It’s been a busy week, with a flurry of news and court developments, but the highlight for us at 9fin was the Weil & 9fin Private Credit & Restructuring Autumn Forum, where we explored the most pressing topics across the market alongside an exceptional line-up of speakers from the legal and investment community.

During the Restructuring at a Crossroads panel, speakers analysed this year's landmark cases — Thames Water, Petrofac, and Waldorf — examining how these recent court decisions are fundamentally reshaping the UK restructuring landscape. They highlighted key issues emerging from these cases, including the treatment of out-of-the-money creditors, the definition of the “relevant alternative”, and the burden of proof on plan companies to justify value allocation.

The Waldorf decision, in particular, marked a new level of judicial scrutiny following the Petrofac appeal judgment. The court refused to sanction the plan due to the lack of a credible alternative scenario and insufficient engagement with dissenting creditors. (See here our legal analysis.) With Petrofac having been overturned on similar grounds and Thames Water reinforcing these principles, the restructuring landscape has become more balanced, but also more demanding.

The Supreme Court is now expected to intervene, potentially clarifying the meaning of fairness, the scope of judicial discretion, and the evidential thresholds required.

“Whether the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from either Petrofac or Waldorf remains to be seen. If it does, the key question will be whether it is right to give real value to the contribution made to a restructuring by creditors who would be out of the money in the relevant alternative. One can see the attraction of doing so but it is questionable whether that was the intention behind Part 26A and it also begs the question how one goes about valuing the contributions of differently ranked creditors,” said one of the panellists, Daniel Bayfield, KC, barrister at South Square.

The panellists, moderated by our 9fin European distressed debt editor Alessia Pirolo, also discussed First Brands, one of 2025’s most complex and consequential bankruptcies. The company’s collapse — following revelations of heavy leverage, off-balance-sheet financing, and disputed receivables — has become a critical stress test for the private credit market. It exposes significant blind spots in how private lenders assess risk, monitor collateral, and manage interconnected exposures outside the traditional banking system. (Don’t miss our Webinar replay for expert insights and all the key details on the First Brands case, its controversial financing structure, and the legal issues at the heart of the collapse.)

Private credit and its growing intersection with distressed debt and restructuring was also a major topic of discussion at the forum.

The panellists noted that Europe’s private credit market has expanded exponentially and is poised to play an increasingly prominent role in restructurings. While workouts have traditionally been collaborative rather than confrontational, the landscape is shifting. As deal sizes increase and lender groups become more fragmented, private credit is increasingly becoming private in name but syndicated in practice. (Read our feature for a closer look on the role of private credit in reshaping key distress situations.)

Unsurprisingly, LMEs were also one of the hottest topics of the day. Our panellists explored how the European market is evolving, highlighting the key divergences from the more developed US landscape. They discussed the factors that either hold Europe back — or, depending on one’s perspective, protect it — from the more aggressive and sophisticated restructuring environment across the Atlantic. (LME topics we addressed in a three-part series here.)

The panellists noted that a recurring argument in the market is that European regimes offer stronger creditor protections than those in the US. While this is true to a degree — directors in Europe face heightened duties as insolvency approaches, and transactions near insolvency are more likely to attract scrutiny or avoidance challenges — the point is often overstated. In practice, they observed, the decisive constraint on LMEs is usually economic rather than legal: once a company is insolvent, an LME is rarely viable in any jurisdiction.

They also pointed out that, unlike the US, Europe operates against a multi-jurisdictional backdrop. The continent’s diverse legal systems and insolvency regimes each have their own nuances and procedural complexities, which can add further layers of difficulty to cross-border restructurings.

“However, where Europe diverges most sharply from the US is not as a result of the differences in local insolvency laws, but in the laws that govern the documents,” remarked another panellist, Neil Devaney, co-head of Weil, London restructuring practice.

At first glance, European high-yield bonds can appear even more flexible: many indentures require only 90% consent (rather than 100%) to amend key terms, compared with the unanimity often required under the US Trust Indenture Act. In some newer European structures, issuers can also elevate or up-tier existing debt with relatively modest consent thresholds.

