soothe investor concerns about its biggest challenges, including escalating tariff costs and a slowdown in China. Now the iPhone maker warned the tariffs will increase costs this quarter. It is something CEO Tim Cook spoke about on the earnings call, saying he estimates the impact could quote add nine hundred million dollars
to the company's costs. Once the numbers broke out on Thursday, we got instant reaction from our in house Apple expert Mark Germitt.
I mean, overall revenue is up five percent over a year, so obviously that's a good thing. You saw iPhone sales beat slightly expectations from Wall Street, so that's a good thing. Shows some solid momentum for the iPhone sixteen E. Notice that Tim Cook mentioned the sixteen e in particular versus the pro models, which generate the most amount of revenue
for Apple. Obviously, Mac did a little bit better than expected, iPad better than expected, but we saw some softness on China services as well as wearables, Home and Accessories, wearable's Home and Accessories. The softness there continues. It's been this way for several quarters. That's sort of surprising given the momentum that we've seen in the past on the Apple Watch and the AirPods and some of those peripheral products. Services still pretty considerable double digit growth, but not at
the same level that Wall Street was anticipating. Services in particular is quite interesting because that's going to probably be a real headwind for Apple in the coming years now that they're needing to adjust some of their app store policies in relation to commissions. And then, of course we have the Google Search deal overhanging all of this stuff.
That's a double digit billion dollar annual revenue stream for Apple that may also go away depending on where the US government goes with this trial against Google.
That's Mark German, Bloomberg News Managing editor for Global Consumer Tech. Before Apple's earnings, though, we spoke with Mark about his reporting that Apple is seeking to import most of the iPhones it sells in the United States from India by the end of next year.
Mark, the India shift is huge. The goal means that Apple would roughly double its annual iPhone output in India to more than eighty million units, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing internal plans. You and the team reported that lately last week. Still, that is not the United States, it's India. So would President Trump and your view be happy with iPhones coming from anywhere if it's not the US.
Yeah, So this has been a plan in action for the last several weeks, now, even before we knew the finite detail what the tariffs would be on China that Trump introduced in early April, reprioritizing production happening in India.
Right for the US market.
Now, the US market requires about a third a little bit more than that of the overall iPhone production. They can easily make that in China. But today they've been able to fulfill you know, roughly half of what you're able to get out of India for the US, right, so half of what the US needs they can make in India. So they're going to accelerate that over the next several months, and they're hoping to be able to do the majority of iPhone production now in India. Now,
when I say the majority, that's important. They're not going to be able to do everything.
Apple has not shipped.
An entirely new design phone out of India to date, so that's something that eventually is going to probably have to change.
So what they're going to.
Probably do is for these more intricate models coming out end of next year twenty twenty seven, they're still going to have to rely on China.
But for the most part, the flagship.
Phones, the lower end phones for the US market at least, that's going to be India made.
The rest of the world, that's going to be China.
Okay, So it's not like Mark they're turning their back on China, not in any fashion.
Well, in some fashion, right, they're going to take out probably twenty to thirty billion dollars a year of inventory.
Out out of China and move that to India.
But this is part of something they've been doing already, right, So China is not disappearing, they're simply accelerating it. But you know, you're in a bit of a of a pickle here, right, because you never know what the administration is going to do. They could change the tear percentage on India tomorrow in response to a new policy like this from Apple, right, So I kind of have to be on your toes a little bit. That's why I think that this globalization approach to production is something that
Apple is eventually going to have to move to. And what I mean by that is producing locally for every GEO that you're in, right.
Something similar to what Tesla does.
Tesla makes cars for the US, and the US makes cars for China in China, right, they have cars made in Europe for the European market.
Eventually Apple's gonna have to get there too. If this, if this TEARFF situation sticks around long.
Term, does this, you know, spreading out and maybe further into indiamark complicate Apple's relationship with Chinese officials in China in general? Or is it that they're going to still have a huge footprint there and so things will be okay? I just I just think about the optics, the visualtics on this.
We'll see, yeah, right, we'll see.
It's very possible that China's upset about this and retaliates against Apple. Don't forget, China holds all the cars cards here. They can shut off Apples network access. They can shut down its ability to sell from the retail stores. They can slow roll Apple's ability to import components into the supply chain for final production. They can slow roll visas, they can slow roll the ability for Apple engineers to get into the country. There's so many things that China
can do here to just absolutely disrupt Apple. So they are playing a fine line here, and I'm sure Apple denying this to whoever they work with in the Chinese government. But this is something that's happening. I don't think it's as full bore as some have made it seem. I don't think that there's a full steam ahead effort to pull the iPhone out of China.
Right, And don't forget rest of world. Right, that is a significant amount.
That's still mult five hundreds of billions of dollars of devices, right, Yeah, And so that's how it's going to be, at least for now India, for the US, by for elsewhere, except when it comes to new super high end foldable models and other new designs they're doing at least from the get.
Go, And when would we see that?
Just based on your reporting, there is twenty end of twenty six, end of twenty seven within that twelve month period.
Is that I just want to follow because Tim and I have been talking a lot with the EV space and just the sophisticated manufacturing that China has on just so many different levels. Is that why Apple would have to do a more advanced phone. They'd have to continue doing it out of China because they had the capabilities.
The capabilities, the engineering talent, the availability of certain components, the availability of special machinery, the expertise that fox Con has shown, particularly in China to produce at the volumes and at the quality that Apple needs. There's a level of intricacy that goes into some of these products that can just not be replicated outside of China at this point. That's why you see things like the Apple Vision bro that's only made in China.
That's in part because of how intricate that device is.
Now, say what you will about its commercial success but from intricacy and technology standpoint, it's up there with anything on the market, and I think you'll find the same to be the true unfold the bulls and the like from Apple.
Okay, Mark, I want to shift a little bit. We got a few minutes left with you. I want to talk a little bit about AI. Carol and I've been playing with chat GPT quite a bit. You have documented the struggles that Apple has faced when it comes to AI. This came out in full force over the weekend.
For me.
My son asked me a question. I couldn't answer it. I was cooking, so I couldn't grab my phone. So I asked Siri, like a basic question that chat GBT would have been able to answer in a second, and all it did. I asked the question and all Siri did was open a web page. And I was thinking to myself, I got to ask Mark about it. It's like, it's it's night and day with Apple. What Apple does with AI versus what you can get if you download something in the App Store. What's going on here?
Yeah? Yeah, Well they bet on the wrong horse for AI.
They've made a philosophical bet against chap bolts and chat GBT like technology.
