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 [email protected] — 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 [email protected], or reach out to [email protected] 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected].

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 [email protected] — 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 [email protected].

It’s not every day that we get to talk about something that’s quite literally out of this world.

We’re referring to space-based data centers, which billionaire tech titans and startups alike are racing to build out as AI fever grips Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Proponents argue that space data centers offer substantial benefits versus their terrestrial counterparts, including freedom from natural disaster risks, access to unlimited free solar power and elimination of complex cooling requirements.

Global head of Distressed & LevFin Max Frumes sat down with LevFin deputy editor Sasha Padbidri to unpack what this means for existing data center infrastructure and the billions of dollars of debt financing already raised by giants like Meta, CoreWeave and Amazon to fund those buildouts.

Have any feedback about this episode? Send us a note at [email protected]. You can also check out our feature on space data centers here.