>>> Energy Transfer reports EPS in-line, misses on revs (15.68 -0.31)

Energy Transfer reports EPS in-line, misses on revs (15.68 -0.31)
  • Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.35 per share, in-line with the FactSet Consensus of $0.35; revenues rose 13.1% year/year to $20.73 bln vs the $22.01 bln FactSet Consensus.
  • Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended June 30, 2024 was $3.76 billion compared to $3.12 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the current quarter includes more than $80 million of transaction-related expenses incurred by the Partnership and Sunoco LP.
  • With the addition of new organic growth projects and acquisitions, volumes on Energy Transfer's assets continued to increase during the second quarter of 2024.
    • Crude oil transportation volumes were up 23%, setting a new Partnership record.
    • Crude oil exports were up 11%.
    • NGL fractionation volumes were up 11%.
    • NGL exports were up approximately 3%, setting a new Partnership record.
    • NGL transportation volumes were up 4%, setting a new Partnership record.

>>> Blink Charging misses by $0.01, misses on revs; guides FY24 revs below conse

Blink Charging misses by $0.01, misses on revs; guides FY24 revs below consensus (2.52 -0.17)
  • Reports Q2 (Jun) loss of ($0.18) per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 worse than the FactSet Consensus of ($0.17); revenues rose 1.3% year/year to $33.26 mln vs the $38.9 mln FactSet Consensus.
    • 4,106 charging stations contracted, deployed or sold in second quarter of 2024.
  • Co issues reduced guidance for FY24, sees FY24 revs of $145-155 mln, down from $165-175 mln, vs. $168.51 mln FactSet Consensus.

FT : Italy doubles tax for wealthy foreigners amid complaints from locals over h

Italy doubles tax for wealthy foreigners amid complaints from locals over high prices
Premier Giorgia Meloni hopes measure will also ease EU concerns over the country’s yawning fiscal deficit

Italy has doubled a flat tax on the foreign income of new residents, in a blow to rich expats seeking to flee the prospect of higher levies elsewhere in Europe. 

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a rise in the annual flat tax on overseas income for new tax residents in Italy to €200,000.

The current €100,000 tax incentive, while popular with wealthy individuals, has been controversial among Italians, especially in the business capital Milan, where the recent influx of the super-rich has been blamed for a sharp increase in real estate prices and other rises in living costs.

The government hopes the move will also help increase tax revenues and bridge a yawning budget deficit, mollifying concerns in Brussels over Italy’s state finances.

The decision comes as Rome is struggling to tackle a budget deficit, which reached 7.4 per cent of gross domestic product last year — well above the 3 per cent of GDP targets for EU member states. 

The EU has forecast Italy’s budget deficit for 2024 will be 4.4 per cent of GDP, still well above the target, which in July prompted Brussels to start excessive procedures that require Rome to submit a medium-term fiscal adjustment plan by late September. 

Finance minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, who on Wednesday referred to the levy as the “so-called flat tax for the billionaires”, did not immediately say how much extra revenue the new rate is expected to raise.

However, Giorgetti said the increased levy was still at a level that would remain “interesting” to high-net worth individuals. He later clarified to the Financial Times that the higher levy would only apply to people taking up tax residency in Italy from now on, and not those that had already moved there.

Rome also wanted to avoid a race to the bottom with other nations in trying to lure individuals and companies through tax breaks. “If this competition starts, countries like Italy — which has very limited fiscal space — are inevitably destined to lose,” the finance minister said on Wednesday.

In the past few years, Italy — typically considered a high-tax jurisdiction — has emerged as a popular new residential destination for the world’s nimble-footed super-rich, thanks to the generous tax incentives started in 2016 in an effort to reverse the country’s long-term brain drain.

The scheme, launched after the Brexit vote prompted many British-based Europeans to return home, allowed new foreign tax residents to Italy, or Italians returning from at least nine years living abroad, to pay a flat tax of just €100,000 on any foreign income or assets for 15 years.

So far, the scheme, known locally as “the footballers’ scheme”, has been credited with attracting at least 2,730 multimillionaires, such as private equity executives, oligarchs and entrepreneurs, to take up residence in Italy, mainly in Milan.

The tax breaks were resented by many Italians, especially in Milan, where the influx of the wealthy has been blamed for a 43 per cent increase in real estate prices over the past five years, and near 20 per cent rise in rentals in the two years to March.  

Still, many investors had expected the inflow of big spenders would continue as Britain’s new Labour government prepares to abolish the UK’s controversial “non-dom” regime, which had allowed wealthy foreigners to avoid paying any tax on their overseas income. 

Three Hills Capital Partners, a London-based private equity firm, said last month it was preparing to launch a private members’ club in Milan in the autumn, the latest in a series of upmarket venues to open in the city in the past several years.