They were too stubborn to enter this space.
They didn't invest enough, They had some issues acquiring GPUs from places like Nvidia. They didn't have the right engineering talent, the right management or leadership in place, and they missed the boat on the biggest technological revolution since the iPhone twenty years ago.
So for them could then just go buy one of.
These Apple could buy their way into it. A lot of this LM stuff has become completely commoditized.
No lead is safe.
It doesn't matter how far ahead chech GPT is. Right now, Apple could catch up.
So Apple could catch up without making an acquisition. They could catch up on their own.
You know what I'm saying is that their levers they can pull to catch up.
And that includes acquisitions, that includes larger investments, that includes a lot.
Of those types of things.
But the biggest thing they have to do is make a philosophical decision of do we want to be a true AI company? Do we want to compete in this space? Do we want to be successful artificial intelligence? And if they make that decision, I think anything for Apples possible, especially with their resources specifically financially well.
And so let's go to a story that you've got out about how they're relocating their secret robotics unit from the AI organization to the hardware division. So how does this kind of fit into it? So allowing the AI folks to just focus on AI and the hardware on the hardware stiff.
They messed up. They messed up.
Their head of AI had philosophical issues with st GPT with the concept of chatbots.
They didn't really know this was coming. They were essentially blindsided by this technology. Despite what Tim Cook has.
Said on an earnings call a year ago, changes need to be made. So they're breaking up their AI team. They are moving their robotics unit to hardware engineering. They can't miss on robotics now. That's going to be a
big deal down the road, maybe five ten years. They moved Siri, which is emblematic, right and something a tangible way to see how behind there are in AI, to Tim's example, they're moving that to their software engineering department, and now their AI department is simply just focused on models and improvement. It's underlying AI technology and we'll see how long that AI department lasts. I would not imagine more than another year or two.
Robots you piqued my interest with robots, Mark, what what's Yeah? What are they working on?
They're working on a tabletop robot. It's an iPad on a robotic arm that can move around above your desk. They're working and that that's coming. That's going to be twenty twenty seven. So that's like, that's a done deal. Uh, exploration. I would put a mobile telepresence robot that can roam around your home, something similar to the Amazon astro So the tabletop that's happening, the bubbile robot, that's Explora exploratory.
Now this is in the let's sit around the table and talk about it category, and that would be humanoids.
I'll take it.
Yeah, I'll do it.
Well.
And what's I mean realistically, Tessa's working on it, met is working on it. It sounds like Apple's working on it. I mean, what's the realistic time to buy it? That you just said five years?
Ten years?
Like, is that really the timetable for something like this being part of our world?
Humanoid?
Yeah? Yeah, five ten years? What you think it's going to be longer or shorter?
I don't know. I feel like I am I feel like things are moving really quickly.
Well, Mark, When I think of humanoid, I think of something from like a figure AI, right, like an industrial use Like, yeah.
Those robots exist, but since we get it to the point that you can mass manufacture it at prices that are you know, at least somewhat digestible, with applications that make sense. Think about all the safety requirements and regulatory requirements. Right, the transition from making it an enterprise manufacturing robots.
Of something you have in your home, it's going to be a five year path.
I think there's some there's a famous engineer who says like it's like the pot of coffee test. I don't remember this. It's like he says, like, the humanoid robot will be useful when it can go and make a pot of coffee.
So is that or the other one I've heard is pick up a glass of water and bring it to you.
There it is.
I'm Carol ten years away from there.
I'm most interested in the dishdoing robot.
Yeah, we want the dishwasher root.
Well, the whole point is that it would be able to do all that stuff, Like, what's the point of the robot if it can't load your dishes into the dishwasher or put the laundry and take the laundry out right.
I want one of those.
Yeah, totally our thanks to Mark German, Bloomberg News Managing editor for Global Consumer Tech. Check out all the big megacap tech earnings this week, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta on the Bloomberg and at Bloomberg dot Com.
Still ahead on Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The CFO of Huntington Bank Shares on lending sentiment, tariffs and a big buyback.
This is Bloomberg.
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio.
Huntington Bank Shares reported earnings last week, so Alice noting how the regional bank based in Ohio seemed to be more optimistic about growth than its peers for the first quarter, the bank being on earnings and interest margin and more. It also approved a one billion dollar share buy back. In our weekly check in on cfo's chief financial officers back with us as Zach Wasserman. He's Senior executive VPCFO of Huntington Bank Shares. It is the holding company of
the consumer and business regional bank Huntington National Bank. It's got locations and a handful of states we'd like to remind you Ohio, Minnesota, North and South Carolina, and a few more. And Zach joining us from Columbus, Ohio. Also with us is Nita Trentman, senior editor at Bloomberg News, the author of the CFO Briefing newsletter, which you can get at Bloomberg dot com slash CFO Briefing. It comes out a new one every Sunday, and Zach is among
those featured in the newsletter out on Sunday. Zach, Nina, welcome. Good to have you both. Zach, We want to get right to it. Great to have you here. I think we talked with you in about mid March last go round, and that was before so called Liberation Day. What's changed as a result of what we've got from the White House and the volatility and uncertainty that has followed.
Yeah, well, it's triving to be back with you.
And certainly it's been an eventful first start of the start of the second quarter here, but for us, it's continued business as usual for the most part. We had,
as you noted, a really strong first quarter. It was, frankly, in my finance career within the top five of any quarter I've ever been a part of, you know, Revenues growing ten percent, earnings per share up twenty percent, with really strong customer acquisition trends, and great credit quality, so a lot of momentum actually carrying into the second quarriter, you know. With that being said, one of the ways we characterized the sentiment right now on our earnings call
was cautious optimism. You know, certainly more uncertainty today than was the case earlier in the year. With that being said, we're still seeing growth, you know. Indication of that is loan pipelines. Our forward projection of likely loan closings actually higher in the first two weeks of the second quarter here from the end of the first quarter, So still seeing that come through, notwithstanding a bit more uncertainty.
For sure.
Given that you have a regional focus, what would you say is the biggest potential impact from tariff policy on your business? We talk about some of the bigger banks, and certainly the issues around M and A and sort of a pause when it comes to IPOs that have been pulled that affects their capital markets business. But that's not necessarily where you guys are playing what are the biggest risks based on what's happening in Washington to your business.
It's a great question.
It's a great question, Tim, and I think you know, for the most part, it is the uncertainty itself.
You know, we're.
Seeing somewhat delays in the decision making process that affects loan.
Activity in our regional bank.
