You have to hold your nerve when share markets worldwide are being hammered, says Toll Holdings outgoing chief executive Paul Little.
The Australian share market on Friday fell four per cent on heightened concerns about the strength of the US economy and debt in the euro zone.
Toll’s stock dropped more than five per cent.
Mr Little, set to retire from the freight company at the end of 2011, said stock market movements didn’t influence Toll’s approach to growing its business.
“We have longer-term strategies in place,” he told reporters after addressing an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia luncheon in Melbourne.
“Some of these strategies – in case of Japan – are five-year strategies.
“Do we lose our nerve now because the stock market is soft today? I don’t think our shareholders would expect that.
“The long-term economic indicators are obviously important in deciding the overall strategy for the company.”
Mr Little said you’d have to be courageous not to accept that global economic weakness had worsened.
But he said one of the benefits of Toll’s business was that it was under contract.
“But it’s early days. We just have to wait and see what the events of today mean on a country-by-country basis.
“A lot of Toll’s business is not going to be affected by what’s happened on the stock market today.
“Some of it may and we just need to gauge that.”
Mr Little earlier told his audience the volumes of goods Toll was moving out of China and into the US were still strong and volumes into North America were up, not down.
“So we have a lot of confidence surrounding the strength of our business there and also the underlying strength of the US economy.”
Mr Little also called on the federal government to reconsider the timing of the introduction of a carbon tax.
He said there was no doubt a carbon tax would be good for industry, the nation and the planet at some stage.
But the only other country in the Asia-Pacific region which has a carbon tax is New Zealand.
“That’s not necessarily the lead that we should be following,” Mr Little said.
“I can’t see how we can have a carbon tax introduced now and still be regionally and globally competitive with our industries, manufacturing in particular.
“I think the timing is something that needs to be re-addressed.”
