Cloud 9fin

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, *9fin’*s head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Sound Point Capital Management managing director, Morgan O’Neill to discuss the intersection of private credit and LMEs. They discuss the red flags and green flags of whether a deal away is a real possibility or just there to threaten exiting lenders and how to tell if a LME will be built to last.

Find all of our coverage on LME litigation on 9fin.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com —...

In this week’s episode of Syndication Nation, a podcast dedicated to all things leveraged finance, 9fin LevFin reporter Dan Mika talks with Barclays Head of US Credit Strategy Dominique Toublan about Barclays’ credit capitulation and complacency signals.

What does the recent miss and revision in the US jobs report mean for lenders? What does it mean when credit spreads are getting tighter despite the lack of new debt issuance? And why did Dan reference a TikTok meme from 2023 to frame these questions?

Have any feedback about this episode? Send us a note at podcast@9fin...

On Sunday 27 July, US and the EU have struck a deal to set at 15% tariffs on EU export to the US, which is not as high as president Donald Trump previously threatened, but can still impact Europe’s biggest car producer, Germany.

Senior distressed reporter Bianca Boorer, host of this series, travelled to Munich to find out just how big the dent on the auto sector will be.

She sits down with Hendrik Hauke restructuring partner at Willkie, who has acted as legal advisor to auto suppliers Huf Group and IFA Group, Felix Kuhnert, head of...

In this episode of Cloud9fin, our distressed debt editor Rachel Butt brings in Jonathan Foster, founder of Current Capital Partners, to discuss corporate governance in restructurings and bankruptcies. They delved into Jon’s career, his book On Board, and thorny topics including the so-called super repeaters trend and third party releases.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, 9fin’s head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Mudrick Capital Management founder, Jason Mudrick, and Akin Gump partners Dan Fisher and Jaisohn Im to discuss disqualified lender (DQ) lists. They discuss the the goal of DQ lists, whether they actually work (spoiler: they believe they do not), and the implications for sponsors and lenders involved.

Find all of our coverage on LME litigation on 9fin.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

Earlier in June, Ares priced its first direct lending CLO, the second of its kind of Europe, but with a twist — it is priced in sterling.

The last 12 months have been a busy time for the private credit giant, as they also completed a €30bn fundraise in Europe and opened a new office in Milan.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, senior private credit reporter Synne Johnsson chats with Andrea Fernandez, partner in Ares’s investor relations and product management team for European direct lending, and Mike Dennis, Ares’s co-head of European credit. They dis...

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in founding partner of Selendy Gay, Jennifer Selendy, to discuss LME litigation. They discuss the perspective of excluded lenders, when it makes sense to hold out, and why we have yet to find any certainty on the validity of specific LME tactics and debt document language.

Find all our coverage on LME litigation at 9fin.com.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

It has been a busy month for the Significant Risk Transfer (SRT) market as investors returned from the Global ABS conference in Barcelona earlier this month to a flurry of new deals, 9fin’s Celeste Tamers reported.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, US distressed debt reporter Ayden Crosby is joined by David Lucking, a partner in Linklaters' US structured finance practice, to discuss the state of SRT and unpack some of the differences and emerging trends in US versus European markets.

Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Tanvi Gupta, global head of CLOs at 9fin, talks with Sumer Chopra, director at Alumia, to discuss how CLOs have gone from an exotic to an essential product in the eyes of institutional investors.

They discuss what’s led to the boom of family offices allocating to CLOs, double-Bs and single-Bs outperforming CLO equity, and how some endowments still struggle with the legacy bias from the GFC. They go on to unpack what the ideal pitchbook from a CLO fund manager looks like and the growth of evergreen funds, among other th...

We are back to France — the current epicentre of European credit stress — for our second episode of Distressed Diaries.

Over the last few months, French lab company Cerba’s debt has taken a beating as fears mount over its unsustainable €3.8bn capital. Most recently, 9fin reported that creditors have started to organise and appointed legal advisors in the lead up to possible debt negotiations.

There’s no lack of drama in this episode. First, the company’s liquidity has been hit by the French government’s decision to cut tariffs on lab tests in September l...

President Donald Trump’s much anticipated ‘Liberation Day’ sent global markets into a tizzy in April, but how did private credit firms react?