Dismayed foreigners warned that the sudden flat tax change, and the lack of long-term fiscal stability it implied, was ominous for people considering a move there.

One French investor, who is in the process of moving from London to Milan to take advantage of the scheme, said that while he is not rethinking his plans at the moment, “it makes it more expensive” and the direction of travel is worrying.

He added: “It sends a signal that it’s not a stable regime, which I think is terrible.” Nodding to the increasing rate of flat tax, he said: “You have to wonder, €100k, then €200k, then €400k?”

WSJ : Regulators Probing Big Banks’ Handling of Zelle Scams

Regulators Probing Big Banks’ Handling of Zelle Scams
Investigation examines whether JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and others do enough to shut down accounts controlled by bad actors

Regulators are investigating some of the biggest U.S. banks for their handling of customer funds on the peer-to-peer payments platform Zelle, which has been facing scrutiny over scams and fraudulent transactions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau probe focuses on JPMorgan JPM 2.79%increase; green up pointing triangle Chase, Bank of America BAC 0.74%increase; green up pointing triangle and Wells Fargo WFC 0.46%increase; green up pointing triangle, among other large banks, according to people familiar with the matter.

It is broad in nature and meant to examine how the banks respond when customers dispute transactions made through Zelle, the people said. JPMorgan disclosed in a filing Friday that it was responding to CFPB inquiries regarding Zelle; other large banks are expected to disclose contact with the CFPB soon.

Zelle, created in 2017 to compete with popular money-transfer services such as Venmo and Cash App, is owned by a consortium of seven of the largest U.S. banks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The network now handles a larger dollar value of transactions than Venmo. But with the rapid growth came an increase in complaints that the banks weren’t doing enough to help retrieve money their customers were duped into sending.

Banks are required to refund customers for transactions they didn’t authorize, but there isn’t legal protection for customers who send the money themselves. Reversing erroneous transfers is usually impossible.

Part of the CFPB’s probe focuses on whether banks are proactive enough in shutting down accounts controlled by scammers, the people familiar with the matter said. The CFPB is also examining the degree to which banks vet the identity and background of deposit-account customers who end up being bad actors.

Banks have said the majority of payments made through Zelle are legitimate and don’t believe they could reasonably prevent all misconduct that happens through the service. Steps they have taken in recent years to protect customers include repeated warnings about sending money to strangers.

Since last summer, Zelle has required its member banks to reimburse customers for certain disputed transactions even when the victim authorized the payment, such as when scammers impersonate a government official or a customer’s bank.

JPMorgan in its Friday filing said the CFPB is preparing to either reach a settlement with the bank over its inquiries or bring legal action, and that the bank is prepared to go to court over the matter.

A JPMorgan spokesman said that the CFPB “is fully aware we already go above and beyond what the law requires” and that the regulator “should expect to be challenged to ensure their actions stay within the bounds of the law.”

Wells Fargo has previously disclosed inquiries regarding Zelle from “government authorities.”

Early Warning, the network operator of Zelle, said in a statement that 99.95% of transactions are completed without reports of fraud or scams, thanks to the countermeasures it has in place.

Separately, some lawmakers have questioned whether Zelle’s owners are fulfilling their legal obligation to reimburse unauthorized fraudulent payments, such as when a customer’s phone is stolen and a payment is made without the customer’s involvement.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said in a report last month that JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America reimbursed about 38% of customers reporting unauthorized transactions in 2023, down from 62% in 2019. Blumenthal, in a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra on Monday, urged the bureau to investigate and suggested the decline was because banks aren’t following the law.

Banks have said many of these complaints turn out to involve authorized payments and aren’t legally required to be reimbursed.

WSJ : Equity Residential Buys Apartment Portfolio for Nearly $1 Billion

Equity Residential Buys Apartment Portfolio for Nearly $1 Billion
Purchase of apartments is the largest by a public REIT in seven years

Apartment giant Equity Residential said it has agreed to purchase 11 apartment complexes with more than 3,500 units for $964 million, the latest big investor bet that rents and values are poised for a rebound.

Its acquisition of the garden apartments and other types of rental units in the Atlanta, Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth regions marks the biggest U.S. multifamily purchase by any public real estate investment trust in the past seven years.

The seller is the investment firm Blackstone, which otherwise has been a big buyer of apartments this year. In June, Blackstone completed its purchase of Apartment Income REIT, an owner of upscale apartment buildings, for about $10 billion. It is selling these properties to Equity Residential in part to return cash to investors.

“Rental housing remains one of our highest-conviction themes, and we continue to see strong fundamentals in attractive markets,” said Asim Hamid, senior managing director at Blackstone Real Estate.

