Cloud 9fin

The recent sell-off in software has sparked a broader reassessment of risk across private credit. But are managers pulling back from risk, or just recalibrating how they price it?In this episode of Cloud 9fin, private credit reporter Anna Russi sits down with Patrick Warren, head of private credit research at MSCI, to unpack what’s driving the shift. Drawing on new data, they explore where signs of stress are emerging in software lending and venture debt, how valuation marks could be masking underlying pressures, and what this reveals about risk, performance, and portfolio assumptions in today’s market.Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com.

In this episode of Syndication Nation, 9fin’s podcast on all things leveraged finance, LevFin reporter David Westenhaver joins US deputy editor Sasha Padbidri to discuss his recent reporting on the wild ride that is Six Flags.Fresh off the heels of a major refinancing, the company offloaded a handful of parks with the goal of deleveraging and focusing investment on a smaller portfolio. But will that be enough to fix the balance sheet? Or, after a decade of missteps, can the amusement park owner’s new CEO complete the operational turnaround that investors have sought for years?Follow our reporting on Six Flags at 9fin.com. Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!Footnote: The podcast mentions that Knott’s Berry Farm has one of the oldest wooden roller coasters, and that it is 65 years old. The roller coaster referenced was GhostRider, which was built in 1998. The oldest continuously operational wooden roller coaster in the world is Scenic Railway in Luna Park, Melbourne, Australia. The coaster entered operations in 1912.

The Chemicals sector has been suffering from geopolitical tensions since Russian invaded Ukraine four years ago. Now with US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and ongoing worldwide tariffs, volatility is higher than ever.In this episode of Distressed Diaries, our host senior reporter Bianca Boorer sits down with Kunal Shah, the founder and chief investment officer of London-based hedge fund PVTL point, and his partner and member of the investment team Ryan Flew, to discuss how the latest conflict in the Middle East is impacting the sector.What is the sector doing to cope with these challenges? Are European governments doing enough to help? Is UK chemicals producer INEOS out of the woods yet? Where do opportunities lie for distressed investors in this uncertain environment?Tune in to find out!

In this episode of Tranche Talk, Cloud 9fin’s CLO series, our global head of CLOs, Tanvi Gupta, talks with Alex Navin, managing director at Performance Trust Capital Partners.They discuss how CLO tranches are trading in this macro backdrop, triple-A liquidity, the influence of vintage on CLO trading, relative value between the US and Europe and how this pocket of volatility is different to anything we’ve seen since 2020.They also delve into the uncertainty surrounding uncovered double-B MVOCs, the year ahead for CLO equity returns and if there are any equity hedges out there.Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

In this episode of Syndication Nation, 9fin’s podcast on all things leveraged finance, US LevFin reporter Zoe Han joins US managing editor Bill Weisbrod to discuss her recent reporting on the explosive growth of prediction markets — and whether credit investors are actually all in or just hedging their bets.Are prediction markets a legitimate “truth machine” for LevFin dealmakers? Listen in and draw your own conclusion!Got a hot take or just need to vent after blowing your bonus on a bad bet? Drop us a note at podcast@9fin.com.

This article is part of our new APAC coverage, which will ultimately require a separate subscription to view. For more info on this product, contact subscriptions@9fin.comA big change is coming for the Indian banking system. Starting 1 April, India’s central bank will allow domestic banks to fund mergers and acquisitions. It’s a change to long-held rules barring lenders from the Indian M&A market, which has so far been dominated by foreign lenders and private credit funds.As Indian banks prepare to lend more to domestic corporates, what does this mean for liquidity, access to funding, and for international lenders that have earned 20% yields so far?9fin's Mumbai-based reporter Rajhkumar Shaaw and Asia editor Richard Macauley answer these questions and walk listeners through the changes in this latest edition of our Cloud 9fin podcast.