For example, I was just talking with our key executive there mentioned that the loan closing process is taking about six days longer, about ten percent longer maybe than would historically have been the case.
We're seeing some of our segments.
That really service companies who are keyed to durable goods, particularly those that you know where they have a foreign supply chain that we're seeing some impacts in. We do have an m and a advisory business that supports middle market, largely private companies. We're seeing somewhat slower deal closing process there. So you know, we're seeing to some to read those impacts and that if that uncertainty continues, we would expect
to see that those impacts continue and probably magnify. So absolutely, we'd like to see a resolution of some of these uncertainty. With that being said, as I know my first answer, We are seeing generally growth. You know, loans for us into the first quarter grew two percent from the end of last year, and our forecast for Q two, the quarter in right now is for another one to two percent growth. So overall still seeing growth, but at the margin, you know, some of those impacts.
I'm Zach to follow up on that. One of the themes in the upcoming edition of the briefing will be controlling the controllables, which is a theme that is coming up in many earning calls that we're seeing these days, coming in wondering from your perspective, like, if you're looking at your business, what are the items that you can actually control.
Yeah, it's a great question, Nina, and I think, you know, I think one of the things that's that's critical for us, and to some degree, situations like this really reveal which
companies are managed the most rigorously. And we always think about multiple scenarios and scenario planning with contingent actions, and so to some degree, you know, this scenario that's playing out right now is part and parcel to the way we manage the company all the time, always thinking about what could potentially come to pass and how we'll pull the levers of the business to maintain you know, strong relative performance in any of them. With that being said,
you know, I always think about three things. Firstly, the key pillars of financial strength for the bank, capital, liquidity and credit. And you know, those are the things that under all circumstances we want to have strength in and you know, in an environment like this, we know how we will operate to maintain those areas of strength. Now, the second is the growth orientation of the firm. What are the goals that we're putting out to the organization.
Where do we want folks focused, and what's the pace of our investments into key growth initiatives. And the last thing is how can we be consistent with our customer base. You know, fundamentally, one of the most important things for a bank is to be there.
For our customers through all cycles.
And so for us that consistency of customer interaction, consistency of underwriting, and really making sure that for the customers we're always there to support them.
Right.
Just wondering, actually you pointed out the importance of credit and liquidity in the current situation. If we go back a few weeks time, basically ever since the April two terriffs we're announced. We've seen a strong sell off in US assets. We've seen investors questioning sort of the stability of the US financial system, and we're also seeing corrects emerging around institutions here in the US with questions around the rule of law.
Do you process?
So I'm wondering from a from a CFO perspective, how do you think about those impacts to your business now and also for the longer term.
That's a great question.
Look, I think to some degree, we see ourselves as a as a bastion of strength at times when there is those kind of uncertainties, you can count on us. As I know just just a minute ago, our decision making criteria are going to be are going to be consistent.
Uh.
We're there to provide advice and counsel to our to our customers, and it's this time I mean, to some degree, this actually is a time that bankers relish. And don't get me wrong, no one wants uncertainty and potential challenges to the economic environment.
But this is the time when we really prove.
Our worth to our customers when we help them think through you know, how are they going to address potential challenges.
To their supply chain.
You know, how are they going to continue to address the level of interest rates which have clearly risen it And if inflation does re emerge and begin to reaccelerate, how are they going to address that? So it really is a sort of go back to the core, focus on customers, focus on their best interests, and really help them to be ready amongst this potential uncertainty.
Hey, one thing I want to ask you just to follow up Zach on Nina's question, and especially when it comes to the rule of law. We have a story that is among our most read on the Bloomberg about a state judge in Wisconsin arrested by federal agents after an investigation into whether she obstructed officials trying to detain an undocumented immigrant. And I guess whether that was legal or illegal. The point is we're living in a very different at this point. It feels like the United States
of America. So how do you think about it? As a CFO, We're looking to our leaders trying to understand the way forward, and how do you think about what could be a very different, potentially country going forward and operating within one.
It's hard to speculate on how things will go and how the operating environment could potentially change.
You know, we walked into this.
Year with an expectation that the regulatory environment would continue to evolve and be very constructive to growth, and so we're certainly looking to see that. But you know, we try to get out of the game of speculation and really just continue to focus on the core of what a bank is.
We're really leaning on folks like you and all leaders that come on on Bloomberg just to try to understand is it upsetting and hard for leaders too to see things not kind of business as usual, potentially you know, becoming the target of the White House.
We want to see certainty and clarity and to have an operating environment which is clear, and so to the extent that it's not, that's not that's not helpful for us. With that being said, and again I kind of come back to what's the role of our company. We're not a legislative bohding, We're not a political entity.
We're there to help serve our customers.
And this is the time when, to some degree, you know, the culture of Huntingdon certainly is all about service, and we just double down on that at times like this and just try to be that bastion of strength, that pillar that people could always count on, and that's what we draw inspiration.
Well.
Speaking of service, you mainly operate in the Midwest, and I'm wondering how you're servicing manufacturing and auto parts and auto related clients and how those are intending to manage supply chain challenges. What can you tell us about that? What color can you give us some what you've heard from them?
Yeah, Look, I think certainly, sort of as I noted earlier, the folks that are really the most keyed toward foreign supply chains, you know, there are some concern and I think it's affecting decision making, it's affecting some of their investment plans. With that being said, I also generally speaking, I think we're seeing from our customer base that they
that this is not totally unexpected. You know, we saw from the first Trump administration the tariffs were part of a major part of the agenda, and certainly during the election cycle that came up up as a major likely focused and so folks knew that something was coming and they were beginning to think through that. And so you know, for the most part, we're seeing us calm, more calm
maybe than the headlines generally would indicate. And I think, you know, likewise, if you think of the commercial sector, you know there's been a number of challenges over the last five years of COVID, rapid rise of interest rates, high levels of inflation, and so I think for the most part we're seeing resiliency, more resiliency perhaps than the headlines would would imply. I don't want to be Pollyanna here.
If this uncertainty continued for a long period of time, you would see things more markedly deteriorate, But thus far we have not seen that.
Our thanks to Zach Wasserman, chief financial Officer of Huntington Bank Shares, and Nina Trentman, senior editor at Bloomberg News and the author of the CFO Briefing newsletter. Sign up now for the Bloomberg CFO Briefing newsletter at Bloomberg dot com slash CFO Dash Briefing. A new one comes out on.
Sunday, and that our first hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio coming up in the next sixty minutes. Sustainable investing in the Era of Donald Trump.