During what we have termed the ‘Deliberation Days’ of Q1, private credit investors were scrambling to mitigate potential tariff risks as best they could but they were also on the offensive.

Elijah Jackson’s latest quarterly report on the state of the market, ‘Good Deal Hunting’, is aptly titled as direct lenders did not shy away from stealing BSL marketshare during the period. And PC firms were also able to pick up an extra 25bps o...

In this week’s episode of Syndication Nation, a podcast dedicated to all things leveraged finance-related, 9fin deputy editor Sasha Padbidri and head of legal James Wallick have put together a terrible headline and a great conversation on the emergence of President Donald Trump’s tariff language in new issue debt documents.

For more details (and terrible headlines), check out our reporting on Spanish waste management company Urbaser, which is among the first leveraged credits to include tariff language in its new issue bond OM.

Have any feedback about this episode? Send us a note at p...

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Rachel Murray, a managing director at Moelis, to discuss how today’s restructuring environment compares to the Covid era and how that experience can guide clients. They discuss what makes an LME effective, in addition to current trends and techniques that are shaping the space.

Check out all of our LME coverage at 9fin.com.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Tanvi Gupta, global head of CLOs at 9fin, talks with Yang Xu, CEO at City Hall Capital, to discuss the growth of family offices allocating to CLOs.

They talk about how CLO equity and mezz ticks all the boxes for family offices, the need for more double-B CLO funds, captive equity vs third party equity funds, and how CLO managers need to do more to educate family offices, which other asset classes do better.

In the inaugural episode of Syndication Nation, 9fin’s podcast on all things syndicated debt, deputy editor William Hoffman joined US managing editor Bill Weisbrod to talk about his recent coverage of Warner Bros. Discovery and its $37bn of debt to high yield by S&P. They discussed what led to the downgrade, the prospects for the company reaching full-blown fallen angel status, and broader implications for the high yield market if and when that happens.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

In today’s market, speed of information and up-to-the-minute accuracy are essential in portfolio management. With that in mind, Chase Collum, head of podcasts at 9fin, sat down with Scott Alintoff at FIS to discuss how lenders can ensure they’re staying ahead in these turbulent times.

In this third of a series of discussions, Scott shares a high level view of the state of the market, current challenges, and how technology is helping people in the middle office manage the mountains of data that underly the broadly syndicated and private debt markets.

Have...

Altice France’s restructuring negotiations has been one of the hottest talks of the distress town since last year. With the company now preparing to enter into accelerated safeguard proceedings, we went through what happened so far in our inaugural episode of Distressed Diaries — a brand new 9fin podcast series focused on distressed debt in Europe.

Senior distressed reporter Bianca Boorer, host of the series, travelled to Paris to meet with key advisors involved in the negotiations. She sits down with Saam Golshani, partner at White & Case who acted for Altice France and its shareholders, Jean-Pierre Farges, rest...

US tariff policy has unleashed economic uncertainty both domestically and elsewhere. Even after a de-escalation of the worst trade tensions with China, things are still unclear.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, distressed debt reporter Max Reyes sits down with Canyon Partners opportunistic credit co-heads Chaney Sheffield and Jonathan Barzideh to better understand what unique investments can be made in the current economy and how they’re making sense of the chaos.

Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com.

Here at 9fin, we pride ourselves on being private credit enthusiasts. And that means covering all parts of the market, big or small. This includes all the nascent and niche areas like venture debt and tech lending.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, senior private credit reporter Peter Benson sits down with Ron Daniel, co-founder and CEO of Liquidity Group, a direct lender focused on tech lending. The conversation ranges from the concepts of venture debt and tech lending and how they are structured, to how the current macro environment is affecting the niche are and...

Generally speaking, lenders don’t lend money to companies with the intention of ending up as equity owners. But things don’t always go to plan. And anyone who’s been there can tell you that the hard truth for certain companies is that no plan could have ever saved it — or as Jon Weber would say: “If the baby’s ugly, the baby’s ugly.”

In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, senior private credit reporter Shubham Saharan sits down with Jon Weber and Gisele Everett of restructuring advisory Jon F Weber & Co, to talk about some of the...

A seemingly endless cycle of tariff pronouncements and delays has been sending stocks and liquid debt markets on a roller coaster ride in recent weeks.