Equity Residential is one of the largest owners of U.S. apartments with about 80,000 units in close to 300 properties.

The firm was attracted to the portfolio because the complexes are in high growth markets, said Alec Brackenridge, the company’s chief investment officer. He said the price of the units, which on average are eight years old, was attractive compared with what it would cost to replace them.

Like with most other commercial real estate, rental apartment values have been hurt by high interest rates. Many apartment owners also have been unable to raise rents during the biggest construction boom for the multifamily sector in about 40 years.

But there have been a flurry of big deals in the multifamily sector this year, indicating that more investors are anticipating a rebound. This view has been strengthened by the growing likelihood that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September.

Investors are also becoming more bullish on the multifamily sector because the glut of new supply is being absorbed in some markets as development cools. In some cities in the Northeast and Midwest, rents are rising again.

“In the longer term we see relief on the way that [construction] starts in these oversupplied markets have collapsed and deliveries in 2026 and 2027 are likely to be much lower than both current levels and historical levels,” said Mark Parrell, Equity Residential’s chief executive, in an earnings call last month.

Other deals this year include KKR’s purchase in June of more than 5,200 units for $2.1 billion from Quarterra, the apartment development arm of home builder Lennar. Brookfield recently bought a portfolio of 7,000 apartments for $1.55 billion.

The properties that Blackstone is selling to Equity Residential in separate transactions are being held by three of the firm’s funds: Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Blackstone Real Estate Partners and Blackstone Property Partners. Closings are expected to take place in the third quarter.

WSJ : Boeing and NASA Tussle Over Plan to Bring Starliner Astronauts Home

Boeing and NASA Tussle Over Plan to Bring Starliner Astronauts Home
Space agency considers using SpaceX to close out mission; Boeing says craft is safe for crew

The astronauts who flew to orbit on Boeing’s BA -1.19%decrease; red down pointing triangle Starliner spacecraft are waiting for NASA and the company to determine whether it will get them home.

Boeing has vouched for the craft. Not everyone at NASA is convinced, according to people close to the discussions, and the agency is working on backup plans that depend on SpaceX.

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been aboard the International Space Station since June 6, when they became the first astronauts to fly in Boeing’s Starliner vehicle. The temporary failure of several thrusters and discovery of helium leaks in the ship’s propulsion system turned the planned weeklong visit to the ISS into an extended stay.

Tensions between Boeing and some NASA leaders surfaced last week, when officials couldn’t agree on using Starliner to take Wilmore and Williams back, and a detailed review of Starliner’s readiness for the flight back was postponed, according to people familiar with the situation.

NASA has been buying time as it deals with internal dissent over whether Starliner should return the two astronauts. The agency on Tuesday pushed back a planned SpaceX launch of a new ISS astronaut crew, delaying it from mid-August to Sept. 24, allowing more time to finalize return plans for Wilmore and Williams.

NASA officials are scheduled to discuss Starliner during a briefing Wednesday.

Starliner’s inaugural flight has led to a summer of scrutiny on a craft that Boeing has been developing for years. NASA wants both Boeing and SpaceX vehicles available to ferry crew to the space station, which officials have said would help ensure continuous access.

The mission originally was planned to last eight days. It has dragged out as NASA and Boeing officials assess problems with the thrusters and leaks, and what kinds of risks they might pose. Engineers have been studying both for weeks.

The thrusters are needed to position Starliner in space after it undocks, to prepare for deorbiting. Helium is needed to provide pressure in the propulsion system.

Boeing believes that Starliner is ready to fly. The company issued a statement Friday describing the in-orbit and on-the-ground testing that it and NASA have conducted.

Data from the testing supported “flight rationale”—NASA’s term for a space operation that is safe enough to pursue—for using the vehicle to return Wilmore and Williams, Boeing said.

Starliner is among the problems being inherited by Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, the aerospace giant’s incoming chief executive, who starts his new job on Thursday. Should NASA provide a final certification to Starliner, which Boeing is trying to secure with the current flight, the company is under contract to conduct another half-dozen flights with the vehicle.

It is possible that Boeing won’t be permitted to try to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth on Starliner. Instead, NASA may call on SpaceX to handle the mission’s last leg. That possibility has been discussed during recent NASA briefings. The agency is keeping all options on the table, a person familiar with NASA discussions said.

A SpaceX spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

NASA turning to SpaceX to complete the mission would be a tough outcome for Boeing, which has deep ties to NASA that date to the Apollo moon landings. The company declined to comment further.

During a late July briefing, Boeing’s vice president overseeing Starliner, Mark Nappi, said he was confident in its ability to safely return the crew.


NASA said Tuesday that the agency and company continue to evaluate Starliner’s readiness, and no final decision had been made about its return.

