The Way Companies Are Getting Financed Is Completely Changing. There are lots of trends people have been talking about in tech financing--"superangels"; delayed IPOs; secondary market sales; and more. But so far, few people have been putting the dots together: the entire financing landscape for companies is changing. And, excitingly, it's increasingly not just technology companies. There are many new financing options for growing companies that weren't available a decade ago.
Here's how we break them down (we'll visit each one in turn): CrowdfundingAcceleratorsSuper-angelsLate-stage private equityThe long-delayed IPO Crowdfunding Crowdfunding startups has long been a dream deferred. Direct crowdfunding via equity financing is still a big no-no, because SEC rules make it difficult for non-accredited investors to invest in startups. One of the most exciting such examples is AngelList, a "Match.com for investors and startups" that lets startups vie for capital from angels and (increasingly) VC firms.
Another exciting example is Kickstarter. Accelerators. How To Avoid a Blind, Shoot-from-the-Hip Market Estimation to Keep Your Business Case Credible to Investors. Sabrina Kiefer looks at how entrepreneurs can obtain market segmentation information to back up their business case, without access to a big-company budget. We’ve heard this type of argument many times: ‘The potential global market for this product amounts to 100 million customers, for a total value of £2 billion. All we have to do is capture 2 per cent of this market, and we can realise sales of £100 million. So, even with this conservative estimate, the market for our product is attractive.’ The exact numbers may change from case to case, but the premise is the same: blind, shoot-from-the-hip market estimation; the untested belief that a random, unspecified 2 per cent of the market (‘surely not an unreasonable target,’ thinks the entrepreneur) will buy the venture’s product or service.
Many novice entrepreneurs present their opportunity in this way, perhaps citing a collection of high-level market reports to show that they’ve done some homework. Enter the ‘preferred witness’. Fed Won't Raise Rates for 5 Years: Bill Gross. Gross believes other central banks, including the the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, will be keeping interest rates low for another three to four years. He downplayed a recent Morningstar report that the Total Return Fund has seen a big increase in redemptions, with $500 million in fund outflows in November, bringing the total cash outflow to $17 billion for the past 12 months. "Gross's fund has underperformed this year and a lot of it goes back to his misplaced bet on Treasuries," Morningstar editorial director Kevin McDevitt said.
But Gross disputed Morningstar's numbers. "Morningstar has their way of calculating," he said. The fund has been at "$244 or $245 billion for the last six months," he added. "How they calculate their outflows I'm not quite sure, but the fund itself is very stable and we could certainly provide those numbers if anybody would care to look at them. " He again noted his August "mistake" on betting heavily against the price of U.S. government debt. Best U.S. Real Estate With Self-Storage: Riskless Return. The best real estate investment in the past decade was found at the opposite end from trophy resorts and office towers, in 5-foot-by-5-foot lockers. Self-storage companies, which rent units to small businesses and consumers under names such as “Uncle Bob’s Self Storage (SSS),” produced the best risk-adjusted return among 10 U.S. real estate investment trust indexes in the past decade, according to the BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING.
They had the highest total return and the third-lowest volatility, for a risk-adjusted gain of 10.6 percent. Owners of offices, hotels and warehouses fared among the worst, hurt by price swings. Public Storage, CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage Inc. “Public Storage (PSA) has incredibly low leverage compared to the average REIT,” Knott, whose firm is based in Newport Beach, California, said in an interview. Warehouses Trail Storage REITs release first-quarter earnings this week. Basic Units Cleaning Out Rents Rise ‘Not Cheap’ “It’s not a cheap stock,” Knott said. Report says a strong 2013 awaits Houston. WASHINGTON - Houston tops a list of cities expected to see an economic boost in the coming year, a report released last week by the U.S. Conference of Mayors concluded. The report projected Houston would be the largest of 50 metro areas expected have a growth rate of 3 percent or more in "gross metropolitan product," the local version of the gross domestic product.
But Houston and other major metro areas also face the prospect of more growth than they can handle, according to mayors gathered for a meeting in Philadelphia. Transportation In particular, mayors warned that a failure to invest in transportation infrastructure could mean skyrocketing costs over the next decade. Houston Mayor Annise Parker said the concern that federal underfunding of urban areas could hurt the fledgling growth is real and warned that important projects that cities are planning often are haphazardly funded by the federal government. Port's challenges The city also faces other transportation challenges. REITs: Real Estate Investment Trusts: REIT Law Firm: REIT Lawyers: Andrews Kurth LLP. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a special form of tax-advantaged business entity created for the specific purpose of encouraging widespread ownership of real estate by small investors.
REITs provide the average investor with an opportunity to pool capital with others for investment in managed real estate, to spread risks through diversified holdings and to acquire properties which might otherwise be beyond the means of the individual investor. Andrews Kurth historically has been significantly involved in the REIT industry, with a number of our lawyers having served as outside general counsel or issuer’s counsel to major industry players.
We have advised some of the nation’s oldest and largest REITs, as well as some of the newest. Our lawyers are skilled in the tax and operational aspects of REITs, and we are active members of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Financing Leaders IPO Counsel Operational Advisors Unique Challenges Practical Partners. Locke Lord | Practices | Locke Lord is consistently recognized as one of the preeminent counselors in the United States to public and private real estate investment trusts based on our technical competence, innovative ideas and approaches, and personal attention in the delivery of our services. Accordingly, our REIT practice has been nationally ranked by The American Lawyer in its annual Corporate Scorecard. Locke Lord has been recognized as a top U.S. firm in Investment Funds: REITs in Chambers Global 2013: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business.
In addition, Bryan L. Goolsby, a Partner in Locke Lord's Dallas office and chair of the Firm's REIT Practice Group, has been recognized in Chambers Global 2013 in the Capital Markets: REITs category for the U.S. region. Additionally, the group was included again in Chambers USA 2013 Client's Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business. REITs demand extensive knowledge in tax planning – another specialty area for Locke Lord lawyers.