One of the dirtiest secrets of the energy industry in America is that most of it's wasted. There's an extraordinary loss if you measure the amount of primary energy that is the original fuel of whatever form gas, nuclear fuel, even dare I say it renewable sources, and you measure that how much actually gets the point of use by the time it's lost in extraction, generation, transmission, and distribution. Did you know that over sixty percent of it is lost in America?
Blas bumping iy on nice job, the iconic nineteen seventy seven film featuring none other than Arnold I believe it's thank you Carol is back. Well, at least the pursuit of such especially by women and older folks. We'll explain we.
Women are bumping, I am, and we also take you inside Bloomberg Pursuits Summer travel guide, everything from grand resorts where monkeys used to roam, lux cruising on the high seas. Yes, Butler's included. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stenovk. Stay with us. Today's top stories and global business headlines are coming up right now.
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Plenty ahead in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including Saudi billionaire prints. All will lead back in the Spotlight emboldened by Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Plus cardio out, pumping iron and while gyms are amping up on weightlifting equipment. Also, it's the Bloomberg Pursuit Summer travel Guide. Why even snobs are cruising now?
Yeah, and can also get a diamond dust facial. Anyone interested in that.
I don't know about that. Raising my hand, you have to like plug your nose so that diamond dust doesn't get in your Don't.
Think so much about it. Just enjoy, enjoy all of that to go, and we begin with hedge funds investors seeking to invest in low carbon assets outside the United States, such as utility and grid equipment providers in Europe and Asia. Due to uncertainty cause by President Trump's policies.
So some hedge funds are finding opportunities in natural gas, it's considered a green asset in Europe. They're investing in companies that are less affected by tariffs. Such as those with domestic supply chains. It's all about that shift that's happening as a result of policies here in the US and what hedge funds and other investors are doing with their money.
No, it's a really good point, right, and we're just kind of watching it and where it's all going. Curious what Jonathan Maxwell has to say about all of this. He's the founder and chief executive officer of SDCL. It's short for Sustainable Development Capital LP. The company has about two billion, probably more than two billion in assets under management.
He is also the author of a book. We've talked with him about at the Edge, how competition for resources is pushing the world and it's climate to the brink, and what we can do about it. And he joins us from London. So nice to have you here with us. How are you.
I'm great?
Thank you.
Just got back from three days touring in the United States. So excited to be talking as a brit about investing in America.
How did that go and what were you here in the US for.
We've got a portfolio of on site energy projects we do. Our whole business is about building energy services that are cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than the grid. So you know, we in principle, our businessess has been extremely robust and growing and diversified. I think one of the as far as the actual investments that we have in America, we're very
happy with them today. I think the challenge that we've got right now is figuring out if we want to build something, say the next year, that we haven't already got all of our equipment in place, we haven't already got all of our contracts and construction in place. We don't know what it's going to cost us, and therefore we can't sign a new deal to build new systems,
new power systems in America in twenty twenty six. And it's obviously a situation that I'm hoping comes to an end pretty shortly when there's more certainty as to what it's going to cost us to build the power plants that America needs so much.
You're talking about this from the context of the you know, the investment that you need to make in order to build one of these things. You're not necessarily talking about this from the perspective of how the president now Donald Trump sees quote unquote sustainable forms of energy and the shift that we've seen here in the US. It's interesting that your concern that you at least led with was more about uncertainty when it comes to equipment, uncertainty when
it comes to investment. What about just the idea that you know, this is a president who wants to really lean into carbons and fossil fuels.
You know, I think from the I think there's a paradox. I actually wrote a substruck about this recent I think there's a basic paradox.
Right, So you've got it.
Sounds from that the administration isn't friends to large scale renewable power like offshore wind.
The Inflation Reduction Act CO.
President Trump has a hatred for offshore wind. Yes, he's been very open about that.
Yes he does, and candidly what I would call conventional, good connected renewables. Now, having said that, the Energy Administration under Chris Right makes a distinction about delivering energy services energy security that America needs well at the same time has protected the environment. So there is a concept of trying to marry up energy security with some form of
environmental conservation or preservation. In other words, don't sacrifice the economy, he says, or energy security on the altar of the environment, but to do what you can to try and minimize the footprint. There is a pragmatic way through this. And one of the dirty secrets of America, which I actually think that the Washington administration should spend more time on publicly. One of the dirtiest secrets of the energy and sty in America is that most of it's wasted. There's an
extraordinary loss. If you measure the amount of primary energy that is the original fuel of whatever form gas, nuclear fuel, even dare I say it renewable sources, and you measure that how much actually gets the point of use by the time it's lost in extraction, generation, transmission and distribution. Did you know that over sixty percent of it is
lost in America. It's an extraordinary feature. And so the concept, which you know, I don't invest in offshore wind farms is I'm not going to make any comments around them, but what I do invest in is generation that's close to the point of view, so that you don't waste all this energy on extraction, generation and transmission and distribution. And that concept of on site, low carbon, low cost, more reliable energy than the grid should be compatible with
what the Washington administration wishes. However, here's the other side of the paradox and the pain point. Right now, I not write a check for that next year at the moment because I don't know what it's going to cost me to build it.
So, you know, I think that this.
I think there is a transformation of the energy system in America that's needed. I think that America is energy independent now. It is a huge producer of gas and oil. It has an incredibly economic advantage, but it also mustn't squander it by wasting so much energy. So I think that the clean energy movement is going to face a backlash against as you say, you've described it as a
hatred of offshore wind farms. But I think there's a huge opportunity in America to decentralize the energy system and actually make the country more competitive and more productive while at the same time being greener. If Washington focused on that, that would be a huge when But you know, obviously the macro environment at the moment and taris means that we just don't know what it's going to cost us to build the stuff.
We're speaking with Jonathan Maxwell. He's the founder and CEO of SDLC Sustainable Development Capital LLP. They focus on efficient and decentral generation of energy markets.
You know, one thing I wonder, Jonathan, you mentioned you don't know the cost, right, so you can't move forward on stuff or move forward on deals. Is there though, once you have greater clarity and whatever that is, and what the macro backdrop is to create that clarity, is there though a possibility that the pricing is just too high that you can't move forward. It doesn't make sense anymore.
Well, you know, I think, going back to what I said before, the unlock the American energy system, it's the same in frankly in Europe and the UK comes from this extraordinary problem, right there is so much energy that's wasted on the way to get to the point of view, so yet more is wasted at the point of view, so that that represents that there's a huge saving associated
with that. So the economic opportunity is actually to build energy systems where you need them rather than in the middle of nowhere piping the wiring energy where you need it. And if you can build any systems on site, it's called decentralized generation. You could do it with gas, you can do it with cheer thermal ground and as well as heat solar. If you can do that, it's cheaper than the grid and the construction cost of the new facilities.
