First Brands Bankruptcy: financial tune up raised red flags that Wall Street overlooked
First Brands files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; Stakeholders anticipate significant discovery into company's practices

Default expectations rise as tariff threats to North America deepen – IACPM survey
Credit portfolio managers across the world see tariff-related headwinds for both the US and Canada

Connecticut, San Francisco among funds making new private credit moves – Public Pensions, Private Pursuits
EXCLUSIVE: Connecticut plans commitment to Anchorage Capital distressed credit funds; San Francisco, North Dakota, and Dallas funds disclose recent commitments

Marathon ditches distressed strategy to raise USD 2.7bn for opportunistic credit
EXCLUSIVE: The asset manager originally launched the fund with a distressed debt strategy but has since switched the focus to making opportunistic private credit and equity investments  

Oaktree lowered its distressed debt fundraise to USD 16bn
The market and investment environment for distressed debt shifted, and investors asked whether the original target was too big.

LPs monitor private credit managers as PIK use rises
As the use of payment-in-kind in direct lending increases, LPs are worried that the tool is being co-opted by the wrong strategies and offered to low-quality borrowers

LME threat pushes creditors to join or die ad hoc groups, co-ops
Creditors looking to survive LMEs relatively unscathed increasingly have two options: join the majority ad-hoc group or hope debtholders organize under an inclusive cooperation agreement

Special situations funds shift from distressed debt to flexible, all-weather capital strategies
As struggling companies turn to liability management techniques to gain the upper hand against lenders, a new bankruptcy-lite environment is forcing funds to play across the capital stack 

European direct lending firms raise record funds in third quarter
European direct lending fundraising jumped up a notch last month, as year-to-date figures almost doubled in a few final closes

BNP Paribas AM raises EUR 90m for private debt fund of funds
A new fund of funds from BNP Paribas AM will target European special situations by investing in 6 to 8 private debt funds 

iHeart secured group advisors in confidential talks with company
iHeartMedia, still an important name in the US CLO market, is back in the news, potentially impacting 482 different CLOs

Connecticut pension allocates USD 300m to Oaktree’s distressed credit fundraising
Connecticut pension system commits to Oaktree latest flagship distressed credit fund

Blackstone sets sights on USD 10bn for opportunistic private credit fund
Blackstone will soon introduce the latest version of its opportunistic private credit fund, aiming to raise USD 10bn, Michael Chae, the firm's chief financial officer, told analysts 

Seattle retirement systems commits USD 30m to distressed fund
The Seattle City Employees' Retirement System recently committed up to USD 30m to the Monarch Capital Partners VI fund

Double-dip refinancing hits US leveraged loan
Wheel Pros, a name still held by 219 CLOs with $414 million of total principal, announced details of a new refinancing deal last week featuring a controversial double-dip structure

Creditors try double dips to raise recoveries
A new form of liability management has emerged to take its place alongside the various uptiering and drop-down transactions that have been executed recently: the so-called “double dip” financing

Retail maintains primacy as most distressed sector in Europe with €31 billion of debt restructuring commenced in 1H23
Newly commenced restructurings tracked by Debtwire in Europe during 1H 2023 show 114 mainly large-cap restructurings, compared to 89 tracked in 1H 2022, a 28% increase year-on-year

DebtDynamics North America: Likely-to-distress scores highlight struggling industries
Out of a universe of more than 12,000 leveraged US companies, 180 are in the stressed/distressed lifecycle categories

LP round up: HPS wins $550m mandate as Ares launches third US direct lending fund
US institutional investors allocated nearly $3 billion to credit funds in April. The news comes amid a BlackRock survey in the month which showed significant investor interest in private credit

Fund performance: European CLO funds lead the way
February was a positive month for many funds, as only one quarter failed to reach the black. This builds off a stellar start to the year: 96% of funds reached a positive return in January

Angelo Gordon wraps up fundraising for $1.3 billion credit dislocation fund
AG CSF2A (Annex) Dislocation Fund is an extension of the AG Credit Solutions Fund II, which held a $3.1 billion final close in April last year.

Fund performance: Credit funds end difficult 2022 on a positive note
In December 66% of credit funds reached a positive return, following an even better November where 81% of all funds pushed into the black

LP round up: two managers terminated as 20 win $2.5 billion
US institutional investors allocated over $2.5 billion to 20 credit managers in October, according to documents seen by Creditflux. Two credit fund managers however were terminated in the month

Cairn begins "new chapter" as it rebrands to Polus
Cairn Capital has been renamed Polus Capital Management, which brings it together with Bybrook Capital, the credit asset manager it acquired in 2021.  

Fund performance: Wake us up when September ends
After a resurgent August, credit markets hit a rough patch in September, with every Creditflux index posting negative returns, and only 12.9% of funds in our listings showing a positive return.