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By David Morgan, Andy Sullivan, Steve Holland and Nolan D. McCaskill WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Monday backed off President Donald Trump's assertion that government employees were already being laid off due to the shutdown, but warned job losses could result as the standoff looked set to stretch into a seventh day. The Republican-led Senate for a fifth time rejected dueling measures to fund federal agencies, with insufficient support for both a Republican proposal to fund operations through November 21 and a Democratic version that would also extend healthcare subsidies due to expire at the end of the year. Trump told reporters at the White House that he would be open to a deal on the subsidies, which help 24 million people buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act – a law that Republicans bitterly opposed for years. Shoring up the expiring subsidies has been Democrats' main demand and primary reason for voting against the Republican plan. But on the sixth day of the shutdown, the Republican president and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer could not even agree whether the two sides were talking, with Trump saying there were negotiations ongoing and Schumer saying there weren't. The Republican-led House of Representatives was not in session, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had no plans to reopen it until the government was funded. The standoff has frozen about $1.7 trillion in funds for agency operations, which amounts to roughly one-quarter of annual federal spending. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programs and interest payments on the growing $37.88 trillion debt. BACKTRACKING ON LAYOFFS During the shutdown's first week, the Trump administration has cut off some federal funds to Democratic-led cities and states and continued to raise the specter of mass firings, though none appeared to be forthcoming. Previous shutdowns have not forced the government to fire any workers, though hundreds of thousands are typically told not to work.  Trump said on Sunday night that layoffs were taking place "right now," but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday he had been referring to those furloughed since Congress allowed funding to expire on October 1.   The White House budget office "is continuing to work with agencies on who, unfortunately, is going to have to be laid off if this shutdown continues," she said at a news briefing. Labor unions representing federal workers have sued to prevent that from happening, arguing that such layoffs would violate a law that includes criminal penalties. The administration has already frozen at least $28 billion in infrastructure funds for New York, California and Illinois — all home to sizable Democratic populations and critics of the president. But Democratic leaders showed no sign of knuckling under to the White House's hardball tactics, which have caused unease among some centrist Republicans who fear the approach could make the impasse harder to overcome. The partial shutdown, the 15th since 1981, was on track to stand alone as the fourth-longest in U.S. history on Tuesday, exceeding the six-day length of a 1995 shutdown. The longest shutdown lasted 35 days in 2018-2019, during Trump's first term in office. While border guards, airport security screeners and other "essential" employees remained on the job without pay, other government activities ground to a halt. The Federal Register, which typically lists more than 100 proposed regulations and other notices daily, only showed four entries on Monday morning.  Pressure to end the standoff could mount next week, when 1.3 million troops and other military workers are due to miss their paychecks for the first time since the shutdown began. Air travel could be another factor. More of the nation's 13,000 air traffic controllers have been calling in sick since the shutdown began, which could lead to flight delays, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. Lawmakers resolved the last shutdown in 2019 after absences of controllers and airport security screeners spiked. Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority but need the votes of at least eight Democrats to meet the chamber's 60-vote threshold for most legislation, since Republican Senator Rand Paul opposes the stopgap funding measure. So far only two Democrats and an independent who caucuses with them have crossed the aisle. Some Democrats want a deal on healthcare subsidies in place before open enrollment for next year begins on November 1.  Johnson said a solution could not be reached quickly.  "We've got probably 100 ideas for reforms on the table, but I can't snap my fingers this afternoon and make that happen," he said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Andy Sullivan, Jeff Mason, David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)

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(Reuters) -Imperial Brands announced an additional 1.45 billion pound ($1.95 billion) share buyback plan on Tuesday and said it was on track to meet its annual targets on the back of strong pricing and growing demand for smoking alternatives products. The maker of Winston cigarettes and e-cigarette brand blu had expected low-single-digit growth in tobacco and next generation products net revenue at constant currency and mid-single-digit growth in adjusted operating profit for the year. Imperial's stock price has largely recovered from the lows seen in May, when Stefan Bomhard announced his retirement, as the company has sought to ease concerns over its long-term strategy. Lukas Paravicini took over as CEO on October 1. Imperial Brands said it expects market share gains in the U.S., Germany and Australia to broadly offset declines in Spain and the UK. ($1 = 0.7431 pounds) (Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Subhranshu Sahu)

