Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Charlotte: an old meeting with Bank of America

I finally got out of the hotel and walked around the street of Charlotte a little. Still sick, just less sick than this morning.

The sun was out. The weather was perfect. The blossom pink on the trees and everything so clean.

--

Last time I was here was I think in 2002 and it was a brief visit. I met with the investor relations departments of Duke Energy, First Union (!) and Bank of America. It was the BofA visit that defined the trip.

I spent half an hour trying to tease out what an ugly credit cycle looked like for them and in exasperation they gave up. They said (and you can probably work out the date by the numbers which seem so small now)...
We have 36 billion dollars in revenue. 18 billion in costs and 4 billion in credit costs. Surely it is more important to watch where the 36 and the 18 go than to focus on the 4. 
The world in Charlotte is so clean.




John
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 1, 2014 at 11:38 AM

    Actually $BAC was right, their loan book was clean. They only went under due to bad acquisitions in Countrywide and Merril Lynch.

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  2. John HemptonApril 1, 2014 at 11:42 AM

    Mostly true... but it was a highly memorable moment

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 2, 2014 at 6:37 AM

    So what are you doing in Charlotte? I read in your last investor letter that you are on the hunt for capacity in the US telco market!

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  4. AnonymousApril 2, 2014 at 11:36 AM

    funny.

    Anonymous - the funny thing is that proves the point even further - it shows they really weren't even watching where the 36 and 18 billion went either! haha ;)

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  5. AApril 4, 2014 at 1:37 AM

    You seem to have come here to CLT at just about the right time, John. It's finally starting to warm up a bit. Enjoy your stay.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousApril 5, 2014 at 1:53 AM

    Harvard baby!!

    ReplyDelete