Benchmark prior transactions, bonds, loans or company profiles using over 300 credit metrics.

Comparables

AI transcripts & instant analysis, making earnings season easier than ever.

Earnings

A full suite of ESG data and analysis. Built for your workflow

Spot undervalued credits and potential future restructurings with our purpose-built tools.

Distressed and Restructuring

Full Financial profiles with 3 statements, KPIs, segment splits & credit metrics. All traced to source documents.

Financials

New deal analysis and covenant comparison tools, understand key risks in seconds not days.

Covenants

Say goodbye to CTRL + F with our powerful search. Thousands of documents text searchable for any keyword or phrase.

Search

We've successfully predicted more than 65 price sensitive events - before they happened.

Deal predictions

We use AI to aggregate newsflow from 2,000 sources, and deliver it to your inbox quicker than anyone else.

News

Track high yield deals from issuance through to maturity, with integrated legal, credit and ESG analysis.

High Yield Bonds

Shine a light on private markets with 9fin's news and legal analysis of syndicated loans

Leveraged Loans

21st century tech and expert analysis to help CLO teams make informed decisions faster.

Structured Credit 

Find information others can't see in one of the fastest growing corners of finance

Private Credit 

David Bell

Bill Weisbrod

William Hoffman

A dovish pivot from the Fed, a soaring stock market, a $5.8bn LBO bid for Macy’s, debt-financed dividends for Blackstone portfolio companies…we’re coming up on the end of the year, but in some ways it feels like things are just getting going.

Arkhouse and Brigade Capital’s potential Macy’s deal will be one to watch, especially given the performance of the debt backing some recent retail buyouts (everyone is looking at you, At Home and Michaels Stores).

Trading levels on Macy’s debt since the announcement suggest a degree of skepticism over whether or not it will actually happen. We’ve seen false alarms in the past — sale talks fell through for Macy’s in 2017, and for Kohl’s in 2022. But on balance, more sponsor interest in assets like this is probably a positive thing for leveraged finance. 

Sell-side sources say they’re heading into 2024 very light on the LBO and M&A front, but there’s increasing hope for a pick-up in dealmaking. Hope springs eternal among bankers, but there are some concrete signs of progress — Occidental’s $12bn acquisition of high yield credit CrownRock, for example, and KKR’s bid to acquire healthcare tech company Cotiviti.

"We're hearing that there's been a very strong pickup recently in M&A inquiry with underwriting banks,” said Kevin Cronk, liquid credit portfolio manager at BSP-Alcentra. “Lower rates are a big driver of that, as well as the general economic outlook and tight spreads. Markets are open.”

Let’s not hold our breath just yet — it takes months for M&A to work through this regulatory environment, and there’s still plenty of time for deals to fall flat. 

Take Medtronic, for example: we reported yesterday that the company officially walked away from a potential $7bn asset sale to Carlyle in late November, taking $2.5bn of debt financing out of the pipeline.

The financing opportunities that remain are being scrapped over by both bank underwriters and direct lenders. 

In the case of KKR’s $11bn bid for Cotiviti, bank underwriters appear to have the edge. The recent rally in credit — accelerated by Wednesday’s dovish Fed meeting — is helping banks pitch more aggressive pricing, though direct lenders are countering with PIK options and potentially a bigger debt package.

Similarly, both syndicated and private lenders are circling a sale process for outdoor furniture company Polywood in the hope of picking up the financing.

“We’re seeing much more private lender activity now,” said a leveraged finance lawyer. “People don’t want to deal with syndications.”

The shortage of new money deals as well as exit opportunities is partly why we’ve seen a string of sponsor-backed portfolio companies hit the market this week either to fund dividends to their owners, reprice or extend their existing loans, or….support Blackstone’s Taylor Swift-inspired Eras Tour??

“Repricings are the talk of the town again,” said a sponsor coverage banker. “In terms of new LBOs it’s light. The private credit bid is big.”

