First Brands coverage summary: how 9fin kept clients ahead

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Market Wraps

LevFin

Asia weekly — China property debt… can we call it a comeback?

China’s developers tap offshore markets Chinese property developers are re-entering global credit markets at a strong pace in 2026. By the end of January, six mainland Chinese and Hong Kong property firms together raised $2.2bn in debt — enough to eclipse the total raised throughout all of 2024.China’s developers tap offshore markets

6 Feb 2026

| APAC

Market Wraps

Investment Grade

US IG Wrap — Oracle kickstarts AI funding, BDCs widen on software worries

The first trading week of February was flush with activity for the US investment grade bond market, with consensus expectations already surpassed by Tuesday largely thanks to a jumbo deal from Oracle, and utilities chasing debt funded growth in AI.

6 Feb 2026

| US

Market Wraps

Excess Spread — FAT in the fire, reaping the ramp

Excess Spread is our weekly newsletter, covering trends, deals and more in structured credit and ABS — subscribe to this newsletter here. FAT in the fire

6 Feb 2026

| Europe

Webinars and Podcasts

Cloud 9fin — Syndication Nation — Recapping a jam-packed January with AGL’s Wynne Comer

The leveraged finance markets saw a handful of leveraged buyouts keep pricing on their financing packages tight in January 2026. This was in spite of multiple geopolitical shocks and a sell-off in software loans as vibe coding comes into vogue.

5 Feb 2026

| Global

Distressed

ConvergeOne drives New Jersey’s ascendence as venue for non-pro rata bankruptcy deals

The US District Court for the Southern District of Texas’s ConvergeOne decision has reshaped the landscape for complex restructurings which propose plans that do not treat similarly-situated creditors equally. Five months on, the case’s ripple effects are now clearly present in complex Chapter 11 venue selection.

5 Feb 2026

| US

Private credit defends software exposure amid sector selloff

An ongoing selloff in software companies is sparking concern in the private credit market, which is highly exposed to the sector — and inspiring rebuttals from private credit giants like Ares and Thoma Bravo.

5 Feb 2026

| US

| Europe

Webinars and Podcasts

Webinar replay — What to expect from Japan's snap election?

The full replay of our webinar, ‘What to expect from Japan's snap election?’, is now available. Scroll down to access the recording. 9fin’s Asia editor Richard Macauley was joined by Akihiro Tsuchiya, senior advisor at The Asia Group and former senior MOF official (Japan), as well as David Boling, principal at The Asia Group and former deputy assistant US trade representative for Japan, to discuss the upcoming election on 8 February.

5 Feb 2026

| Global

9Questions

9Questions

Investment Grade

9Questions — Georgie Merson, BlackRock — Risks and rewards for European credit in 2026

9Questions is our Q&A series featuring key decision-makers in the corporate credit markets — get in touch if you know who we should be talking to!

4 Feb 2026

| Europe

Distressed

FAT Brands meltdown shows WBS investors can’t count on protection

Don’t miss out on news you won’t find anywhere else — get The Memo US and The Memo Europe in your inbox every two weeks. The sudden bankruptcy of restaurant group FAT Brands, whose whole-business securitization noteholders allege its controlling shareholder misused funds, highlights the plight of investors who may have hoped this structure would protect them.

3 Feb 2026

| US

STG lawsuit provides Serta colored glimpse into future for sacred rights disputes

The STG Logistics roller coaster has provided the LME market more insight as to how sacred rights arguments in non-Serta style transactions might play out even when no other protections are present but Serta.

2 Feb 2026

| US

Webinars and Podcasts

Webinar replay — Credit series part 1 — Relative value in a tight-spread world

The full replay of our webinar ‘Relative value in a tight-spread world’ is now available. Scroll down to access the recording. In this first part of our four-part webinar series, 9fin editor Dan Alderson was joined by senior credit analysts Hazik Siddiqui and Alec Keblish to discuss how to evaluate relative value in today’s tight-spread environment in both US and European markets.

30 Jan 2026

| Global

Kirkland remembered which side its bread is buttered

In resigning as Optimum’s counsel this week, Kirkland & Ellis has once again highlighted the invisible hand of institutional asset managers. Just like with Travelport back in 2020, the firm had to sacrifice an occasional client to keep hold of its regulars.

30 Jan 2026

| US