Cloud 9fin

It's Thanksgiving week in the US, which normally means the beginning of the end for the year's primary issuance — but this year might not follow the normal rules. We round up recent primary market news, explain the deteriorating outlook in the building products and software sectors, and unpack some new data around investor-facing hires on the buyside.

The 9fin content and analytics team wrap up the week's activity and co-head of European loans research Jainisha Amin discusses structural adjustments. ESG analyst Sammy Cole does a second part on new developments in SFDR and editor Chris Haffenden and distressed debt reporter Bianca Boorer talk Orpea's new restructuring plan.

The primary market is back open (for now) but there's a slow squeeze happening in secondary. Liquidity is poor, and lower-rated credits are underperforming — and it's going to get worse before it gets better. Will Caiger-Smith sits down with Emily Fasold to talk about the reinvestment crunch.

The 9fin content and analytics team wrap up the week's activity and senior legal analyst Alice Holian discusses dangerous covenant pitfalls with regard to Envision. ESG analyst Sammy Cole talks about new developments in SFDR and credit analyst Josh Latham and loans reporter Laura Thompson discuss European high-yield's upcoming maturity wall.

Moving or storage? Fix and flip or buy and hold? These days, investment banks are under increasing pressure to compete with private credit firms — that's why many of them have set up their own direct lending groups. Marisa Sotomayor sits down with Will Caiger-Smith to explain how these businesses work.

The 9fin content and analytics team wraps up the week's activity and co-head of European HY research Brian Dearing discusses subordination with regard to the recent Brightspeed and Carnival deals. ESG analyst Oliver Wise makes his debut on the pod to discuss Verisure's ESG issues and loans reporter Kat Hidalgo and US editor Will Caiger-Smith discuss the health of the CLO market in the light of Japanese AAA investor Norinchukin pulling out of CVC's latest CLO.

Last month, a group of climate protestors stormed a panel at a US private equity conference and lambasted ESG. A few weeks earlier, Texas and Florida had blacklisted ESG investment firms or banned the use of the practice. How did Republican politicians and left-wing activists end up united in their criticism of ESG?

The 9fin content and analytics team wraps up the week's activity and co-head of European loans research Jainisha Amin explains MFN clauses. Loans reporter Kat Hidalgo and Michal Skypala talk the steadily drying leveraged loans pipeline and ESG analyst Dan Power talks about issues on Graanul Invest and the biomass industry. 

For LBO underwriters, the good old days are well and truly over. The Citrix syndication, which officially closed last week, showed how banks are pulling out all the stops to offload risk while minimizing losses — and this new playbook involves some potentially awkward and painful consequences. Will Caiger-Smith sits down with Steven Hunter, 9fin's CEO, to map out this brave new world.

In this special episode the Cloud9fin team discusses their experience of the IPEM conference in Cannes, speaks to delegates and gives you a special look into two panel discussions from the event.