All in is actually we can deliver power systems and it's heating cooling systems that are actually cheaper than the centralized energy network. It's a massive opportunity. So I think that shift of mindset are We're going to build a big power plant and then plug it into an aging and broken grid. That is the old energy I think I think the new energy think should be about on site generation that's low cost, low carbon, reliable, and that actually marries up these challenges that the trumpet.
How is that power generated? In your view?
So we build I'll give you an example. We'll build a solar panel or a solar plant on a rooftop or on a car port because it's very close to the point of view, so we don't have transmission and distribution losses. We can sign a long term power purchase agreement, which means we can spread the car of the asset over the life and all in we can produce power that's competitive with, if not cheaper than, the grid in
an industrial context. Just to give a great example of an industry obviously that Washington's looking to protect at the moment.
Steel.
You know, steel glass furnaces throw off enormous amounts of waste heat and gas our projects. When we generate energy on site, we capture that heat and gas. It's free fuel. Actually it's into a pollution. We capture it and we use that to power turbines to make power and steamback for our clients. So the energy world is a wash with opportunities to do better, to improve these systems, and
that's what my firm does. We invest in infrastructure, services and projects and companies that just make better energy.
Jonathan, just have about forty five to fifty seconds left here. So if it makes so much sense and is so logical, wisen it happening more frequently in terms of what you are doing. Just playing Devil's advocate a little bit here and trying to understand and just quickly a few things.
I think you know, the government represents a huge amount of energy footprint and most but having said that, most market incentives have gone into power generation and utilities roll than into the on site generation system. I think it's these projects are small and complex, so it takes companies like ours that can design systems and then lastly to
get scale and replication. You know, one of the breakthrough markets where I think you're going to see much more of this energy is going to be delivered much smarter is data centers and that's where I think that's going to be driving the innovation because data centers need energy on site where they need it twenty four to seven. Because I think we're going to see a lot of these solutions breaking through.
Our thanks to Jonathan Maxwell, founder and CEO of sd COL.
All Right, so I think it's kind of interesting and we're all kind of curious about green investing, sustainability investing, like what it will mean as we just kind of we're talking about under a Trump white house. Do leaders still continue investors continue to invest, thinking well, maybe this is only policy for a few years. And you know, I think you layer on top of that kind of what happened in this past week. You know, Canadians went to the polls they elected Mark Carney, leader of the
Liberal Party, to be their prime minister. He is a newcomer to politics, but is well well known in international finance circles, running both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. He's also a climate champion. We know because he has certainly been involved in Bloomberg activities, including being a member of the board.
Yeah.
Canada, though we should notice, far from reaching its legally mandated goal to achieve net zero by twenty fifty. It's got one of the highest emissions per capita anywhere in the world. So, now that Carney has been elected, the question is will he be able to translate his international climate leadership into domestic policy or will climate fall by the wayside as he fortifies Canada in a trade war with the US.
Yeah, exactly, So I guess we'll ultimately see, you know, how things will play out.
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, the Saudi Prince who's back in the spotlight, and friends with President Trump's first buddy.
The Bloomberg Big Take is coming up next. This is Bloomberg Business Week.
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
We're going to talk about someone who has been a fixture, no doubt about it, of the global investment world. His financial moves watch closely. One of the very successful and uber rich members among Middle East royalty and yet, as Bloomberg's Devn Pendleton rights, Prince Awilid Bintelal is one of a kind figure among the rich and the powerful in the Middle East Gulf region. Devon has been at his top floor office in Kingdom Center. It's a landmark of
the rial skyline several times. She is Bloomberg News Wealth Reporter. Her Bloomberg exclusive on Prince abi Leid is Today's Bloomberg Big Take. It's also among the most read on the Bloomberg on this Friday. She joins us here in studio, really great story about someone that I feel like at one point, Devin, we talked about him constantly, over and over again in terms of his investments, and then you know,
he kind of got quiet. And then there, of course, was a big thing that happened over in Saudi Arabia. Take us back to who he is and then the moment it feels like things changed.
Sure well, thank you, thank you, Carol, thank you Tim. So Prince Agilid is he's a Saudi billionaire and he's a member of the royal family. I mean, the royal family is huge. There's thousands of members, so He is related to the king, but not like in the kingly line of succession as we think of it, but a prominent member and very very entrepreneurial from a young age. He attended college in the US and started investing here
and there in Saudi Arabia. But he really the reason we all talk about him and know him is that he made a bet on City Bank back in the eighties when it was really struggling. That bet did tremendously well. For a long time he was City's biggest shareholder. He went on to form relationships with Rupert Murdoch, with Bill Gates.
He bought a steak in the Four Seasons, He bought a steak in news Co. He had a steak in Disney, he funded euro Disney, I mean all over and also very prominent hotel investors, some amazing properties and just like a larger than life character. He was a fixture, like you said, always showing up on financial television. Yeah, loved to be quoted. He always traveled with a motorcade like he had an entourage with him. Incredibly lavish lifestyle.
And then pretty much overnight November twenty seventeen, everything changed.
Everything changed. So in November twenty seventeen. This was about a year and a half after King Salman became King of Saudi Arabia and his son, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman was really just basically running the show in Saudi Arabia.
Incredibly young and ambitious guy, and he locked up hundreds of the elite of Saudi Arabia, not just businessmen, but also governors, government ministers, prominent people, philanthropists, business people detained them at the RITZ, and that included Prince Albhalid, which was a big deal because Prince Albalid at that point, like kind of prior to this moment, was really like for the US, I mean, maybe the most famous Saudi, Like he was what a lot of investors thought of,
or Wall Street thought of if you mentioned Saudi Arabia, because Saudi too was so private and closed off for so long, like it was difficult to crack. They weren't investing like it is, nothing like it is today. Albalid was detained there for eighty three days. Nobody really heard from him. They took everybody's phones. After eighty three days, he was released and Bloomberg actually had the first interview with him when he came out. He said, everything's good.
He didn't look so great, he was quite thin, but he assured us everything's good. He said he'd struck an agreement with the government. He couldn't say anything about it, but just said, you know, business is normal. And it was like, oh, okay, all right, business as usual. But he has a very very big, prominent investment company called Kingdom Holding, which has stakes all over the world old and he pretty much went quiet, like after he got
out of the ritz. He gave that one interview and then didn't nearly have the same public profile that he had before.