When the Fed says it will cut rates (from here — click if you dare…)

Not content with publishing a Taylor Swift-themed Christmas video, Blackstone also used this week to pay itself a dividend with a $500m TLB from banking infrastructure business IntraFi — a company that has benefited from increased concerns over deposit safety since the regional banking crisis earlier this year. 

The sponsor’s genealogy business Ancestry is also expected to bring a $375m four-year non-fungible TLB to part-fund a $500m dividend, according to a report from Moody’s.

Meanwhile, Carlyle’s media broadcasting business NEP Group offered existing lenders some PIK pricing sweetenersto help support a short extension of its debt, more than $2bn of which was due to mature in 2025.

Elsewhere, USI Insurance offered an interesting data point with one of the tightest triple-C bond coupons printed this year, according to 9fin data. The firm, which is owned by CDPQ and KKR, was also able to shave 50bps off the pricing of its $2.475bn TLB due 2029 with a repricing.

Non-sponsored corporates found strong execution this week, with issuers including Community Health Systems able to upsize bond deals. The hospital operator dangled a generous 11% price talk on a new 2032 secured note to tender for existing debt, which was classified as a distressed exchange by S&P. 

Despite the company’s heavy debt load and thin free cash flow, there was enough lender interest to upsize the new notes to $1bn from $750m, and tighten pricing to 10.875%.

There has also been plenty of demand for energy credits. Many names in the sector are embarking on a refinancing push, and strong investor appetite is underscoring the industry’s position as one of the most heavily favored areas of high yield.

At the gnarlier end of the credit spectrum, our new structured credit team outlined the triple-C names that are weighing most heavily on CLO managers this year — and the private credit rescue scenarios that lenders are wishing for in their holiday hampers.

Speaking of rescues, Enviva is still in financial crisis. This week, we took a deep dive into the meltdown of the company and one of its backers, Inclusive Capital. These two intersecting stories tell another much bigger tale: the downfall of ESG in America.

Finally, anyone with an interest in the bankruptcy world should check out our 9Questions interview with Cliff White, the former head of the US Trustee Program. He gave his views on the fallout from the Judge Jones scandal and what it means for restructuring cases.

Kirkland & Ellis: is it party over for the world’s most profitable law firm? (FT)

Shari Redstone weighs sale of stake in Paramount Global (Bloomberg)

The year Twitter died: a special series from The Verge (The Verge)

Hedge fund groups sue SEC in effort to block short-selling rules (FT)

Shohei Ohtani’s massive deferrals, Dodgers contract explained (The Athletic) 

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney: the post-trial interview (The Verge)

Apollo plans private credit product with $2,500 minimum investment (Apollo)

US LevFin Wrap — Macy’s catches a bid, Blackstone takes dividends, Cotiviti and KKR weigh options

Owen Sanderson

Excess Spread — Sweet release, baked Danish

9fin team

Webinar Replay — Free fallin': Chapter 11 trends that defined 2025 and what's next

Sasha Padbidri

Luke Viner

The Singapore cross-class cramdown provision’s future is now

Webinar Replay — The art of the LME: defining trends in 2025, and looking ahead to what’s next

Save time, react faster to news, outperform your peers.

Asset Managers & Hedge funds

Save time, pitch more efficiently, and win business.

Investment Banks

Turbocharge your trading desk P&L, with the market's fastest news alerts.

Sales & Trading

Spot novel covenants, save time drafting and win business.

🍪 Our Cookies

US LevFin Wrap — Macy’s catches a bid, Blackstone takes dividends, Cotiviti and KKR weigh options

Read all our public content for free

Recently Published

Excess Spread — Sweet release, baked Danish

Webinar Replay — Free fallin': Chapter 11 trends that defined 2025 and what's next

The Singapore cross-class cramdown provision’s future is now

Webinar Replay — The art of the LME: defining trends in 2025, and looking ahead to what’s next

What are you waiting for?