The HALO (heavy assets, low obsolescence) trade has gained traction in recent months — particularly in the equity markets — as investors turn away from software businesses amid AI displacement concerns.

In this week’s episode of Syndication Nation, 9fin’s podcast on all things leveraged finance, LevFin reporter David Westenhaver joins US deputy editor Sasha Padbidri in unpacking HALO for our side of the market — which credits are actually benefitting from the trade, and whether this is truly a safe haven for LevFin investors.

Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

Everyone remembers their first car… lead-acid battery supplier bankruptcy.

For Max Frumes, 9fin’s global head of distressed debt and LevFin, that situation was Exide Technologies. It was the first full cycle of distress, bankruptcy and emergence that he covered in his storied career.

And George Schultze, founder and CEO of Schultze Asset Management and author of The Art of Vulture Investing, was an investor during that Exide bankruptcy — the second one, anyway — which taught him some valuable lessons about the importance of being nimble. And, of course, that regulatory factors are more likely to upend distressed investing strategies than support them.

In this latest episode of Cloud 9fin, Max and George compare notes, reminisce, and banter about a wide spectrum of distressed companies past and present.

Thanks for listening! Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com.

We’re kicking off a new podcast series, LME Doomscrolling with Laurie, where 9fin’s senior LME lawyer Laurie Tomassian unpacks the impact, risks and incentives of the evolving landscape of liability management exercises.

In this inaugural episode, Laurie sits down with Professor Mark Roe and researcher Vasile Rotaru of Harvard Law School to explore their new study which measures how non-pro rata coercive LMEs fare in the long run. They discuss whether LMEs deliver on their promise(s) to sustainably extend a distressed company’s runway.

Their study, entitled Liability Management’s Limited Runway: Corporate Restructuring Today, can be found here.

Have any questions? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com.

The recent sell-off in software has sparked a broader reassessment of risk across private credit. But are managers pulling back from risk, or just recalibrating how they price it?

In this episode of Cloud 9fin, private credit reporter Anna Russi sits down with Patrick Warren, head of private credit research at MSCI, to unpack what’s driving the shift. Drawing on new data, they explore where signs of stress are emerging in software lending and venture debt, how valuation marks could be masking underlying pressures, and what this reveals about risk, performance, and portfolio assumptions in today’s market.

Have any feedback for us? Send a note to podcast@9fin.com.

In this episode of Syndication Nation, 9fin’s podcast on all things leveraged finance, LevFin reporter David Westenhaver joins US deputy editor Sasha Padbidri to discuss his recent reporting on the wild ride that is Six Flags.

Fresh off the heels of a major refinancing, the company offloaded a handful of parks with the goal of deleveraging and focusing investment on a smaller portfolio. But will that be enough to fix the balance sheet? Or, after a decade of missteps, can the amusement park owner’s new CEO complete the operational turnaround that investors have sought for years?

Follow our reporting on Six Flags at 9fin.com. Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!

Footnote: The podcast mentions that Knott’s Berry Farm has one of the oldest wooden roller coasters, and that it is 65 years old. The roller coaster referenced was GhostRider, which was built in 1998. The oldest continuously operational wooden roller coaster in the world is Scenic Railway in Luna Park, Melbourne, Australia. The coaster entered operations in 1912.

The Chemicals sector has been suffering from geopolitical tensions since Russian invaded Ukraine four years ago. Now with US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and ongoing worldwide tariffs, volatility is higher than ever.

In this episode of Distressed Diaries, our host senior reporter Bianca Boorer sits down with Kunal Shah, the founder and chief investment officer of London-based hedge fund PVTL point, and his partner and member of the investment team Ryan Flew, to discuss how the latest conflict in the Middle East is impacting the sector.

What is the sector doing to cope with these challenges? Are European governments doing enough to help? Is UK chemicals producer INEOS out of the woods yet? Where do opportunities lie for distressed investors in this uncertain environment?

Tune in to find out!

In this episode of Tranche Talk, Cloud 9fin’s CLO series, our global head of CLOs, Tanvi Gupta, talks with Alex Navin, managing director at Performance Trust Capital Partners.

They discuss how CLO tranches are trading in this macro backdrop, triple-A liquidity, the influence of vintage on CLO trading, relative value between the US and Europe and how this pocket of volatility is different to anything we’ve seen since 2020.

They also delve into the uncertainty surrounding uncovered double-B MVOCs, the year ahead for CLO equity returns and if there are any equity hedges out there.

Have any feedback for us? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening!