Cloud 9fin

• Distressed Diaries — Weil we have your attention, what is fair?

  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!

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• What makes the middle market?

  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].

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• Syndication Nation — Credit and the Cosmos

  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.

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• Navigating downturns with Hilco’s Jamie Sprayregen

  In this episode of Cloud 9fin, distressed debt reporter Ayden Crosby and editor Rachel Butt sit down with Jamie Sprayregen, vice chairman of global strategy and growth at Hilco Global, for a grand tour through 2025’s hottest topics in distressed credit and the restructuring world.We asked Jamie about his views on a number of 9fin’s favorite themes, including how AI is disrupting the market, the rise of ABS deals from stressed issuers, tussles between sponsors and creditors, the impact of tariffs, and his takeaways from the rapid downfall of First Brands.

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• Syndication Nation — Education borrowers taken to task

  Private equity-owned education companies like Houghton Mifflin and Lakeshore Learning are learning a hard lesson in the US leveraged finance market this year as their loans and bonds have tumbled to trade at discounts.In this episode of Cloud 9fin, senior reporter Sunny Oh sat down with US managing editor Bill Weisbrod and discussed his story about how investors have taken a close look at this group of borrowers and asked what the future holds for them in a world where school districts have had to tighten belts and cut spending.Most notably, we talked about how the expiration of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Program (ESSER) has hurt education borrowers who have struggled to fill in the hole left by the $190bn policy. Meanwhile, falling school enrollment and the global trade war has compounded issues in the sector.

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