What I love is you say? The terms of the agreement were secret, but it was clear that the Saudi government had a close interest in his portfolio, with his stakes in hotels, aviation, and entertainment, all sectors overlapping with Vision twenty thirty. So what do folks say that they wanted to exactly know what he was invested in.
He owned ninety five percent of Kingdom Holding, this big publicly traded conglomerate before and in twenty twenty two, the Public Investment Fund or PIFF bought roughly eighteen percent of it, so they actively had a stake at this point. I mean,
they definitely had an interest before. And I think a big reason that his investment empire was interesting to them is that he for long time is invested in hotels and airlines and entertainment, and these are all core sectors that are very important for Vision twenty thirty is they try to diverse FY away from oil and you know, become a tourist destination, and he's very useful for that. Like he's been a hotel investor for a really long time.
He has relationships with Bill Gates in the four seasons of management, and so you've seen a lot more domestic investment by all the lead in very specific projects.
Some of those projects include projects by none other than Elon Musk. And I was pretty taken by one of the one of the things that he told you. He said to you in February when you were having one of your Zoom calls. Musk is de facto vice president and running the show in.
Washington, Yes, and he was saying that in the context of talking about the value of X at that point, because you know, from we're all looking at X and thinking, gosh, its value has kind of really fallen, Like since Elon took it private and we saw so many advertisers flee. That had a big impact. He was roughly forty four billion dollars gross valuation when he bought it. Alwillis had
tremendous conviction that it was worth more than that. So, you know, one of the first things he said to me was like, Hey, this is a valuable entity and you can't say that it's not. Look at where Elon Musk is now.
That was Devin Pendleton, Bloomberg News Wealth reporter.
We sort of check out the story too online and on the Bloomberg Just a great read, so much detail, all right, jogging on a treadmill or sweating over a stationary bike and a room full of strangers. It is so out moving heavy objects. That's it. Jim's are bulking up on strength training to satisfy an increasingly muscle obsessed population, especially we women and also those older Americans.
With what's going on? Is Red Brown, Bloomberg News Earnings reporter. He talks about the rewiring of gems and how he got the idea to write the story for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
Well, the idea for the story really started when I was listening to Planet Fitness Earnings call, like I'm constantly doing listening to Ernie's calls, and they were discussing how they are trying to make space for more lifting equipment. My experience with Planet Fitness has always just been kind of like a sea of treadmills of ellipticals. You know, they have this like purple and yellow gear, so it's
like very striking and kind of iconic. But they were talking about, yeah, we're removing cardio equipment to make room for strength, and you know a lot of that is coming from you know, the one if you open up Instagram or TikTok or what have you, it's like it's everywhere, right, you see everyone in the gym lifting weights. So yeah, just kind of going down that rabbit hole.
Well I was gonna say there was there was like a New York Times article recently about this, and I think the whole movement with longevity and a lot of millennials getting older and realizing, you know what, my back is hurting a little bit m hm, realizing that in order to prevent those things from happening, you do have to make sure you stay in shape and not just go on go jogging. You go into the sort of the history of jogging in the piece red and like
how it's happened in the US. But I think, Carol, a big part of it is is this idea of people getting older and.
The way that you older millennials And but.
No, I mean this is true, It's really true. Like doctors, there's been a real shift with how people think about weightlifting.
I have to say, we.
Start talking about your story because what I think is really fascinates that it's being rus also kind of pushed by women and older folks. But we brought it up and everybody starts saying, well, yeah, as you get older, like you need the muscular strength, it's better in terms of your bone structure and everything and your health overall. It makes a huge difference.
And no, and just like the fact that that information has just been getting disseminated through the population through social media, right, Like influencers are really pushing that that this is for everyone, right, Like there was this kind of notion. And again we also kind of trace the history of weightlifting the story a little bit. And I think everyone's like thinks about you know exactly right, They think about Conan the Barbarian,
They think about the Hulk. It's like, you know, it's these people in the fringes of society, but no, it's really it is for everyone's it's for everyone who wants to lose weight. You know, cardio sometimes gets the thought of is the weight loss option, but really, you know, the more research comes out, it's strength training is what we'll do it for you.
So all right, So you hear this like earnings call, right, and you're like, okay, interesting idea. But as you started to dig into it, how much like were you hearing like really from the gyms and stuff. They're like, oh, yeah, we're leaning in big time.
I mean yeah, I mean Crunch is another one, another huge gym chain across the country. And you know they were saying, there's the flagship store is actually just down the street from US on fifty ninth, and they just did a two million dollar renovation to remove a yoga studio, to remove a spinning class cycling studio.
Sorry, Peloton, you're going down my eye. My question for you, though, is this just a fad? Is this cyclical? Because as you point out in the piece, it was jogging in the seventies and eighties, then it was aerobic workout taps with Jane Fonda, then it's Billy Blank's Tybo, then Peloton during the pandemic, like is this just the latest iteration or does this one have staying power?
You know?
And then there is a lot of this like talk right now whether or not like nineties chic is back in, whether or not like being really skinny is the way to go. But again, the people that I was speaking to for this story, be it personal trainers, be it these influencers, Yeah, they all tend to think that this is does have staying power reason being, and it's not just an aesthetic thing for a lot of people anymore.
It is health driven, right, It's it is people that want you know, I sit at a desk all day, you know, I can feel myself hunting over. But like, you know, if you can work out, it helps you have a stronger core and everything.
Right. So I was talking to my physical therapists about this because she's she's like the type of physical therapist who is all about strength training, and my experience with physical therapy up till her has been all you need to do is stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, and that never worked. The only thing that worked for me for getting rid of the back pain was actually doing these workouts seriously.
Oh yeah, it's absolutely weight and yeah, like deadlifts, like working on your posterior chain, like all these things that she had to educate me about. Yeah, and she said, it makes sense given what we do for work. You know, what were your professionals. You're sitting at a desk. Stretching makes sense for people who are on their feet all day every day, those people who work in warehouses, those people who are moving, those people who are delivering boxes.
But if you're sitting at computer all day, you need to work out your muscles.
Yeah, I mean, and also with the running and things like that, they tend to be pretty high impact for a lot of people too. So it's like, you know, as you get older, you can't maybe necessarily do that, but you still can bench press. It's all I mean, obviously there's a lot of stress there, but there's smart
ways to do it. Again, with the social media, you're also learning that these aren't these these activities are not are less intimidating, right, Like someone used to think that like a bench press is like I don't know how to do that.