But what does ever-changing US tariff policy and associated market volatility mean for private credit firms? How do direct lenders keep protect themselves from the fallout and what are the key points in credit agreements these days? Join 9fin’s senior private credit reporter, Shubham Saharan, and Mayer Brown’s head of NY private credit, Sheel Patel, in exploring those themes.

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In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Tanvi Gupta, global head of CLOs at 9fin, talks with Carlyle’s Lauren Basmadjian, global head of liquid credit, and Matt Maxwell, head of US loans, to discuss how CLO managers are positioning themselves in the current tariff induced volatility.

They talk about taking advantage of the dislocation in the market, sector specific tariff risk, opportunities for a pull to par trade, how to pick the right assets with the current backdrop of LME risk and how these pockets of volatility could be another positive data point for CLOs.

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in founder and board member of Creditor Rights Coalition, Dan Kamensky, to discuss treatment for similarly situated creditors within liability management exercises. They discuss when disparity in treatment becomes an issue, lender tools to fight back, and where advocacy is most needed.

Find all our coverage on creditor organization at 9fin.com.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

On why some lower middle market lending specialists like to stay investing in companies with a sub-$50m EBITDA, they like to joke that it is because they like covenants.

With some larger private credit managers jostling for deals at the upper end of the middle market, a larger number are sticking to their knitting in focusing on financing those smaller companies. It’s private credit’s historical sweet spot and is a space immune to some of the more borrower-friendly trends seen in competitive situations with the syndicated market.

In this episode, a seni...

Was Ardagh's carve-out of its metal packaging business in 2021 an early example of a European LME before LMEs went global? Call it what you will, the troubled packaging conglomerate is getting a taste of both the potential upside and the backlash caused by these controversial financial maneuvers.

In this episode, 9fin's global head of restructuring, Max Frumes, sat down with European senior distressed credit analyst Emmet McNally to discuss some of the events that led us here. Events so far have culminated in the company cleansing creditors party to restructuring negotiations that failed to reach common...

No one likes that feeling of being a little too thick in the middle. But finding the right balance of strength and cushion is no easy task. We’re talking about the middle office here, of course.

The middle office may not always be in the spotlight, but when loan data goes awry it’s the team that keeps the gears turning and numbers in check. In this episode, head of podcasts Chase Collum chats with Jared Vest, global co-head of middle office solutions at FIS, to break down the middle office's essential roles, risks, and evolving resp...

AI is eating the world, or so the headlines say. But what does this really mean for debt markets? Where does AI truly excel, and what limitations persist? What implications does this technological shift hold for analysts' jobs? And how is 9fin deploying AI to address specific challenges confronting debt market professionals?

Sujeet Indap, Wall Street editor at the Financial Times, sat down with Steven Hunter, CEO and co-founder of 9fin, to cut through the hype and dissect the real impact of AI on debt markets. This episode was produced from a recent 9fin webinar. If...

In the credit markets, it’s important practitioners get their fax straight. No, you didn’t read that wrong — even in 2025, people still use fax machines to transmit some loans data.

In our latest Cloud 9fin episode, Chase Collum, head of podcasts, and private credit analyst Devin McGinley, sit down with John Smullen, product manager at FIS. They chat about how global data trends are shaping strategies in the leveraged finance world as private credit CLOs and direct lending gain ground.

This episode is part of a three-part series we’ll publish in partnership with FIS on C...

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in global chair of Gibson Dunn’s restructuring group, Scott Greenberg, to discuss the evolution of cooperation agreements within liability management exercises. They discuss the different types of co-ops, why co-ops have become expected in US deals, their spread to the EU, and the validity of antitrust arguments.

Find all our coverage on co-ops at 9fin.com.

Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

Three media companies, in vaguely the same vicinity, in fair debt markets where we lay our scene — where ancient business models encounter new scrutiny, and AI generates images you can’t unsee…

Valentine’s Day has been and gone, so why on earth are we besmirching Romeo and Juliet with terrible puns? You should listen to the episode for the full picture, but basically we’re discussing three recent debt transactions from X/Twitter, Snap, and Getty Images.

These deals might not seem immediately connected, but there’s a thread running through all three. In an...

In the private equity world, continuation vehicles have been a bit of a blockbuster, so can the structure's success transfer to private credit?

