Cloud 9fin

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!

Welcome back, Cloud 9fin listeners! To bring in the new year, 9fin’s Asia editor Richard Macauley and US deputy editor Sasha Padbidri kick off our first-ever Asia podcast by unpacking the first successful use of the cross-class cramdown provision in GP APAC’s restructuring — a move that established a legal milestone for Singapore’s restructuring and insolvency framework.For more details, check out the full story here.Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com, or reach out to rich.macauley@9fin.com to learn more about our APAC offering!

Happy Holidays, Cloud 9fin listeners! We hope you’re enjoying some much-needed down time as we prepare for what is to come in 2026. But for those who have a few more odds and ends to tend to, here’s one last episode of Syndication Nation, our leveraged finance-focused podcast series to keep us company.In this episode, 9fin senior levfin reporter Dan Mika sits down with Mitch Garfin, co-head of leveraged finance at BlackRock, to discuss the dynamic landscape of high-yield bonds and leveraged loans as we approach the new year.They explore the trends in bond issuance, the shift towards leveraged loans, and the impact of monetary policy on the market. Mitch shares insights on the evolving credit landscape, the role of private credit, and the anticipated challenges and opportunities in the coming year. Tune in for a deep dive into the world of liquid credit and what lies ahead for investors and issuers alike.Have any questions? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

Now that 2025 is coming to an end, Distressed Diaries is taking a look back at the highs and lows of the year.Our host, senior distressed reporter Bianca Boorer, sits down with 9fin’s managing distressed credit analyst Emmet Mc Nally and senior legal consultant Luke Viner on Dec 3 to talk about the stories that stood out during this pivotal year.We revisited a few ghosts of restructurings that haunted us during the year, including Ardagh, Kloeckner Pentaplast, and Petrofac. We delve into the domino effect another successful appeal of the UK Restructuring Plan had in the courts, how aggressive LMEs have made it trickier to predict recoveries and the evolution of the co-op.Finally, we lay out our expectations for the new year ahead.And if you prefer a long read, we have also explored these themes in our traditional year-end report: European Distressed Year in Review 2025 — Don't look back in anger.

In this episode of Tranche Talk, we welcome back Bank of America’s Pratik Gupta who talks with 9fin’s Tanvi Gupta on the defining moments of 2025 and what the new year will bring for CLOs.They discuss CLO being the best asset class to sell in a rate cutting cycle and the opportunities to rotate into RMBS AAAs, separating facts from fiction for private credit CLO fears and the demand landscape between Japanese banks, US banks and ETFs.They also delve into CLO equity performance, opportunities for CLO managers in portfolio trading and how CLO managers should differentiate themselves when they’re all chasing the same conservative assets.

In the constantly shifting landscape of private credit secondaries, diversification and strategic alignment play crucial roles as navigational aides.In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Josie Shillito, head of private credit at 9fin, delves into the burgeoning market of private credit secondaries with experts Daniel Roddick and Francois Bouillon from Ely Place Partners.They set the scene by highlighting the explosive growth in GP-led secondaries. This has been driven by a pressing need for liquidity amidst subdued M&A and IPO activity. The conversation explores how investors can strategically position themselves to capitalize on this market, emphasizing the importance of understanding the nuances of both LP-led and GP-led transactions.Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com.

In the inaugural episode of The In-Court Report with Cat Corey, distressed legal analyst Cat Corey brings in Vince Buccola, professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and Lara Sheikh, bankruptcy legal analyst at 9fin, to discuss the latest trends relating to backstop fees in rights offerings and DIP financings, along with the impact of the recent ConvergeOne decision.The episode also discusses a recent paper authored by Professor Buccola, along with Adi Marcovich Gross and Matthew McBrady, that analyzes the returns to equity rights offering backstop commitments.Find all our coverage on issues relating to backstop fees at 9fin.com.Have any feedback on the podcast? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com — thanks for listening!

A lot has changed in European restructuring this year.Two more appeals in the UK courts — Thames Water and Petrofac — led to **Waldorf** failing at the first hurdle as judges increasingly focus on being fairer to creditors who are considered out of the money.The appeals have created a lot of uncertainty as restructuring practitioners are trying to work out what exactly is considered fair? The Supreme Court hearing on Waldorf’s case in February hopefully should provide more clarity.Issuers have been starting to shy away from using the UK Restructuring Plan to avoid the risk of their plan being reversed by the Court of Appeal. Instead they are increasingly turning to looking into ways to implement out of court through liability management exercises in other European jurisdictions.We saw this in Selecta which implemented its restructuring through a distressed disposal in the Netherlands.Private credit is also in the lime light this year as the market has been growing its presence in distress both as providers of fresh capital and as private credit lenders end up taking the keys.In this episode we delve into all these emerging themes with Daniel Bayfield, Barrister at South Square and Lois Deasey and Matt Benson, restructuring partners from Weil. All three provide insights on their involvement in all of the above mentioned cases.Weil and 9fin initially sat down to discuss these topics at the Weil & 9fin Private Credit & Restructuring Autumn Forum on 8 October (find here some of the highlights of that day). This podcast is for the benefit of those who could not attend!

It seems like everyone has a different definition of middle market direct lending and what challenges so-called ‘middle market’ borrowers and lenders are facing.Join PGIM’s head of middle market direct lending, Matt Harvey, and 9fin senior private credit reporter Shubham Saharan as they explore trends in the middle market and what direct lenders and LPs should be on the lookout for as they head into 2026.Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com.