Cloud 9fin

While many European direct lenders are struggling to hit their fundraising targets, Hayfin has just pulled in more than €15bn.
On Cloud 9fin, Synne Johnsson speaks with Hayfin’s head of direct lending Mark Bickerstaffe about fundraising, deployment and the changing balance of power in European private credit. He explains how investor diversification away from the US has helped Hayfin attract capital.
The conversation also examines portfolio resilience, inflation risks and artificial intelligence. Looking ahead, it touches on refinancing challenges around 2028 and 2029 maturities, opportunities in capital solutions and asset-backed lending, and reasons for cautious optimism about deal activity later in 2026.
Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

Over the last decade, household name and beloved yogurt brand Chobani has evolved from a capacity-constrained yogurt producer into a credit market darling.
But tighter debt pricing is now prompting some of its longtime lenders to walk way even as they praise the business for its success.
In this episode of Cloud 9fin’s Syndication Nation, US LevFin reporter David Westenhaver unpacks the interesting backstory behind Chobani with deputy LevFin editor Sasha Padbidri, including its history in the credit market and the impact of the protein-maxxing trend on the business.
Since recording this podcast, the company has issued an additional $600m in debt to finance the purchase of a Pennsylvania production facility with an expected $1.2bn price tag.
Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

Javier Milei’s privatization push is reopening Argentina’s infrastructure to private capital. But turning investor interest into long-term financing hinges on credible contracts, predictable tariffs and stable foreign-exchange rules.
In this first episode of a two-part series, 9fin senior credit analyst Marina Varady joins Jimena Vega Olmos, a partner at Beccar Varela, Gonzalo Santamaría, a partner at Marval, and Gustavo Kopyto, a board member at TGN, to assess opportunities across privatizations, concessions and new projects.
Oil, gas and mining are top of mind for investors, with export revenues and RIGI protections helping mitigate Argentine risk. The discussion also covers AySA, road concessions and planned high-voltage transmission tenders.
Kopyto draws on TGN’s experience with frozen peso tariffs and dollar-linked debt to explain why respecting contracts matters. Vega Olmos outlines the return of project finance, where repayment depends on project cash flows, long-term offtake agreements and robust security packages rather than primarily on a sponsor’s balance sheet. Santamaría, in turn, highlights opportunities in export-oriented oil, gas and mining projects, while emphasizing the need for regular tariff adjustments and predictable regulation to sustain public utilities.
The Vaca Muerta Sur pipeline provides a financing precedent, combining sponsor equity with a bank consortium loan involving JP Morgan, Citi and Santander. The guests discuss how capital markets, sponsor support and multilateral guarantees could fund larger developments, drawing lessons from RenovAr and Genneia. They also examine why regulated utilities require stronger protections against tariff intervention, and why local participation in Transener need not signal foreign investor retreat: domestic investors can demonstrate confidence before international capital follows.
Thanks for listening and watching. If you have any feedback on this episode send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Look out for the second episode, which delves deeper into RIGI, among other things, in the near future!

Listen in on a riveting conversation with veteran financial journalist and bestselling author William D. Cohan to discuss his new book, Money to Burn: The Unvarnished Truth About Leon Black, Apollo, and the Rise of a New Wall Street.
9fin’s Max Frumes tries to understand just how Cohan gets some of the most influential figures in the history of finance and business to open up to him across his eight books.
In this latest book, Cohan takes us inside the world of Leon Black and the creation of Apollo Global Management, which today is one of most dominant and pioneering multi-strategy asset managers. Cohan has captured Black’s relationships with the other billionaires who ushered Apollo into its era of prominence, Marc Rowan and Josh Harris, as well as the early influence of figures including Michael Milken, and the personal tragedies that shaped some of Wall Street’s most powerful financiers.
The conversation also touches on Cohan’s reporting on Black’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — including the $158m Black paid Epstein for financial advice — and how one of the world’s toughest dealmakers came to enter such an unusual financial arrangement.

In this episode of LME Doomscrolling, 9fin’s senior LME lawyer Laurie Tomassian welcomes Bill Derrough, Managing Director and Chairman of the Capital Structure Solutions group at Jefferies.
Bill has over three decades of restructuring experience, with a roster of over 600 restructurings completed. What sets his deals apart is a track record of high creditor participation. Over his career, his deals have garnered on average 94% of creditors’ support.
He brings a new lens to the LME debate, offering a way to use sticks and carrots to get a consensual outcome, not to fuel continued creditor-on-creditor violence. In this episode he walks us through how he avoids the LME pitfalls of what he calls “bad investment banking” that lead to short-term liquidity solutions while creating diminished long-term recoveries. Bill and Laurie speak about how the prevalence of repeat restructurings has impacted creditor behavior and walk through some success stories that have created what Bill likes to call “durable” solutions.
Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!