Earnings season is in full swing, and one of the hottest topics in financial media last week was the Middle East.
The crisis has had a negative impact on many companies but that’s not the only story that came out of earnings season. A number of companies saw record performance in the region.
The bad news
As you may have seen in your newsfeed, both McDonald’s (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX) reported negative news relating both to the conflict in the region as well as domestic boycotts:
“First, we saw a negative impact to our business in the Middle East. Second, events in the Middle East also had an impact in the U.S., driven by misperceptions about our position.” (Starbucks)
Later in the week Snap (SNAP), Estée Lauder (EL), and Yum Brands (YUM) also piled on with bad news. Estée Lauder didn’t only report a negative impact of the Middle East crisis on previous quarter earnings, but also guided lower for the rest of the full fiscal year due to ongoing disruptions:
“The impact from this business disruptions in Israel and other parts of the Middle East was $0.02 dilutive to EPS in the quarter […]
[...] The potential risks of further business disruptions in Israel and other parts of the Middle East and currency translation are expected to dilute earnings per share by $0.08 and $0.07, respectively."
The crisis has not impacted all companies equally. Some companies continue to thrive in the region and are expecting growth in 2024.
Five companies that are thriving in the Middle East
1. Apple (AAPL)
“We set all-time records in several countries and regions, including Latin America, Western Europe, the Middle East and Korea as well as December quarter records in India and Indonesia.”
2. Honeywell (HON)
“Speaking more broadly of high-growth regions, which represents almost 25% of the Honeywell revenue now, we had very good performance in Middle East and India, in particular, and we expect those trends to continue in 2024.”
3. Schlumberger (SLB)
“Notably, we achieved our highest ever revenue in the Middle East, led by impressive growth in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and East Mediterranean [...]
[...]In the Middle East, growth will be led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which continue to commit significant investments to increase production capacity in both oil and on commercial and gas, followed by Iraq and Kuwait.”
4. Halliburton (HAL)
“Our Q4 international revenue increased 4% sequentially, which was our highest international revenue quarter since 2015 and tenth consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth. Q4 sequential growth was led by the Middle East region driven by improved activity across multiple product lines and strong year-end completion tool sales…Although we anticipate regional differences in growth rates for 2024, we believe the Middle East/Asia region will likely experience the greatest increases in activity with other regions closely behind.”
5. Marsh & Mclennan (MMC)
“We had a very strong year, strong quarter in the Middle East, steady results in the U.K. And so that was really it…we'd expect to be very confident going into next year.“
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