Podcast
Debtwired!
Hosted by ION Analytics · EN
The restructuring podcast from the Debtwire editorial team.
12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Oaktree Capital's Olivia Guthorn on finding value in stressed healthcare credit, sizing AI risk, and lessons from two decades of opportunistic investing
3w ago00:39:17Tap to summarizeIn 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.
Transcribe →Hilco’s Ian Fredericks discusses current forces reshaping retail distress
May 500:25:01Tap to summarizeDebtwire 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.
Transcribe →The Fossil restructuring, and getting creative outside of Chapter 11 with Weil
Mar 3100:19:36Tap to summarizeIn a discussion with Sunny Singh and Gary Holtzer of Weil, host Andy Serbe raises the question of why companies might seek to avoid Chapter 11 based on current trends and systemic changes, how restructuring companies can avoid becoming debtors, and what can go wrong.
Transcribe →Gaming outlook for 2026 and beyond
Mar 1900:20:48Tap to summarizeDanielle Saba, senior reporter of Debtwire North America sat down with Jay Weinberger, managing director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group, for this week's podcast, Debtwired!Jay is industry agnostic, but has done a great deal of work for gaming companies and their lenders. He admits there has not been much in the way of restructuring among casinos over the past five years, and he talks about the creative possibilities that could have taken shape if the large casinos had access to today’s technology to execute a creative drop down or deal away. He also delves into regional players, with some trying to selling assets or taking permanent residence and the pitfalls of not having owned properties. Jay shines a spotlight on a UK-based company with old asset and a shiny growing asset and how that could get transactional ideas flowing among lenders in the near term.Tune in to hear about what's ahead for global gaming companies in the near future.
Transcribe →German restructurings: Kirkland's Christian Halasz on StaRUG's evolution
Mar 1600:23:11Tap to summarizeKirkland & Ellis Partner Christian Halasz sits down with Debtwire Europe's Senior Legal Analyst Dawn Grocock to discuss the evolution of Germany's StaRUG process, recognition hurdles, forum shopping to the UK and some issues arising in current German situations. (Recorded Feb. 27, 2026)
Transcribe →FTI Consulting Talks Consumer Products Group Trends, LMEs and GLP-1 influence
Mar 1200:15:47Tap to summarizeRobert "Bob" Del Genio, turnaround specialist at FTI Consulting has worked on special situations like Dean Foods, City Brewing and Hostess Brands.Today, he joins us at Debtwired to discuss what's challenges branded label and beverage companies are facing in the year ahead.
Transcribe →Inside middle-market direct lending with PGIM's Matthew Harvey
Mar 900:25:58Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Debtwired!, host Amelia Weitzman speaks with Matthew Harvey, Global Head of Middle Market Direct Lending, about the evolution and maturation of the direct lending market since the GFC.They explore improving M&A activity, underwriting discipline amid AI-driven disruption in software, the growing opportunity in non-sponsored middle-market lending and how direct lenders can stay resilient and competitive through the next credit cycle.
Transcribe →An ad hoc discussion of ad hoc lender groups
Mar 500:22:24Tap to summarizeOn this legal-focused episode of Debtwired, Andy Serbe sits down with Stephen Silverman of Gibson Dunn to talk about ad hoc group formation trends in Chapter 11, the role they play in a plan and negotiation-focused environment, and more.
Transcribe →Arcmont's Mattis Poetter on the 2026 outlook for Europe private credit
Mar 200:16:47Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Debtwire Europe's Francesca Ricciardi sits down with Arcmont Asset Management's Mattis Poetter to discuss what 2026 has in store for the European private credit market.From expected pricing dynamics and deployment trends to emerging private-credit segments and competition.
Transcribe →2026 Playbook: AI disruption, LME & Chapter 11 trends
Feb 2500:53:37Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the Debtwired Podcast, host Madalina Iacob is joined by Wariz Anifowoshe, Head of Restructuring at Fortress Investment Group, Kevin Fortunato, Portfolio Manager at Benefit Street Partners, and Scott Greenberg, Global Head of Restructuring at Gibson Dunn. A central theme of the discussion is AI-driven disruption, particularly in software, and how investors are positioning defensively while selectively hunting for opportunities. Panelists emphasize that AI risk is already reshaping maturity extensions, underwriting assumptions, and liability management decisions, especially for businesses facing rapid technological change. The group also explores what’s driving the unprecedented speed at which loans are trading down from CLO technicals, group-formation risk, and growing familiarity with liability management exercises (LMEs). Speakers expect both more LMEs and an uptick in Chapter 11 filings this year, including failed LMEs from prior vintages where balance sheets were fixed, but businesses were not. They unpack why LMEs are neither inherently successes nor failures, why every situation is bespoke, and how sponsors and not creditors typically set these processes in motion. Finally, the speakers conclude that cooperation agreements (co-ops) remain an essential and widely used tool for collective creditor action, and there has been no meaningful slowdown in their use since Optimum filed an anti-co-op lawsuit against its creditors.
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