Recent developments in the German Real Estate industry have attracted significant attention due to controversial governance and questionable transactions, which were further exacerbated by a series of short-seller attacks.However, are these factors solely responsible for their bonds trading at distressed levels and the equity at a considerable discount to book value?For this week’s podcast, Chris Haffenden, Editor at 9fin, sits down with Senior Distressed Analyst Emmet Mc Nally and Credit Analyst Hazik Siddiqui to talk about our recent special report on German Real Estate.   The podcast, much like the report, covers everything from the key terminology and inputs determining credit ratios and KPIs, to what potential triggers lie ahead for companies with near-term maturity walls and where our analysts see best value in the market. Want to get your hands on a copy of the full special report? 👉 Join the waiting list to get your copy next Wednesday — https://lnkd.in/e6UxnsRt

Credit ratings are one of the foundations of modern credit markets — and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners wants in on the action.Several months ago, the regulatory association announced plans to adjust the capital charges for insurance companies investing in CLO debt and equity, by developing an in-house rating methodology instead of relying on the big three agencies.The plans were already controversial within the CLO industry. But in a recent update, the NAIC has expanded the scope of these new rules, sparking broader outrage from industry observers as well as several Republicans on the House Financial Services committee.The NAIC says it’s looking to prevent “regulatory arbitrage”, but critics see the rules as a “land grab” for rating fees. For this week’s podcast, Will Caiger-Smith sits down with US deputy editor David Bell to unpack the controversy.

Will Thames Water’s overflowing £14bn debt pile lead to its downfall? Or should everyone pipe down?Bianca Boorer sits down with Owen Sanderson to discuss the media storm around Thames Water over the last two weeks, dispelling misguided views on its liquidity while going through potential obstacles down the stream.

Exploring the J.Crew maneuver and its impact on liability management deals. The podcast discusses securitization baskets in credit agreements and the potential loopholes they create. It includes a case study on the Norska Skug transaction and highlights the complexities of securitizing intellectual property. The concerns about collateral and loose covenant terms in whole business securitization with intellectual property are also addressed.

Thanks to rising scrutiny from investors, ESG is no longer just a second thought in private credit dealmaking. It’s now a must-have.Private funds are using a variety of methods to integrate ESG considerations into their decision-making: for this week’s episode, our host Sammy Cole sat down with Cassandra Fahy, a managing director at Pemberton Asset Management, to discuss some of them.How has the approach to ESG evolved over time? What challenges come up when collecting data from borrowers? And what does the future holds for ESG in private credit?

The end of Libor is a little over a week away, and some US corporate borrowers are still racing to switch their floating rate loans to SOFR ahead of the 30 June deadline.The loan market’s transition away from the old reference rate has been slow, but increasingly contentious in recent months. Borrowers, lenders and financial sponsors have tussled over the compensation offered to loan investors to swap into the lower-yielding SOFR benchmark.In this week’s edition of Cloud 9fin, US deputy editor David Bell sat down with Dan Ko, a senior principal and portfolio manager at Eagle Point Credit Management to talk about how CLO equity investors rallied loan buyers to resist off-market SOFR amendments — as well as the challenges and opportunities in CLO equity as more deals exit their reinvestment periods.

Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget (SBB) has had a tough couple of months, after losing its investment grade rating and with some bondholders now arguing the company has breached a key covenant under its bond documentation.For this week’s episode of Cloud9fin, Bianca Boorer sits down with Hazik Siddiqui and David Orbay-Graves to look into the Swedish real estate firm’s recent accounting revisions, ways it can address its bloated capital structure and thoughts on recoveries.

Private credit is attracting plenty of new faces these days, but as we wrote in this week’s Unicrunch newsletter, a handful of household names dominate fundraising and dealmaking.Craig Packer is one of those names. Owl Rock, the direct lending firm he co-founded back in 2016, was already a power player in direct lending before it merged with Dyal Capital in 2021 to create Blue Owl; he’s now at the helm of one of private credit’s biggest brands, as investor interest in the sector is going mainstream.For this week’s episode of the podcast, our private credit editor David Brooke sat down with Craig to talk about deals, documentation, retail investors and the threat of a recession — and Blue Owl’s efforts to dictate terms and keep lending standards tight.

Why is Pizza Express getting into the music business? Well, these plans have been in the works for a while, and they actually make more sense than you might think.That doesn’t mean this venture is without risk — especially as the company’s margins are deteriorating, and it’s had some troublesome relations with hourly workers over the past few months.So how does PX Records, the group’s new jazz-focused music imprint, fit into the broader business plan? For this week’s episode of the podcast, host Sammy Cole sits down with US managing editor Will Caiger-Smith to get the download.

9fin’s distressed reporter Bianca Boorer travels to Milan to sit down with Bruno Cova, Partner and European co-chair of restructuring and insolvency at law firm Greenberg Traurig.Cova takes us through his illustrious career so far, from working for the Italian government, on Parmalat, Europe’s largest fraud case, to moving into private practice and working on big restructuring cases such Moby and Maccaferri.He gives his insights into the benefits and drawbacks of the recent reform in the Italian bankruptcy law as well as what to look out for in distress going forward.