Since starting development of Starliner more than a decade ago, Boeing has struggled with costly technical hurdles that put the spacecraft behind schedule and behind SpaceX. Elon Musk’s space company has been NASA’s sole U.S.-based option for launching crewed missions to low-Earth orbit. SpaceX successfully completed its first crewed flight to the space station more than four years ago.

Starliner’s launch in June with the two NASA astronauts on board was celebrated by current and former space executives at Boeing, some of who had spent a good part of their recent professional lives preparing the vehicle for the high stakes of transporting astronauts in space.

Wilmore and Williams have been following NASA and Boeing’s work on the challenges with Starliner, conducting scientific research and servicing equipment during their unexpected longer stay on ISS. Wilmore recently worked on assembling a centrifuge that will support future experiments, while Williams participated in a study looking into making optical fibers in microgravity.

The space station has plenty of food and supplies, officials have said. On operational missions, astronauts stay at the station for about six months.

The astronauts, both experienced former military pilots who have traveled to the space station before, last month expressed confidence in Starliner.

“Failure is not an option. That’s why we are staying here,” Wilmore told reporters during a July press conference from the ISS. “We’re going to get the data that we need.”

Starliner has flown twice before on test missions without anything on board. Boeing has struggled with software, valves and other problems with the spacecraft.

Last week, the company recorded a $125 million loss related to the Starliner program, according to a securities filing, adding to the roughly $1.4 billion in losses it previously recorded.

NYT : Dept. of Justice being asked to investigate Disney, Fox, Warner Bros joint

Dept. of Justice being asked to investigate Disney, Fox, Warner Bros joint venture

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Joaquin Castro have sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking it to investigate and potentially prevent Disney, Fox and Warner Bros’ from starting a joint venture that will combine the resources of ESPN, Fox Sports and TNT Sports in a direct-to-consumer streaming service called Venu Sports.

In the letter, obtained by The Athletic, the three Democrats urged the Department of Justice to examine Venu Sports “and oppose it if it violates antitrust or telecommunications laws or regulations.” They also think that Venu being described as a joint venture should not prevent it from scrutiny.

Venu Sports is slated to begin soon at a rate of $42.99 per month. Subscribers will not need a cable subscription and will be able to access all the programming and games from the three networks and their affiliates (such as ABC and Fox), plus ESPN+, the network’s extra direct-to-consumer service that features more niche sports.

ESPN has plans to make its network available directly to consumers as a standalone product next year, which The Athletic has previously reported is expected to cost $25-$30 per month.

Viewers can currently subscribe to services such as YouTube TV for around $70-$75, which includes all three networks plus the other major broadcast entities, NBC and CBS. Both of those networks also have their own direct-to-consumer streaming products.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch reiterated during his company’s earnings call this week that he expected Venu Sports to hit five million subscribers by 2029. While the agreement is between the trio, the subscription revenue from Venu Sports is based on the same formula as the networks receive from cable and satellite providers. ESPN, which makes in excess of $10 per cable subscriber, is set to receive the highest portion of Venu Sports revenue.

When reached, a spokesperson for Venu Sports did not comment.

In the letter from Sens. Warren and Sanders and Rep. Castro, the trio “expressed serious” concerns about Venu Sports, saying that it is “poised to control more than 80 percent of nationally broadcast sports and half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports. The market power of its three giant parent companies would enable it to discriminate against competitors and increase prices for consumers.”

Venu Sports is already facing a legal challenge from Fubo, a direct-to-consumer provider that carries ESPN, Fox Sports and TNT. Fubo is trying to invoke a preliminary injunction in a Manhattan district court to stop the service before it starts.

The senators and congressman seem to agree with Fubo’s premise that ESPN, Fox Sports and TNT are not offering other platforms the opportunity to combine the trio, noting that Disney, ESPN’s parent company, often bundles its “other non-critical, low-demand channels and requires that competitor sports streaming platforms purchase and display the entire bundle to access ESPN.” The letter also argues that joint venture is inconsistent with the goals of FCC’s National Ownership cap that limits any one station from reaching more than 39 percent of television households.

One of ESPN’s counter-arguments has been that it was in around 100 million homes in 2011 and now is in 66.5 million households, according to Nielsen’s latest numbers. It needs to find new customers that either are cutting cable or never have had cable or cable-like offerings, and so it is putting forth multiple price points that will range from $25 to $75 per month. Fox Sports has no other paid streaming service, while TNT Sports is part of the Max platform that features HBO, among other channels.

The letter concludes ”that the “DOJ and FCC should closely scrutinize this transaction and take immediate action to block it if it violates antitrust law, or if it does not serve the ‘public interest, convenience, and necessity.’”