In that sense, the panel noted, European high yield can be paradoxically more permissive than US documentation. Still, they cautioned that this flexibility is far from universal and depends heavily on governing law, the age of the issuance, and sponsor leverage. Moreover, European creditors tend to be more conservative and less receptive to the kind of aggressive creditor reordering seen in the US.

The panel also underscored the enduring influence of English law principles that restrict how majority powers may be exercised. In particular, they pointed to a long-standing doctrine, dating back to the nineteenth century, which was reaffirmed in the landmark Assénagon Asset Management v. Irish Bank Resolution Corporation case.

"This principle invalidated a coercive exit consent offer on the basis that it constituted an abuse of majority power. In practice, this means that English law places limits on some of the aggressive, coercive tactics that we often see deployed in US LMEs,” said Devaney.

Ultimately, the consensus was that while parts of Europe’s high-yield documentation can match US flexibility, the loan market remains more rigid — keeping the European approach to LMEs more cautious.

And if the US is likely to remain the frontier for aggressivity and risk-taking, Europe’s trajectory suggests convergence — albeit within a legal framework that tries to emphasise more balance and creditor protection.

Let’s now take a closer look at …

This week’s news

Ardagh — The company is once again the subject of a credit event question, as the Irish packaging firm nears a restructuring deal that will equitise its junior debt. The question seeks to trigger credit default swaps referencing the borrower, which have been a source of great uncertainty and market debate over recent months.

Groupe Casino — A group of large creditors have started discussions with the company on a second debt restructuring. This follows over a year of battling headwinds where management pursued ambitious targets but struggled to turn around its operating and financial performance.

First Brands — The automotive parts supplier is facing a request for examiner from Raistone Capital, one of the debtors’ SPV lenders, just over a week into the beleaguered auto-parts supplier’s Chapter 11 cases. Raistone cites first-day filings indicating that up to $2.3 billion tied to third-party factoring has “vanished” — an issue the debtors describe as mere “third-party factoring irregularities.” Meanwhile, 9fin has also undertaken a comprehensive review of the company’s capital structure, including all prepetition obligations.

Hilding Anders — The Swedish mattress company has sold its Russian subsidiary Askona after two years of negotiations. Askona’s founder and former minority shareholder Vladimir Sedov agreed to buy the asset after some back and forth on the valuation back in March. However, the closing of the sale was delayed due to the need for regulatory approval from EU, US and Russian authorities, as 9fin reported.

Hunkemoller — The Dutch lingerie company appeared in the Amsterdam District Court as a group of primed creditors claims its directors have breached their fiduciary duties. The hearing, which happened on 2 October, was the first in response to a petition issued by the creditors in April for pre-action discovery.

INEOS Quattro — Bonds and loans issued by the company extended losses on 8 October while its credit default swaps have hit new wides amid growing concerns over the financial outlook for what is seen as the weakest arm of the INEOS chemicals empire.

John Wood Group — The company is asking shareholders to urgently approve a temporary suspension of its borrowing limit, warning that failure to do so could trigger a default under its debt facilities, severely strain liquidity, and jeopardise its £200m takeover by Sidara.

Kem One — A group of bondholders in the chemical company has hired Gibson Dunn to represent them ahead of possible debt talks. Sources said that hedge funds were organising either to protect against, or because of their interest in, a non-pro rata transaction. The largest holder in the group is Arini, followed by Blackrock and Carlyle, the sources said. Meanwhile, rising idiosyncratic risk has pushed Kem One’s secured notes deep into distressed territory, falling from the mid-70s at the start of the year to the low-30s, yielding 54.5%. Read our analysis here.

Kloeckner Pentaplast — The German plastics manufacturer’s creditors are set to take over the company under a Chapter 11 process. Kloeckner is expected to file for Chapter 11 by the end of the month. As part of the process, the company plans to raise DIP financing to supplement the €112m bridge loan raised at the end of August, the sources said. The size of the DIP will depend on the length of the case, the first source said.

