Former Subway CEO John Chidsey was appointed as the new CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH). Additionally, activist investor Elliott Investment Management has taken a 10% stake in the company, providing a list of improvements it would like to see from Norwegian.

Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company chief investment officer Brent Schutte, and Yahoo Finance Senior Business Reporter Ines Ferré join Opening Bid host Brian Sozzi to discuss the appointment, the company’s turnaround, and more.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Opening Bid.

Video Transcript

00:00 Brian Sozzi

I preface this by saying I went off the rails on this news on my X account this morning, so feel free to head there for an added dose of fun two-minute analysis. For these purposes, you should know that the former CEO of Subway restaurants, John Chidsey is now the new CEO of Norwegian Cruise line. Can’t make this stuff up. Chidsey was a long-time board member, left and then came back to the board in 2025. No idea who Chidsey is? Here he is at Yahoo Finance’s Invest conference in 2023, talking sandwiches.

00:29 Brooke DiPalma

Let’s just start big picture. You came out of your retirement in 2019 to turn Subway around. What made this opportunity worth that?

00:43 John Chidsey

Um, yeah, so I did Burger King, I ran Burger King for seven or eight years, which was a turnaround basically and I wasn’t looking for a job. I hadn’t worked in like, what, I was working but not not in a real job. Um, I always thought Subway was public and I always said I never wanted to run another public company again, having done that twice. I think we have lots of opportunities that the brand just hasn’t focused on, but our product is perfect for it.

01:04 Brooke DiPalma

So John, are you now retiring again anytime soon?

01:09 John Chidsey

No. No. I’m still having fun.

01:14 Brian Sozzi

I I have to be blunt here. I think this appointment borders on ludicrous. Despite Chidsey having knowledge of Norwegian from his time on the board, it’s way different managing a cruise line day-to-day. It’s way different than managing Subway restaurants. Those that win in the cruise line industry are the ones with deep experience and deep relationships. I’ve learned covering this industry for about 15 years. Norwegian could use a more experienced deck hand as its stock has been pummeled the past five years despite strong post-pandemic cruise demand trends.

01:46 Brian Sozzi

Royal Caribbean is doing cruising better, getting higher income cruisers because of its fancy huge new ships. Carnival, meanwhile, has become a destination for the youth of America for cheaper packages that promise one big party on board. Activist investor Elliot is now on NCLH’s deck with a fresh 10% stake and a whole list of improvements it wants to see from Chidsey. It has also blasted the CEO choice according to a letter Elliot sent to Norwegian’s board this morning that I checked out. Elliot thinks the stock could rise 159% to $56 if the company makes sweeping changes.

02:22 Brian Sozzi

Let’s get the round table uh to chime in here. Brent Schutte, Nez Feray and Brooke DePalma. Brooke, I’m coming to you because you did that interview with Chidsey. You were following Subway. What is he all about?

02:37 Brooke DiPalma

I mean, this is a gentleman that certainly steps in and looks to turn around a company and that’s really what we’re seeing here with this new pressure especially from Elliot Investment management. We need someone who will certainly make changes right away, based upon my coverage of Subway during Chidsey’s tenure. This is someone who steps in, ultimately makes changes quickly and then leads to more profitable growth. We saw Subway start to regain some same store sales momentum, um ultimately uh get bought out while under his tenure. And certainly this is something that we will look to see in how many changes he’ll make quickly as the new CEO of this company. Ultimately what Wall Street’s largely saying here, liking this new announcement, stock is up today. But Citibank, uh largely saying in a note that they really need to sharpen execution, improve performance and deliver durable, long-term valuation uh value creation. And so certainly that’s looking for what the street is looking for today.

03:40 Brian Sozzi

Clearly Norwegian loves its fast food executives. Uh you have John Chidsey now the CEO of Norwegian. You have former restaurant brand CEO Jose Cil who I’ve known for many years. Good guy there. He’s still on that board. Brent, do you want to see these type of leaders uh running a a cruise line company? Even if Norwegian is seen as some form of value as Elliot would suggest, I mean you got to have the right leaders here driving a turnaround, no?

04:01 Brent Schutte

Yeah, I’m probably the wrong person to ask about cruises given the fact that I’ve never been on one. Uh, you know, I I think broader uh terms, it is refreshing that we’re talking about something outside of the technology area. Uh so that would be point number one. I think point number two, leadership can can extend across uh I I think corporations and companies and you are talking about consumer demand on both sides of the equation. So not just from the Subway perspective, but also from the Norwegian perspective, which it sounds like to me based upon your description, which I know nothing about individual stocks.

04:33 Brent Schutte

They’re kind of stuck in the middle between the higher end consumer uh and the younger consumer that goes on Carnival cruise lines. And so they probably need a strategy refresh which I assume that a leader can do no matter what industry they have been in the past.

04:47 Brian Sozzi

And as you know what Norwegian has to do? They need to open up some Costcos in there and start selling pizza. I mean, that might just be the suggestion, Nez. Come on.

04:54 Nez Feray

Get at me.

04:55 Nez Feray

Uh, look, I mean, the cruise line industry is strong. So the issue seems to be on execution and and also the pricing. It seems like they’re also trying to get in more families and when you do that, you are charging more for the adults, but not so much for the kids and that was sort of peppered into their last earnings call as well. And they had record revenue in the last earnings uh quarter as well. Um, but it’s not it was a miss. Uh Wall Street was expecting more. So perhaps compared to the peers, it’s not it’s not as great as a performance, especially in an industry that is becoming so innovative with where you have cruise lines that are cruise ships that are themed that are going skewer towards younger uh sort younger passengers, etc.

05:43 Nez Feray

So, this does seem to be a place this CEO placement seems to be a little bit of a disruption is sort of in in in for them to sort of bring in somebody from the outside even though he’s been on the board since 20 five, not a long time, but nonetheless, it does seem to be sort of as Brian was alluding to, it is still consumer facing and perhaps this is the change that they are seeking, something that disrupts what they’re what they’ve been doing.

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