Wednesday April 6 2016 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Gas Pipeline Uses 160 Eminent Domain Suits To Get People’s Property In 3 States - (www.wolfstreet.com) Eminent domain is a tough pill to swallow for Americans who take their property rights very seriously, and the aggressive moves by Sabal Trail to seize property for a natural gas pipeline running through three southern states is turning into a drama of immense proportions. Sabal Trail, the joint venture planning to build a 500-mile natural gas pipeline through Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, has gone to court in order to secure the right of way through the land where the pipeline should pass. So far, Sabal Trail has filed 160 eminent domain suits and more are expected, according to a report by the Orlando Sentinel. The company is desperately trying to get the right of way through 346 more properties, though it says it has already secured the agreement of 1,248 landowners in the area along the route.

Panama Papers leak highlights global elite's use of tax havens – (www.ft.com) A huge leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm has provided an unprecedented insight into the use of offshore financial centres by the rich and powerful, allegedly implicating members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the documents demonstrate that as much as $2bn has been shuffled through banks and offshore companies said to be linked to associates and friends of the Russian president. More than 11m documents were leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm that specialises in setting up offshore companies in tax havens. They include emails, bank records and client information dating back several decades.

How PE Firms Got their Big LBOs Stuck in the IPO Pipeline - (www.wolfstreet.com) The IPO pipeline is blocked and chock-full, after a dismal fourth quarter and an abysmal first quarter: in terms of deals, the worst since 2009; in terms of money raised, the worst since before the dotcom bubble. A fiasco with implications for the overall stock market. So which IPOs are actually is stuck in that pipeline? First thing you notice is that the VC-backed startups with the most dizzying valuations, such as Uber, Airbnb, Palantir, and Snapchat, are not in the IPO pipeline! Instead, you find LBO queens. Private equity firms acquired these companies, stripped out equity, and loaded them up with debt. Now they’re trying to exit them. And there are some spin-offs too. Of the 118 companies waiting to go public, according to Renaissance Capital’s Quarterly IPO Review, 42 are in the “active pipeline,” with new or updated filings since January 1. But everything has come to a halt.

‘There are going to be lots of dead unicorns’ - (www.cnbc.com) Unicorns, as billion-dollar start-ups have been dubbed, were one of the hottest topics of 2015. Asset managers, including Fidelity Management and Research, BlackRock and T Rowe Price, piled into private start-ups last year to take advantage of the boom in technology companies. But one year on, most fund houses appear to have taken a vow of silence when it comes to their investments in the billion-dollar fledglings. Few of the 25 or more asset managers and venture capitalists contacted would talk on the record about unicorns. They were even less happy to discuss the valuations of the start-ups they flocked to last year.

Greece demands IMF explanation over leaked debt transcript - (www.reuters.com) International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde denied on Sunday that IMF staff would push Greece closer to default as a negotiating tactic on a new Greek bailout deal, which she said was "still a good distance away." Lagarde said in a letter to Greece's prime minister that the debt talks should continue despite damage from reports of a leaked transcript suggesting that IMF staff may threaten to leave the bailout to force European lenders to offer more debt relief. "Any speculation that IMF staff would consider using a credit event as a negotiating tactic is simply nonsense," Lagarde wrote to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

OTHER STORIES:

Japan Stocks Fall for Fifth Day After Yen Climbs on U.S. Data - (www.bloomberg.com)
Oil Extends Drop as Saudi Arabia Says Output Pact Hinges on Iran - (www.bloomberg.com)
Greece's Euro Future May Be Back in Play If Rescue Talks Drag On - (www.bloomberg.com)
Massive leak reveals money rings of global leaders - (www.usatoday.com)

Lagarde Says IMF Greek Plan Far Off as Talks Roiled by Leaks - (www.bloomberg.com)
Kuroda's Monetary Program Turns Three: Charting the Results - (www.bloomberg.com)
Mideast Stocks Sink With Oil as Saudis Pin Crude Halt on Others - (www.bloomberg.com)
Lenders eye start of Greek debt relief talks at IMF meetings in mid-April  - (www.reuters.com)