Cloud 9fin

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 th...

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...

Who is more invested in a breakfast of eggs and bacon — a chicken or a pig? And what does this have to do with leveraged finance? Find out in this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin as global head of distressed debt and restructuring Max Frumes talks with Mike Harmon about his forthcoming book The Financial Restructuring Tool Set: How to Fix Your Broken Balance Sheet . They talk about the various ways t...

After a great run co-founding and helping to build up the European Leveraged Finance Association, Sabrina Fox is putting ELFA on the shelf to focus on her work at Fox Legal Training and Good Girl to Goddess . In this episode of Cloud 9fin , ESG analyst Jennifer Munnings sits down with Sabrina to explore how ELFA has shaped buyside engagement and elevated standards in credit markets. From the rise...

Are you a business owner and now looking to retire? Not to worry, because as private equity sponsors fund that move to Florida, their acquisitions are made possible by the private credit firms which have cultivated a lower middle market lending strategy. But lower middle market lending is, of course, not without its challenges. Intensifying competition from firms honing in on the space and a compl...

More and more, the lines are blurring between our private credit and distressed coverage. In this episode of Cloud 9fin , private credit editor David Brooke mines the reportage of Bianca Boorer, senior distressed debt reporter, and Shubham Saharan, senior private credit reporter. They talk about the challenge Lycra ’s stakeholders face in navigating the company’s balance sheet, and why the company...

Not all that glitters is gold. And not everyone agrees that the recent era for private credit should be called “the golden age.” In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin , produced in partnership with Arena Investors, senior private credit reporter Peter Benson sits down with Arena co-founding CEO and CIO Dan Zwirn to talk through his latest white paper. He takes a contrarian look at the direct lendin...

Private credit in both the US and Europe has faced a great deal of pressure from bank lenders in 2024. But despite a slow start, the asset class is holding its ground on a year-to-date basis. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin , private credit editor David Brooke digs into the data with analysts Devin McGinley and Elijah Jackson. They chat through the trends, diving into their respective Q3 2024...

A majority of American voters have embraced Donald Trump’s message, and a lot of things are about to change. What does his resounding victory in this week’s Presidential election mean for debt capital markets? It’s a little early to give a comprehensive answer, but in this special edition of Cloud 9fin we’ve done our best to touch on some of the big issues. Tune in to hear Will Caiger-Smith and Sa...

All eyes are on the results of the US election results today, and soon, they’ll turn back to the Federal Reserve. Hinging on whether the Fed decides to continue rate cutting at its next meeting — and how deeply — a flood of M&A could hit the market. In the meantime, though, funds have been forced to take extraordinary measures to make their way through the muddle in the middle. In this week’s...

Batten down the hatches, because the cost of environmental damage continues to rise. Hurricanes and natural disasters pose a threat to leveraged credits. This year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to November, has caused significant physical and financial damage to borrowers and civilians located mainly in the southeastern part of the US. Damages from hurricanes Helene and Milton,...

Even with competition heating up, the direct lending market is ripe with opportunity. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin , Fin Strathern interviews Bill Ammons, founding partner and portfolio manager at AlbaCore Capital . They discuss the evolution of leveraged finance as direct lending develops, and the importance of providing flexibility and optionality. Bill shares insights from his extensive...

Every now and then a situation comes around that stretches the limits of possibility. System1 is just such a situation, and private credit investors should take note.  In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin , distressed legal analyst Jane Komsky and distressed credit analyst Swapnil Sawant reveal the playbook of SPAC-era darling System1 ’s unique take on a liability management exercise that highligh...

CLO captive equity funds have emerged as an important part of a manager’s toolkit, affording greater control over CLO issuance patterns. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, MidOcean Partners’ Jamil Nathoo tells 9fin ’s global head of CLOs Tanvi Gupta about the strengths and weaknesses of certain fund structures. They discuss new frontiers opening up in the Middle East and South America amid incr...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but what the heck did DISH ( Echostar ) and DIRECTV just say they were going to do? And will it actually happen this time? In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin , listen in as senior reporter William Hoffman sits down with 9fin credit analysts Kartik Dar and Daniel Stone to untangle the DISH and DIRECTV transactions and debt exchanges and speculate on the mer...

By nature, private credit is opaque. At least for now. But 9fin ’s private credit team is hard at work building a data set that will help shed light on the trends and movements in the direct lending space. In this bonus episode of Cloud 9fin , private credit editor David Brooke invites private credit analyst Elijah Jackson to share his experience in building the inaugural 9fin private credit repor...

Cooperation agreements have taken the LME world by storm, foiling distressed companies' plans to play creditors off of one another to secure a better deal. But are these agreements anti-competitive? In this week's episode of Cloud 9fin , our global head of distressed and restructuring Max Frumes delves into this quandary with distressed legal analyst Jane Komsky. They compare the use of co-op agre...

One of the strengths of private credit is its flexibility. And who doesn’t love to PIK and choose? In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin , US private credit editor David Brooke asks senior reporter Shubham Saharan to add another contribution to the ever-evolving private credit glossary as they dive into the definition of synthetic PIKs. Listen in to learn about what these instruments are, how they’...

Zombie companies are businesses that, despite being insolvent, manage to survive for extended periods. Traditionally, these companies are defined by their inability to cover interest payments, but a more refined definition points to companies with low Z-scores, indicating a high probability of default. Over the past three decades, the prevalence of zombie companies has surged, especially in the US...

All eyes are on media giant Paramount Global and its $13bn debt stack, amid the threat of a downgrade to junk status. With streaming wars intensifying and cable subscribers slowly converting to Paramount Plus, many are left asking: Is Paramount’s debt heading for a rocky road, or is there still a way back to stability? Despite its challenges, Paramount holds a strong liquidity position with $2.3 b...

Private credit funds are venturing back to their roots, embracing a strategy that blends the old with the new as hybrid deals are back in vogue. But is this a nostalgic trip down memory lane, or a calculated move with long-term implications? In this episode of Cloud 9fin, leveraged finance reporter Ryan Daniel and senior private credit reporter Synne Johnsson discuss this trend, the driving forces...

Hedge funds are making a bold push into the private credit arena, lured by the promise of higher returns. However, new territory is not without its hurdles, as these funds navigate a landscape already populated by established players. In this episode of Cloud 9fin private credit reporter Peter Benson and senior private credit reporter Shubham Saharan discuss the complexities of this market shift a...

Private credit fundraising has been going through an inflection point in recent years, as high interest rates and geopolitical risk increasingly drive LPs to only the most established fund managers. The market shift has many wondering, is the sector leaving its “Golden Age” and entering its "Silver Fox era”? Despite these challenges, investors are finding new opportunities as they adapt to the cha...

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision on 27 June ruled that a bankruptcy court does not have the statutory authority to provide non-consensual third party releases. Such releases had been a crucial part of the Purdue Pharma Chapter 11 plan, among others, where the bankruptcy system was being employed to shield non-debtors from litigation without full creditor consent. The decision coincided with the...

Not all liability management deals are "violent"; in fact the majority of deals in 2024 have allowed for participation by non ad hoc group lenders who in the past had been entirely cut out of the economics of non pro rata priming transactions. For this week's episode of Cloud 9fin, global head of distressed and restructuring Max Frumes, distressed legal analyst Jane Komsky, and private credit repo...