Lecta — The Spanish papermaker has appointed a chief restructuring officer from FTI while lenders have engaged PJT Partners for advisory in its LME transaction, which last month took the market by surprise.

Lowell — The debt purchaser has hired Teneo to advise on operational matters around four months after the company finished a restructuring deal extending debt maturities by three years. Teneo’s work for Lowell is currently focused on assisting the business with financial forecasting.

Nostrum Oil & Gas  — The Dutch company has announced that 75% of the unsecured noteholders who participated in a vote have consented to waive an event of default caused by sanctions. Noteholders holding 50% of the principal amount of outstanding unsecured notes attended the meeting.

Reno de Medici — A group of bondholders in the Italian packaging manufacturer has hired Paul Hastings as legal advisor as the company faces mounting liquidity pressures. Reno is working with Alix Partners on operational restructuring measures and has tapped PJT Partners and Paul Weiss as debt advisors in preparation for a potential financial restructuring should its turnaround efforts falter.

Southern Water — The company’s two interconditional schemes of arrangement, by SWS Holdings Limited and Greensands Financing PLC (Midco), received High Court sanction on 9 October, clearing the final hurdle for an equity injection of up to £1.2bn from Macquarie Asset Management.

Tele Columbus — The German telco has once again found itself with a shortening liquidity runway as it continues to fund its network upgrade. It has exhausted the €300m shareholder loan provided during its early 2024 restructuring and is left with just €73m of cash at the end of Q2 25. Time is ticking and, with LTM unlevered FCF of negative €88m, the group needs to find a solution.

Headlines

10 October — Kem One — Mind the liquidity gap — Analysis Part 1 (9fin)

9 October — First Brands — Capital structure review (9fin)

9 October — Hilding Anders finalises Askona sale, clearing path for creditor takeover (9fin)

9 October — Webinar Replay — The First Brands files — Factoring and the off-balance sheet void that devoured CLOs whole (9fin)

9 October — Judge sanctions Southern Water schemes, unlocking £1.2bn equity injection (9fin)

9 October — Reno lenders hire advisor for debt talks (9fin)

9 October — First Brands faces request for examiner from aggrieved SPV lender (9fin)

8 October — INEOS Quattro debt under pressure as CDS hits new wides and concerns mount (9fin)

8 October — Navigating the triple-Cs — CLOs absorb First Brands blow (9fin)

8 October — Kem One bondholders hire Gibson Dunn as cash dwindles (9fin)

8 October — Lowell leans on Teneo for forecasting advice (9fin)

8 October — Wood seeks to lift borrowing cap, warns of severe liquidity risk (9fin)

7 October — First Brands unequal roll-up beware (9fin)

7 October — Lecta completes LME first step (9fin)

7 October — Who’s who in First Brands (9fin)

7 October — First Brands offered to buy Accuride’s assets in bankruptcy (9fin)

7 October — FCA unveils motor commission redress scheme, expects lower end payout (9fin)

7 October — Casino creditors kickstart informal restructuring talks (9fin)

7 October — Tele Columbus bonds offer equity-like returns as ServCo sale explored – Analysis (9fin)

7 October — Hunkemoller primed creditors kick off Dutch proceedings (9fin)

7 October — Kloeckner creditors to take over in Chapter 11 process (9fin)

7 October — Cloud 9fin — Jane’s LME Addiction — Let’s veto that law firm (9fin)

7 October — Ardagh CDS credit event posed again following consent request (9fin)

6 October — Nostrum bondholders waive default caused by sanctions (9fin)

6 October — Watching the Defectives — Europe Distressed/Restructuring Tracker October 2025 (9fin)

3 October — BDC exposure to First Brands — tracking which were in or out before collapse (9fin)

Lateral moves

If you have any recent moves to announce, please send them to distressed-restructuring@9fin.com.

BonelliErede has hired Maria Cristina Storchi, Andrea Novarese, and Francesco Pirisi, who will join as partners in the firm’s Milan headquarters. They will advise across restructuring and insolvency, banking and finance, and public M&A.

Weekly Declines

Top bond movers (link to full screener)

Top loan movers (link to full screener)