I don't know what the right technique is.
Yeah, but you can see a million people now do it online with perfect technique and they are walking you through the different steps. So it really is just open this door to every kind of segment of the population.
I have to say, like Saturday morning and I'm reading through news and I go through lookings. Then you get caught on Instagram. But it's like one influencer after another, and it usually is weight training. I love that though you include this as people age, their bone density and
metabolic health. What doctors are monitoring when they check blood pressure, cholesterol and weight decline, weaight training can help manage both issues cardio less, so right and so really like I do also think when the medical profession that they are increasingly saying, well, wait, it's not just about take a walk, it's also about doing some weight training.
Yeah, I mean, and and again to go back to why it's women that are really drawn to this, some of those issues are tend to be things that affect women more. The bone density is something that tends to affects women more as they as the age, and it's another just kind of great reason for that.
Carrying the weight of the world.
For sure, the weight of this show.
No question, that's a given.
No question. Red, We're going to stick with us. We're gonna do a double dose of Red Brown. Okay, this is a very special edition, a special Friday edition of Bloomberg Business Week. But before we do that with earnings Big Picture are thought.
You were going to ask him how much he bench press?
No, come on, Carol, We're beyond that.
You know you're among friends.
I can't tell you.
Triple digits.
Yeah, triple digits. There we go.
On exactly one on one.
Red Brown Bloomberg News Earnings Reporter.
Still ahead on Bloomberg Business Week, The Bloomberg Pursuits Summer travel guide from Sea.
To Shining Sea. The Grand Resort is making a comeback.
And move over floating cities and bring on the butler and caviar. Cruising is now lux. This is Bloomberg.
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Watches most of your time. Pest sieved as a time cupsil.
It's very chic and posh.
The most powerful car made in the US.
The beautiful interior, the iconic designs.
Now it's time to take a look at luxury with Bloomberg Pursuits.
The official start to summer is just around the corner, and so for those seeking out suggestions on what to do, what your luck as, the BusinessWeek Pursuits team is out with its summer travel.
Guide, everything from the grand American hotels that are having a notable resurgence to why even snobs like cruising now, especially when on an ultra lux ship.
Sign me up.
Butler's fortey bathrooms an endless caviar included here with the spoils of summer travel. As the editor of Bloomberg Pursuits Chris Rouser and Pursuits Travels are Nikki Eckstein. Guys, great to have you here with that for te for tee for te. It's not like a fritter. It's not like something you eat. Here's what frette is.
If you go into your hotel bathroom and you see frete on the tag of your bathrobe, you know you're in a nice place.
That's what frette is. Thank you, And obviously you have to ask, all right, so where do we want to start. We want to talk about these American resorts. First of all, I feel like I love when the old is kind of revitalized and brought back. What's going on, guys.
So here's something you probably never knew. Americans invented the great resort. Like, this is not a European conceit resorting. I always thought it was. It's not.
It's American.
Europeans always know how to vacation.
Yeah, absolutely, you think about going to the Riviera, the med blah blah blah. But like, actually, the beach resort is a US invention, and it's something that started right near where we are now in New York State or around hot Springstown's upstate, actually where railroad lines would end and where the old kind of moneyed people back in the eighteen hundreds could just like hop on a train and end up in beautiful mother Nature and dip in the hot springs and have a vacation.
Well back then, if they wanted to go outside of New York, maybe they'd take a five day trip on a railroad out to Coronado, California. Yes, this is around sunny San Diego.
Became a reality in the eighteen eighties, around a time when somebody became really fascinated with the land out on the most extreme southwestern coast of our country, decided it would be a beautiful place to put a resort and built up this incredible Victorian building that still stands today and is now the subject of a five hundred million dollars innovation that's wrapping up in June.
Back then, they spent two dollars and fifty cents or three dollars in.
Fiftures inclusive too for that price.
Chris Rauser come in, because I think about you guys have been doing these specials and these summer travel issues and sections for a long time. I'm just curious when Nikki maybe brought this up, especially about the great old American resort coming back. It's like my question was, like, why are they coming back now?
Yeah, Nikky and I have actually been talking about some version of this for a long time because we love those beautiful old giant American resorts. And I'm from New England and there used to be a lot of them because a lot of the train lines ended on coastal Maine up in Vermont, and a lot of them are gone because they burned down because they were made of wood. So sad and so I grew up seeing pictures of these incredible resorts all up the coast towns, and so
we'd we've talked about how much we like them. And then the hotel Dell and Coronado had this incredible, huge renovation, and we thought this is the perfect time to actually write about it because it's one of the remaining ones and it is so visually stunning.
Private equity.
I mean, let me just put this out there, like five hundred million dollars is not a normal amount to spend renovating a hotel. It's not a records that are There are bigger projects that have been done in like Vegas maybe and in Singapore, but this ranks way up there with the highest investments ever for a hotel. But it was private equity, right, it isla private equity. Blackstone
did it, and and they really spared no expense. It is a stunning, stunning place, completely restored over a period of about five.
Years to its former glory.
You walk into the lobby and the wood work is just as it was back then. You really feel transported and it is. I mean, it's really if it took five days to get there now it would still be worth the trip.
No longer a dollar fifty to two dollars.
Fortunately not who is this for?
What's the price point when you think about these types of resorts around the country.
So one reason that that Blackstone spent so much money on it is that they did an expansion that kind of turned the hotel into a lot of little hotels within a hotel, And there's more affordable versions of it, and there's more expensive versions of it. You can spend around five hundred dollars a night to stay in the old Victorian building where the rooms are a little bit small, but they're very, very beautiful. Or you can spend like three thousand dollars on a two bedroom suite with like
a wrap around pad. It's it's a five hundred. It's actually very doable.
Chris, I have to ask you though, because you're right in New England, the whole up and down the coast, I feel like there's just so many.
I thought you were going to say, because Chris is a Disney adult exact, I'm actually not.
I'm the Disney I'm with you, Nikki, But I mean, is there one that you've stayed or you want to stay at as you like, look at.
This, there's a new one that's really quite old, maybe almost two hundred years old, the Asticou in Maine, and that has just gone undergone a renovation as well, and it has these cabins that you can stay at and it looks really idyllic and where I would love to go there, all.
Right, looking forward to that. Well, in the meantime, you.
Want to get on a ship or do you want to go to Greenland?
Carol, I think we should get on a ship first, because everybody loves to cruise, but this is different.
I mean, not everybody loves to cruise, and that's kind of the whole point.
I'm not a cruise person.
I would say I'm a Disney person, but I'm not a cruise person, and this.