The 2017 NYDJ Apparel (nee Not Your Daughter’s Jeans) transaction pre-dated Serta as the original “uptier” liability management deal in which lenders holding a majority of the loan amended the waterfall to uptier their existing holdings plus new money, subordinating minority lenders holding the same loans.In a conversation with 9fin’s Global Head of Distressed & LevFin Max Frumes, Debevoise's co-head of restructuring Sidney Levinson, who represented the majority lenders in that case, discusses the significance of the deal at the time and the evolution of LME technology ever since. They’re joined by Debevoise Partners Scott Selinger and Erica Weisgerber, to of the co-heads of the firm’s expanded Liability Management and Special Situations Group.Listen as they explore the commonalities and differences between the NYDJ situation and other well-known restructurings including Serta, J.Crew, Envision, Robertshaw, Trimark, Boardriders, Chewy, Petsmart, Caesars and Xerox.Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for watching and listening!

The collapse of UK mortgage bridge lender Market Financial Solutions has caused chaos across specialist lending. Mortgages are the heart of the securitised products business, and if you can’t trust mortgages, what can you rely on?9fin broke the news of double pledging and shortfall in collateral found under its warehouse facilities. The fraud allegations are reminiscent of the recent cases of First Brands and Tricolor in the US that have shaken the private asset-based lending industry.Lots of well-known firms have been caught on the wrong side of MFS — the likes of Barclays, Atlas SP and Castlelake — and it was a close shave for other lenders.In this episode of Distressed Diaries, host and senior reporter Bianca Boorer sits down with 9fin asset-based finance editor Owen Sanderson and Kawai Chung, mortgage market veteran and CEO of UK lender Folk2Folk, to dig into the drama, assess the impact, and consider how the ‘safest’ form of lending might have ended up in double-pledging.Most importantly, we look at what could be done differently in future — as borrowers scramble to prove their credentials and lenders look over their books, what’s the future of asset-based finance in Europe?

Alternative internet providers swarmed the market during Covid-19 when internet usage became paramount to the shift of everyone suddenly having to work from home during lockdowns.In the UK we have over 100 altnet providers serving 16.4 million homes, according to a 2025 report by the Independent Networks Co-operative Association. This is up from 1.2 million homes in 2019.Investors were quick to support this expansion with cheap funding. Since 2020, the sector has received around £17.4bn of funding, according to advisory firm BDO.However, the ‘build and they will come’ model proved far too optimistic as subscriber growth failed to keep pace. Rising interest rates and burdening costs of building the infrastructure also weighed on these broadband providers.We started to see the first signs of distress at the start of the year, with G.Network filing for administration, shortly after its acquisition by distressed debt investor FitzWalter, and creditors moved to take control of Gigaclear.On this episode we sit down with Ben Davies and Stuart Keeping, senior managing directors from financial advisory firm Teneo to delve into the rise and fall of this overcrowded market and providers’ response to the challenges.

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Debevoise's newest partners, Rachel Ehrlich Albanese, Sam Newman and Daniel Shamah to discuss the groups enhanced restructuring capabilities. They provide an overview of the LME and in-court landscape, and discuss what the year may bring by way of out-of-court vs in court transactions, sponsor and creditor incentives, and whether liability management is a true fix.Find all our coverage on co-ops and LMEs at 9fin.com.Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

Recent headlines suggest the private credit market is beginning to crumble; however, the asset class isn't a monolith. Look further downmarket, and a far more resilient story emerges.In this episode of Cloud 9fin, US private credit deputy editor Shubham Saharan is joined by Natalie Garcia, Deerpath's head of underwriting, as well as Reed Van Gorden, Deerpath’s head of origination, to discuss how the lower middle market is staying steady despite industry headwinds.Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com.

Electronic Arts’ proposed $55bn leveraged buyout has upended expectations for its 2031 and 2051 bonds.Instead of pricing in a straightforward 101% change-of-control payout, investors are weighing a tender offer and potential defeasance strategy that could strip covenants and lower the takeout cost. With a potential downgrade looming, bondholders must decide whether they can resist the maneuver or accept a discounted exit.Tune into our latest episode of Cloud 9fin, where senior legal analysts Chris Osborne and Anthony Park unpack this situation with senior credit analyst Steven Price.Follow our reporting of the Electronic Arts takeover at 9fin.com.Have any feedback on this episode? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

When traditional cashflow lending tightens, liquidity doesn’t always come from the usual places — sometimes lenders have to break companies into smaller, more financeable pieces.Carving out working capital assets, which involves isolating and valuing receivables and inventory in standalone structures, has emerged as a go-to strategy for borrowers looking to unlock incremental capital without refinancing their entire capital stack.On this episode of Cloud 9fin, Anna Russi speaks with Mitch Soiefer, partner and head of lender finance at SLR Capital Partners, to unpack how working capital assets are being carved out of traditional credit agreements to keep capital flowing, and why these structures tend to show up late in the credit cycle.Have any feedback? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