We have already seen BlackRock's $1.3bn continuation vehicle last year, and some market participants are expecting to see even more in 2025. On the other side however, this might not be as straight forward as in the PE world, and there is a growing pool of skeptics.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, senior private credit reporter Synne Johnsson sits down with private credit reporter Jemima Denham, to discuss all things...

We talk a lot about leverage at the 9fin office (it’s kind of the story behind our company name, in case you were wondering) so it should come as no surprise that we think it’s interesting. But in the world of Significant Risk Transfer, it’s especially fascinating — and controversial.

You may have caught the story that Celeste Tamers, part of our growing asset-based finance team, broke last week about Deutsche Bank pulling back from offering repo financing on SRT trades.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Celeste and our asset-based finance...

Long live liability management.

In this episode of our new show Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Latham & Watkins partner George Klidonas and C Street founder and CEO Jon Henes, to discuss the Better Health transaction and its implications for future LMEs.

Also under discussion: how liability management has taken off as an industry, how law firms and advisors are adapting to this boom in business, and the creative moves market participants are making to ensure the LME space lives a lengthy and healthy life.

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Publicly traded leveraged debt issuers are facing a collective maturity wall of $219 billion in the coming years. But unlike the Chiefs' offensive line in the Super Bowl, credit market watchers aren't expecting that wall to collapse.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, US managing editor Bill Weisbrod sits down with credit analyst Ben Dickerman and leveraged finance reporter Dan Mika about their recent piece looking at how the 2026-27 maturity wall in the US is shaping up.

Among the highlights: how issuers are hanging on to cheap debt costs, how a leveraged finance...

With Super Bowl Sunday upon us, much like over a third of the US, we thought we’d focus on sports.

Private credit has been circling sports for some time as an investment opportunity. Many regulatory changes in the past year and an increasing number of emerging sports leagues have brought it back into view to begin this year.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, senior reporter Peter Benson sits down with Aaron Kless, managing partner and CIO at Andalusian Credit Partners, to discuss all things private credit and sports.

Th...

People love to talk about the battle between banks and private credit firms in leveraged debt markets. And at a high level, it’s true that the dealflow has bounced back and forth between the two over recent years — but markets are a lot more complex than a game of table tennis.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Synne Johnsson sits down with Soren Christensen, partner and head of capital markets at Cinven, and Amit Bahri, co-head of European direct lending at Goldman Sachs, to break down how private credit’s role has evolved over the years...

The full extent of the damage from this season’s California wildfires is yet to be determined, but one thing that is certain is that some leveraged credits are starting to feel the heat.

In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, US managing editor Bill Weisbrod and deputy leveraged finance editor Sasha Padbidri survey the extent of the damage and discuss which industries are among the most impacted.

Find Sasha’s latest report about the wildfires’ impact on leveraged credits here. If you have any feedback or want to get in touch, send us a not...

After years of growth and positive sentiment, 2024 saw private credit’s smallest fundraising haul since 2019. But the year-on-year drop in capital raised was far less significant than the drop in the number of funds that were closed.

In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, US private credit editor David Brooke and reporter Anna Russi discuss the latest results in private credit fundraising and how LPs are consolidating around their favorite firms. The conversation walks through how investors are feeling about the asset class and whether the incoming Trump administration can help or hinder funds on the road...

For this week’s Cloud 9fin episode, we’re launching a new monthly recurring series: Jane’s LME Addiction, in which distressed legal analyst Jane Komsky dives into the latest news in liability management. Joined by 9fin global head of distressed and restructuring Max Frumes and 9fin head of legal James Wallick, Jane walks through the landmark decision out of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Serta Simmons case and what it means for LMEs going forward.

Find all our coverage on Serta at 9fin.com, including our latest stories on the contours of potential uptier...

A record breaking year comes to an end. What could possibly come next? How about another?

In this week's episode of Cloud 9fin, Tanvi Gupta, global head of CLOs at 9fin, talks with Pratik Gupta, head of CLO and RMBS research at Bank of America, to discuss the outlook for 2025. They talk about ETFs, performance across the CLO capital structure, LMEs, co-op agreements, HY bond buckets and why 2025 might match the record breaking levels of issuance we've seen in 2024.

Have any feedback on the episode? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com...