
Cloud 9fin
Leveraged finance, distressed debt, and private credit drive today’s markets. Cloud 9fin delivers expert insights on high-yield bonds, syndicated loans, direct lending, and debt restructuring. Join top analysts and investors as we explore credit markets, special situations, and private debt strategies shaping the industry.
From credit risk assessment to institutional credit trends, each episode provides actionable intelligence for fund managers, institutional investors, and financial professionals. Whether you’re tracking high-yield issuances, analyzing corporate debt, or uncovering distressed debt opportunities, we’ve got you covered.
Through its AI-powered data and analytics platform, 9fin provides everything you need to get your head around credit or win a mandate — all in one place. We help subscribers win business, outperform their peers and save time. Stay ahead in leveraged finance market trends—subscribe now for expert discussions on the forces moving global credit.
Latest episodes

Mar 30, 2023 • 25min
Making marks in private credit
Unlike liquid leveraged loans, private debt is not frequently traded (although there are signs that this might be changing) and thus can be hard to value.But the funds that hold those private loans still have to find a way to value their books. How do they make their marks?In this episode of our Cloud 9fin podcast, deputy editor Bill Weisbrod sits down with Brian Garfield, a managing director in Lincoln International’s valuations and opinions practice, who helps private credit funds value their holdings in illiquid debt instruments.What’s the process for valuing an illiquid private loan? How are rising rates impacting private credit borrowers? And what does the rest of the year hold for asset performance?

Mar 23, 2023 • 15min
Boris Okuliar, Ares
9fin sits down with Boris Okuliar, portfolio manager and co-head of Global Liquid Credit in the Ares Credit Group. He gives us his opinions on the state of the market and discusses where he see value.

Mar 16, 2023 • 27min
Bank runs, bailouts and Basel
As Mike Tyson once said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Who knew he was predicting the policy response to the first big bank failures since the 2008 financial crisis?Some of us at 9fin are old enough to remember the alphabet soup of rules and specially designed capital instruments that was cooked up in the wake of the GFC, to ensure that banks could melt down in an orderly fashion and without regulatory intervention. So: what on earth happened to the plan?!In this week's episode of our Cloud 9fin podcast, editors Will Caiger-Smith and Owen Sanderson do their best to explain the fallout from the recent drama at Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, and what it might mean for credit markets going forward.

Mar 9, 2023 • 19min
Tim Metzgen and Tom Paterson, A&M
Katharine Hidalgo sits down with two debt advisers from Alvarez & Marsal to discuss what they foresee for the market. Tim Metzgen, Managing Director and EMEA Head of Debt Advisory and Senior Director Tom Paterson give us some insight into how borrowers are managing a more challenging environment and what lenders are asking for in 2023.

Mar 2, 2023 • 10min
The Fed, add-backs, et Cetera
Everyone knows interest rates are higher than they were last year. No-one can say for sure where they’ll be this time next year, but people have a fairly good idea.Given those expectations, it’s no surprise that some brokerage companies are using rate-related adjustments to boost their EBITDA. But is there a way these adjustments could go awry?This week, Will Caiger-Smith and Emily Fasold dig into Cetera Financial’s latest loan deal, and the add-backs the company is using to flatter its credit profile.

Feb 23, 2023 • 13min
CLO demand
The 9fin editorial team ask where are the deals? Securitisation reporter and acting levfin editor Owen Sanderson discusses CLO trends in 2023 and demand for new issuance.

Feb 16, 2023 • 18min
Optimus Subprime
The US auto lending industry is a finance juggernaut, but not all auto loans are made equal. In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Will Caiger-Smith sits down with reporter William Hoffman to dig into two of the high yield market's best known subprime auto lenders. What does the future have in store for these companies as consumer credit quality teeters on the brink of a downturn?

Feb 9, 2023 • 20min
Ceconomy, 2022 covenants, ESG database
The 9fin team takes a look into Ceconomy and its oversold risks with Emmet McNally. Brian Dearing gives us a preview into a report on 2022 covenant trends and Tom Hudson discusses the pitfalls and obstacles his engineering team faced when building 9fin's ESG company database.

Feb 3, 2023 • 11min
Tried so hard, and got SOFR...
...but in the end, does it even really matter? Leveraged loan investors are railing against suboptimal credit-spread adjustments as borrowers transition their coupons away from Libor to SOFR. Some of them are even considering legal action. Do they have a case? Will Caiger-Smith and David Bell dive into the niche administrative issue that suddenly became a new battleground in leveraged credit.

Jan 26, 2023 • 18min
Stuart Brinkworth, Mayer Brown
Katharine Hidalgo sits down with Stuart Brinkworth to discuss private credit's latest trends. We discuss documentation, the impact of rising interest costs on businesses and what to expect from 2023. Brinkworth is Mayer Brown's head of Leveraged Finance in Europe and a partner in the Banking & Finance practice of the London office.