Summit Notebook

Audio – The family jewels

This week’s annual Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit has been a pretty rich event.

Oh, the guests have been stellar, for sure, but there’s also been a lot of talk about gold and jewelry and the prospect that maybe someday this lousy economy will turn around.

For Peter Marrone, chief executive of Yamana Gold, customers’ willingness to buy jewelry is an important consideration in providing outlook for his company.

But even with times so tough, jewelry sales are an inexact science, he warned. And overall gold demand is less a matter of whether someone is willing to shell out a couple hundred dollars on a new necklace and more based on investors looking for safe-haven investments in times when other investments are far shakier.

Marrone was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Thursday in New York, London and Sydney. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Global technology; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Islamic Banking.

The Summits continue next week at the annual Global Food and Agriculture Summit with guests in the U.S. and Asia from March 16-19; and the Funds Summit in Luxembourg on March 17-18.

Audio – For best M&A results? Don’t forget the fish and the booze!

There is an entire industry out there about what to do to make a merger a success. Many of us know bankers or lawyers who work for weeks and hours on end just to make sure their deals are perfectly done with all the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted.

Millions of dollars are spent on just teaching people the best way to get a transaction from idea to completion.

In fact, we found out this week that sometimes the key to a good deal is a plate full of small, pickled fish.

Well, at least if you’re negotiating with Alcoa’s Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld.

Kleinfeld, speaking at the annual Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit described how he and his counterpart recently structured a deal and decided that it was the best thing for both companies. His thoughts were instructive to dealmakers who right now might have a little more time on their hands and might be looking for new ways to seal a deal.

Anyway, even if the deal doesn’t get done, it sounds like it was a pretty fun night.

Kleinfeld was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Thursday in New York, London and Sydney. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Global technology; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Islamic Banking.

Audio – Everybody loves a winner in Vegas, baby!

It seems that any sentence about Las Vegas, the people who work there or the stocks of the companies that run the big casinos ends better with the word “baby”. It’s almost like you can hear Frank saying it to Dino on their way into some smoky, after-hours cocktail party.

So, even though Bill Lerner, casino and gaming analyst at Deutsche Bank didn’t exactly end his comments on casino stock picks like Sinatra might have … well, it’s Vegas, baby!

Lerner, speaking at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in New York, spoke extensively about the stocks in the gaming sector and identified the ones he thinks have the best chance at near- and longer-term success.

Lerner was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Wednesday in our New York headquarters. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

Audio – Bad is bad

Trying to compare one recession or economic downswing to another is a little like trying to decide which hurricane was the worst.

I mean, if you were sitting in the middle of Hurricane Katrina, it’s not going to matter too much if Hurricane Hugo’s winds were 10 miles an hour faster. They both weren’t a lot of fun.

So it was on Tuesday when Doug Parker, chief executive of US Airways Group, tried to distinguish between the current recession and previous ones. No one wants to be too close to the eye when the howling starts.

Parker, speaking to the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in New York, said this slowdown is bad — as was the one in 2001-2002, although for diferent reasons.

Parker was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Wednesday in our New York headquarters. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

Audio – Air France-KLM CEO sees some unfriendly skies ahead

The state of the airline industry and travel overall is not poised for a rapid takeoff in 2009 and looks like it will remain in rough shape until next year, said Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France-KLM, on Monday at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit.

The head of Europe’s largest airline, who became CEO in January, said he was unsure when things would turn around, but warned that both passenger and cargo metrics were down for the airline.

Gourgeon also said that while there is still some business travel out there, many passengers are trading down from more expensive, high-end to coach, or less expensive travel.

Gourgeon was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Wednesday in our New York headquarters. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

AUDIO – For Nordson — “Get ‘em right, or get ‘em out”

Throughout the current recession, many of the companies’ executives at this week’s Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit have found an opportunity to review, pare back and possibly add on to their existing business mixes.

Such is the case for Edward Campbell, chief executive of Nordson Corp, which has a uniquely diversified set of businesses under its umbrella and is looking at what makes sense for them going forward.

Campbell makes the clear point that if something isn’t working for Nordson long term, the company has a responsibility to really consider whether that is a business they should be in.

Nordson makes a wide range of precision dispensing, testing and inspection, surface preparation and curing products. Its products can be found in everything from appliances to autos to bookbinding to furniture. It operates in three segments: adhesive dispensing systems, advanced technology systems and industrial coating and automotive systems.

Campbell said all of its businesses were subject to review, but did mention a couple that might be pared back in the attached audio clip.

Campbell was one of the featured speakers for the third day of the annual Manufacturing and Transportation Summit, which continues through Thursday in our Chicago offices. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

AUDIO – Staying the course at CAT — But it’s a rough row to hoe

Caterpillar Inc Group President Ed Rapp knows that 2009 has been a tough one for his company, but he still thinks they can hit their numbers on revenue and earnings per share.

Speaking at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit, Rapp (who, incidentally, has been with Caterpillar for almost 30 years and is still considered something of a “youngster” there!!) said that while there are still many hurdles for the company to avoid in the short term, he thought CAT’s previous guidance was within reach.

Rapp said he remains worried about the state of the credit markets and said government efforts to stabilize banking had yet to cut the cost of borrowing for captive finance companies. But his optimism comes from the sometimes painful steps the company has made in the past few months to cut costs and realign their business thinking.

Rapp is one of a team of six executives under CEO Jim Owens who run CAT’s day-to-day operations.

His presentation was one of the Tuesday highlights at this year’s summit, which runs through Thursday in our Chicago offices.

The Reuters Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.