Debtwired!

Jamie McFarlane, Special Situations Portfolio Manager at Polus Capital Management, explores Europe’s distressed debt landscape. He discusses sourcing special situations, finding value amid tight spreads, and spotting distress before default. The conversation covers leverage, asset value, legal protections, liability management exercises, relationship-driven deal flow, and how AI could reshape distressed opportunities.

In this episode of Debtwired! the discussion turns to Del Monte, as Deputy Courts Editor Andy Serbe sits down with debtors' counsel Adam Rogoff and Megan Wasson to talk about the deals, litigation, and negotiations central to managing the megacase.

In this episode of Debtwired!, Paul Greaves speaks with Stephen J. Lubben, professor at Seton Hall University School of Law and author of To Protect Their Interests: The Invention and Exploitation of Corporate Bankruptcy, about the increasingly complex restructuring situation facing Brightline Florida and what it could mean for creditors, investors, and the future of privately financed passenger rail.

In this episode of Debtwired!, Debtwire Municipals Managing Editor Paul Greaves speaks with David Skeel, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, former chair of the Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico, and author of Promise Land, on Puerto Rico's progress ten years after the fiscal crisis and the questions that will shape the island's next decade.

Michael B. Chaisanguanthum, UBS restructuring lead focused on workouts, and Gregory Cass, PGIM principal with 20+ years in special situations, discuss shifting lender strategies. They cover liability management exercises, pro rata cooperation agreements, hybrid debt-equity financings, DIP mechanics that can pre-wire outcomes, and how lenders may move from creditors to owners as stress rises.

Zul Jamal, U.S. Capital Structure Advisory co-head at Moelis with 25+ years handling complex lender negotiations; Barak Klein, co-head with 25+ years advising on liability management and Chapter 11 reorganizations. They discuss the shift to heavily secured debt stacks, rising Chapter 11 costs and the growth of liability management exercises. They also cover changing creditor types and restructuring strategies for software companies.

Elias Lambrianos, Managing Editor of Debtwire EMEA, sits down with Dr Tobias Moser, a German restructuring lawyer and partner at DMR Legal, to discuss the increasing popularity of Nordic bonds by German issuers, and the emergence of ‘Shareholding as a Service’ (ShaaS) as a corporate restructuring model on the German market.

In this episode, Olivia Guthorn, Managing Director in Oaktree's Opportunities Group, describes a credit market at all-time tights that appears to be looking through potentially significant macro risks, while meaningful dispersion builds underneath, particularly in healthcare IT and software. Olivia outlines Oaktree's cautious, highly selective approach to sectors exposed to AI disruption, focusing on businesses with durable characteristics such as proprietary data, strong customer integration, high switching costs, regulatory moats, and sufficient capital to invest in new technology. For healthcare, she draws a sharp distinction between provider IT and payer IT, with the former expected to be more insulated from AI risk and the latter being more exposed given the resources and incentive large national payers have to insource.Olivia discusses how policy changes including the One Big Beautiful Bill's impact on Medicaid reimbursement, potential ACA subsidy expiration, and a growing focus on fraud, waste, and abuse are driving dispersion across subsectors, with med devices and pharma looking relatively more attractive and Medicaid-exposed services remaining challenged. She also touches upon the growing focus on private credit and how the historical notion that private credit doesn't trade is being tested, with trading activity so far remaining limited and orderly but potentially accelerating if redemption pressures increase. She highlights that the next two to three years should represent a significant opportunity for sector-specialist, bottom-up investors in opportunistic credit like Oaktree.

Debtwire reporter Kunyi Yang speaks with Hilco Global's Ian Fredericks on distressed trends amid 2026's macro turbulence - tariffs, oil prices, the Iran conflict, and what it all means for retail and consumer markets.

Gary Holzer, a Weil partner in New York with 33 years focusing on cross-border restructurings, and Sunny Singh, a Weil restructuring partner with 20+ years handling in- and out-of-court deals. They discuss why some companies avoid Chapter 11, Fossil’s capital-structure challenge and its out-of-court UK-linked solution, mechanics of exchanges and plans, and risks like holdouts and litigation.