New seeing the Disney cruise ship, yeah I would.
I would do those because this trend kind of adds to the options for people who have been cruise of verse in the past. And the whole thing is that hotel companies have realized that one way that they can kind of build audience is by building ships. By building vessels that can take their loyal guests to various destinations where they have hotels as a business model.
This makes total sense.
But they're not going to build like, you know, six thousand people behemoths. They're going to build things that look more like yacht. Doesn't that lado deck there might.
Be a leader.
It looks different. And as hotels go into this space, Ritz Carlton has done it four seasons, is about to launch their first ship, a mon is going into this space. They're all launching these kind of yacht like they're large yachts really, and now cruise lines are trying to do the same thing to stay fresh and competitive, and so we've got this new yacht experience that's available to more of us than regular yachts would be available to Chris.
How much does it.
Cost, Well, it can be expensive. Carol trips like this off At start at fourteen thousand dollars per week per couple. That includes bottomless champagne and butler service and things like that. Orient Express is opening up a two hundred and twenty meters fifty four sweet vessel that's going to be about
nineteen thousand per cabin that's coming soon. I will say one of the things that we talked about is is this whole the whole snob thing with cruises is like, if you can afford a yacht, why would you want to be on a cruise with a bunch of other people.
Please don't hate us, all of you who are listening.
And I just don't have a yacht, so this is not something that I could relate to, and I can't afford these kinds of trips. But what's interesting is some of the leaders of these companies say, people love love the group aspect of it. They love being like in this this sort of like select crew of people who are you know, big four Seasons people or whatever, and getting to know strangers. And I thought that was just something Weepilbeians like to do.
Well, you know, there's something funny that like, there's an element that's that came up in this story that also came up in the Grand American Hotel story. Both historically and in the current moment. People would go to Grand American Hotels to find like minded folks, to find their similar slice of society and reb elbows with them. And
that's what's happening on these cruise ships too. And in fact, one of the new company, Explore Journeys, their new president came over from the c suite of Amon Resorts, and she says that the thing that has surprised her the most about this business that she's now in is the community that forms on every cruise and the way that people mingle and talk, and how that becomes the defining part of their experience.
I think I've heard where people meet people and cruises and stay friends like for life and stuff.
But it's like summer camp.
Look at Tim Tims like can we talk? Can we can we move on?
All?
Right?
Do you want solitude?
Okay? I you know one of you said something about fjords and cruising to fjords. You can do that on cruise ships. But you can also jump on a plane from the US now and go right to Greenland, which seems like it's kind of turning into a hot tourist destination despite the backtop of everything happening from a national security perspective. You're in the US.
Well, can you take just take a guess how long it takes to fly to Greenland.
I know exactly how because I read the story four and a half hours.
For four hours and fifteen minutes, depending how the wind blows.
That's really close.
It's so close. So what's there when we get there?
Not a lot of people, Carol not what's there? Why did you look at me like that's cold and not a lot of people. Why did I look at you?
Oh out, Yeah, it's fifty seven thousand people live there year round, so and it's a vast obviously vast island. And in this trend, this modern trend of cool cations, where people want to travel somewhere that's not so hot. With global warming and leaving places like the Mediterranean in the summer, suddenly places like Scandinavia and Greenland are becoming very, very popular and the demand, according to travel agents that we talk to, is quote insane to go to Greenland.
I find it fascinating about, like the warming of the earth, that people are increasingly looking for cooler places.
I mean, this place is cool, Like you're talking fifty degrees as highs in the summer, which.
If you think about it, is actually the perfect weather if you're going to go like hiking or doing outdoor activities. You know you're going to get break up a little bit of a sweat anyway, even if it's fifty degrees So that's kind of the perfect weather for outdoor adventure and there's a lot of that in Greenland. You can go paddle warning and fjords. You can meet kind of the local equivalent of dogs letters in the summer, they're
going to have their packs out and about. There's really interesting dining that uses foraged cuisine and you can go out and kind of like find your own ingredients.
There's a lotion for your dinner, tim which I know, let's go do.
Let's go yah. I actually read of all the places that we've talked about in recent months, this is somewhere I really do want to go. Also because it just seems like the solitude of it seems really cool. I think one challenge is the lodging aspect. There just isn't a lot of it.
But the places that do exist are kind of incredible. And if you think about it like a safari, if you think about it like these really lux tents where you're going to be, you know, able to see and witness the outdoors all around you, whether they're domes or you know, canvas walls that you can retract to take advantage of the beautiful vistas.
Like it's a place to.
Really connect with your surroundings. The different version of luxury great.
I think logic, you know what, I think, I'm going to do this.
Book ahead? Is it expensive? Book ahead? Is it expensive? It can be, but it doesn't have to be. Okay, look at it. He's like, I'm well in.
The flights, what now two flights a week?
Yeah, and there will be more, like Greenland is going to grow in the coming years. There will be more airports, international airports in different parts of the country, allowing us to kind of tap into different landscapes throughout Greenland more easily. Right now you connect via helicopters. There will be more flights in it.
We gotta do that before they all push back on us doing that. I mean it's kind of like fifteen twenty years ago Iceland. Yes, it reminded me of Yeah, I mean we do twenty five years ago at this point, but there was a point where there were so many tourists there that got pretty overwhelming, I think for a lot of people.
But Greenland offers you a lot more space to spread out than Iceland does.
Don't get us wrong, we like people. We just when we travel, we don't like to turbout.
She always tells me where she's sitting, so I don't book a seat.
Next to this.
So true, we travel, we got to leave it there, but check out the section because there's also where the Boss to break you guys talk to executives about where they go and then what to do about national parks, especially with all the changes in governments and cutbacks. So really great advice on how to explore that over the summer. Guys, Thank you so much.
That's the editor of Bloomberg Pursuits Chris Rouser and Pursuits Travels are Nikki Ckstein.
And that wraps up the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Thank you so much for joining us.
Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week daily and Monday through Friday starting at two pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio, and on Sirius XM channel one twenty one, and you can listen to us on Apple Car Play and Android Auto Free in the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
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Find our Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast at Bloomberg dot com, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts, and the latest edition of the magazine is available on newsstands now, at Bloomberg dot com and always on the Bloomberg terminal. I'm Tim Stunabeck.
I'm Carol Master. Tim is headed to Greenland and I'm going to check out one of those lit squeezes.
I'm just gonna.
Say, oh my god.
I have a good and safe weekend. Everyone to stay with us. Today's top stories and global business headlines are coming out right now.