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By Libby George and Rodrigo Campos LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -An intricate series of pipes off Angola's Atlantic coast snakes toward a new fuel refinery that signals the country's push for energy independence — and its use of private creditors, instead of banks, to fund a big-ticket project. "We're not the lender of last resort," said Felipe Berliner, co-founder of emerging markets asset manager Gemcorp, which provided the bulk of funding for the refinery, using private capital. "Sometimes we are the only lender." Private credit for emerging markets — driven by investors' hunt for yields and saturation in developed Western markets — could grow exponentially, veteran investors told Reuters, providing tens of billions in funding as bilateral lending and foreign aid shrink. "This is a paradigm shift," said Pramol Dhawan, head of emerging markets portfolio management at PIMCO. "The need to globally reallocate is not a hedge — it's a secular thesis." PIMCO has committed around $30 billion across 140 emerging market deals in five years, and expects to boost annual lending by 30% this year to $10 billion. Other investors are targeting similar increases. RAPID GROWTH, BUT YIELDS SQUEEZED  Private credit skyrocketed over the past 20 years, with global assets under management rising to over $1.2 trillion from $200 million in the early 2000s, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The funding filled a gap for companies, mainly in the U.S., as banks limited lending due to regulations and capital requirements. Today, emerging markets get less than 10% of that cash. But the U.S. and Europe are saturated; competition has driven down margins, and bets are riskier. Experts from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the IMF warn private credit looks shaky; the collapse of U.S. firms Tricolor and First Brands underscored the risks. Emerging markets, investors say, have bankable projects so keen for cash that you can pick and choose. "Emerging market companies have been forced to be more fundamentally conservative," said Matt Christ, portfolio manager at London-based global investment manager Ninety One. Developed markets are "priced for perfection", while emerging markets offer more upside. He said EM yields are 150 to 300 basis points higher than their developed market peers — and risk is often lower than ratings suggest. Christ, whose private credit portfolio is around $8 billion globally, sees scope to expand to $15 billion. EM firms, he said, are used to volatility and political instability — unlike most Western firms. "Developed market companies are going into an era they've never experienced before, but emerging market companies have been doing this for a long time," he said. Gustavo Ferraro, head of capital solutions at emerging markets-focused fund manager Gramercy, also said EM risk profiles and returns have surpassed those in developed markets. "The U.S. market isn't the benchmark anymore," he said. "Our (investors) want yield and uncorrelated exposure." Gramercy has doubled its private credit investment in five years to $4.8 billion, focusing on Latin America, Turkey and parts of Africa. Ninety One said that in Turkey, where authorities are limiting bank lending to cool inflation, private credit is filling a gap. FROM SOVEREIGNS TO SAUDI COMPANIES Most EM private credit is asset-backed — giving investors anything from company shares to control over the project itself. The structure favours infrastructure, but funding has gone to sovereign budgets and Turkish cities' transport networks. Angola's new refinery, mostly funded by Gemcorp with state oil company Sonangol also providing funds, will ultimately run at 60,000 barrels per day and make sub-Saharan Africa's No. 2 oil producer less reliant on costly fuel imports. The plant's first phase, which cost $475 million, is due to start operation by the end of the year. Gemcorp has also funded a wind farm in Lake Turkana in Kenya, a water sanitation project in Angola and power transmission between Angola and Namibia. A Gemcorp survey showed 67% of EM private credit went to large or medium corporates, and 22% to sovereign or quasi-sovereign projects. Gemcorp is launching a $1 billion fund targeting mid-market Saudi companies. "They are underfunded, they don't have access to the flexible capital they need to maintain growth from the government's fiscal push," Berliner said. The firm also funds Central American commodity exports to the U.S., West African fuel prepayment deals and gold producers. Berliner and others say private credit is flexible, fast and offers customised repayment terms — from upfront fees to extended maturities or EBITDA warrants (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) — making it ideal for upstarts and lower-rated sovereigns. "We're not replacing banks anymore. We're building something that didn't exist," Ferraro said. "This is bespoke financing for bespoke problems. That's what EM has in abundance." Privately, some bond investors worry private credit — nimbler and less onerous than bonded debt — could eat into their business. Others fear bigger problems if borrowers hit trouble. "If something goes wrong, like a big restructure, how does private credit deal with that? We don't really know," said Daniel Cash, associate professor of law at the UK's Aston University, adding that the "much more opaque" lending could also create issues. (Reporting by Libby George in London and Rodrigo Campos in New York. Additional reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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