Our Legal Insights Blog

The Ardagh recapitalisation is moving quickly and for those following the European leveraged finance space, it’s certainly one to watch. Creditors are seizing control, Paul Coulson is stepping aside and the mechanics of the deal are unfolding in real time. For lenders, the takeaway is that documentation and legal levers can matter just as much as the financials. Here is a summary of what is happening and why it matters from a lender’s perspective.

I have been having lots of conversations about the powers – and limitations – of AI when it comes to legal document analysis. There is the camp that perceives AI as a tool for document analysis: AI without conceptual context is making us dumber. There is another camp that believes AI is the solution to their legal analysis needs – a panacea of sorts offering the holy grail of "upload the document and get all the answers." Why would someone want to invest in training for a skill that AI can complete with ease? It's a great question – so I decided to put AI to the test.

Following a recent webinar on LBO covenant analysis, it's clear the market needs to recalibrate its analytical framework. As I discussed on Bloomberg's Credit Edge podcast, we're experiencing an unprecedented moment: witnessing the consequences of covenant flexibility in existing deals while new transactions incorporate similar structural features.

I recently caught up with Bloomberg's James Crombie and Aidan Cheslin on The Credit Edge podcast and discussed how the credit markets are experiencing something I've never seen before in my career. We're witnessing unprecedented (and possibly misplaced) optimism and covenant flexibility alongside a frantic rush to get deals done, and the consequences – defaults, LMEs, restructurings, Chapter 11 – are playing out in real time.

If your head has been spinning after the last week of developments in European liability management, you're certainly not alone. As someone who has dedicated my career to building covenant confidence in credit professionals, I can tell you that this past week ranks among the most significant we've seen since March of last year, when Altice France and Ardagh completely changed the liability management game in a single week.

As someone who's spent years in the trenches analyzing covenant packages and watching borrowers execute increasingly sophisticated liability management exercises (LMEs), I wanted to share some critical insights from our recent webinar on this essential topic. If you missed the live session, don't worry – the replay is available and packed with actionable frameworks you can use immediately.

If you've ever found yourself staring at a high yield bond prospectus wondering whether that revolving credit facility (RCF) sitting in the structure chart can actually jump the queue and become super senior, you're not alone. This blog will walk you through a real-world example that perfectly illustrates why sometimes the devil really is in the details – and why you should never be afraid to ask the questions of management.

In our recent FLT Office Hours session, we discussed the practical, covenant-by-covenant assessment that can completely change how you approach these deals. If you missed it, here's what you need to know.