Australia slowing but still looks good: Elliott

“We spoke a lot [on the tour] about the slowdown in the mining states and what impact that was having on certain sections of the economy. The story we told was about the remarkable transformation happening in Australia.”

“Given the amount of transition that’s happened in the economy, the fact that the pace of the economy is doing so well is really a credit to the diversity and strength of Australia.”

Elliott said Asia was a different case and had indeed shown signs of a slowdown which the market now understood, although the pace of the change was still up for debate.

“There are different camps of investors who think the China slowdown is quite extreme and others who are more sanguine about it,” he said.

“They really want to understand what that means for ANZ. And the reality is it doesn’t mean a whole lot. It’s important, but our business there is really focussed.“

Elliott said investor reaction to ANZ plans announced at the bank’s recent interim profit result was positive, and it was now about perfecting the execution.

“I came away from a pretty intense four days feeling pretty confident we had shareholder support in terms of the direction we are going in,” he said. 

He spoke in depth about the reaction among investors to ANZ’s strategic plan and the strength of the bank’s existing team including new chief financial officer Michelle Jablko. Watch the video above to find out more.

Paul G Edwards is publisher at BlueNotes