Anyone who was in the LevFin market in 2022 may remember banks using term loan As to fill the financing gap when rising interest rates disrupted the syndicated loan market. That instrument has made a comeback — except this time, the TLA is no longer a back-up, but a tool to get larger financings done.In this episode, Cloud 9fin deputy LevFin editor Sasha Padbidri sat down with reporter Yiwen Lu and senior reporter Sunny Oh, to discuss the resurgence of the so-called pro-rata market.We broke down the key features of TLAs, how banks use them to differentiate themselves from direct lenders, and the evolving lender base of TLAs. We also discussed how it played out in recent jumbo buyouts, including Hologic.Have any questions? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. You can also check out our feature on TLA here. Thanks for listening!

The leveraged finance markets saw a handful of leveraged buyouts keep pricing on their financing packages tight in January 2026. This was in spite of multiple geopolitical shocks and a sell-off in software loans as vibe coding comes into vogue. To put it all into perspective in this episode of Syndication Nation on Cloud 9fin, US LevFin reporter Dan Mika caught up with AGL Credit Management’s Wynne Comer for the view from her seat and what last month’s action tells us about the rest of 2026.Have any feedback? Reach out to us at podcast@9fin.com or to Dan at dan.mika@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

Ever signed up for a subscription, forgotten about it, and then been charged $100 a year later because it’s auto-renewed? Imagine doing the same, except add a few zeroes.In this episode of Cloud 9fin, David Hahn of Davis Polk talks to reporters Tom Quinn and Yiwen Lu about the emergence of snooze/lose clauses in the US credit market: how they work (and crucially, how they work differently to Europe) and their impact on US voting mechanics.Have any feedback? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

All eyes were on Ardagh’s CDS after Arini challenged its senior unsecured notes being included in the final list of deliverable obligations to settle contracts.The fund manger argued that, because the bonds had already been marked to be equitised as of the CDS trigger date (when the restructuring was both effective and binding) then their outstanding principal balance should be zero — since they effectively no longer existed. Arini went on to claim that any finding that the bonds still had a non-zero OPB would turn them it into “Schrödinger’s Obligations” — existing in two incompatible states at once.Tresidor and Laurion (the latter advised by Milbank) then joined the fight by issuing counter challenges defending the inclusion of the notes.The challenge was eventually rejected by the EMEA Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee in a split vote, with Citi and Pimco dissenting on the decision. That result means SUNs will be included, and so Ardagh’s equity valuation will influence the final payout as part of an alternative asset package delivery mechanism to replace the bonds.This hotly contested debate followed the DC having failed to achieve a supermajority ruling on the credit event trigger in the first place, which meant it had to call upon an external review panel of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. The panel of KCs determined the September tigger date, from which CDS contracts must pay out to protection holders, but did not specify how that payout would be handled at auction.In this episode of Distressed Diaries, our host, senior distressed reporter Bianca Boorer, sits down with 9fin editor and our resident CDS expert Dan Alderson to go through the ins and outs of this rejected challenge and what it means for the CDS market as a whole.

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, our global head of Distressed and Levfin, Max Frumes, talks with Latin America editor Xóchitl Herrer about a potential workout of Venezuela's sovereign and sub-sovereign debt, following the US-led extraction of president Nicolás Maduro. They provide an overview of the claims against the South American country, the barriers to a quick restructuring deal, and whether Venezuela will be able to gain access to funding without one.Find all our coverage on Venezuela at 9fin.com.Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com and latam@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

In this episode of Jane’s LME Addiction, our head of LME coverage Jane Komsky brings in Josh Brody and Kenneth Reinker from Cleary Gottlieb to discuss the Optimum Communications fka Altice USA antitrust litigation related to cooperation agreements. They provide an overview of the litigation and discuss the likelihood of success, the pitfalls of certain arguments, and whether this litigation is likely to impact how co-ops are formed.Find all our coverage on co-ops and LMEs at 9fin.com.Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!