Distressed Debt Investing

Takeaway Tuesday #9

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:21:00 +0000

Happy Tuesday everyone. Its been a busy couple weeks post Reorg's FinDox announcement. Markets have been strange at best. I do think we are in an interesting period of alpha vs long risk. The Buffet 10 year bet (which Buffet won easily) could go the way of the active fund vs long S&P. Credit markets are still nearly closed, PE feels like its sitting on its hands and everyone is waiting for earnings estimates to come down. I would be remiss to not mention the absolute crazy of FTX and other crypto bankruptcies (there are more coming...). John Ray's declaration in FTX may be top 5 docket items I've seen in my career. FTX / Crypto were 9 out of Reorg's top 10 stories in the U.S. last week. Rightly so as this is this generation's Lehman / Enron and there are A LOT of claims out there for pennies on the dollar...

Reorg Content (subscription required):

Performing / High Yield Content: All the work on Tenneco and Nielsen the teams did last week. Obviously a big test for the health of market (some wins, some losses). Remains to be seen how this affects the forward calendar going into the holiday season

Distressed Coverage: Obviously FTX huge highlight last week. Removing that, the Copper Standard situation has fascinated me for the last couple of years. Its interesting to see and break down their TSA

Other Content You May Find Interesting

Only one link today because its one of the best reads in a long time: Notes from Todd Comb's conversation at the Graham & Dodd Annual Breakfast 2022. Run to read it...here are my four biggest takeaways:

"Combs goes to Buffett’s house on many Saturdays to talk, and here’s a litmus test they frequently use. Warren asks “How many names in the S&P are going to be 15x earnings in the next 12 months? How many are going to earn more in five years (using a 90% confidence interval), and how many will compound at 7% (using a 50% confidence interval)?” In this exercise, you are solving for cyclicality, compounding, and initial price. Combs said that this rubric was used to find Apple, since at the time the same 3-5 names kept coming up."
" Combs mentioned how his responsibilities are great, and his time is scarce, but if he was 150% dedicated to analyzing companies, he’d focus on delta reports, and see what management is changing from year to year. In 2005, Bear Stearns changed something very essential in their reports while saying something different to the street."
"Put together your view without looking at the market cap. Limit the pollution. Then think about the future of the company and pressure test your assumptions. "
"Combs focuses on fundamental unit economics. “First figure out CAC and LTV for GEICO. You know the data of where they live, the kind of car, and then there is the LTV of the customer. Combs thinks where people go wrong is where they think they know their CAC and LTV but it’s from too high a level. When you slice the data, there are really big pockets where the LTV is negative, and that is where the potential is to improve margins.”"

Something I Bet You Didn't Know You Could do on Reorg

Given the hyper focus this week on unsecured claimants, Reorg has definitively the best unsecured creditors database out there. You can pick ANY unsecured creditor and see what cases they are top claimants.

Takeaway Tuesday - Findox Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 13:38:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

I am trilled to announce that Reorg and Findox are joining forces. I've known Tejs for over a decade and he and Brian, his CTO, and other have built an incredible organization - our goals have always been very similar: To delight our customers and help them solve the problem of information transparency. The transaction is expected to close in December.

Here is the press release:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reorg-and-findox-to-combine-to-offer-best-in-class-solutions-for-the-credit-markets-301673003.html

I couldn't be more excited! Please reach out to me if you have any question. Takeaway Tuesday will be back next week!

-Kent

Takeaway Tuesday #8

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 16:44:00 +0000

An incredible chart from JPM below...

The news that banks will hold Twitter debt and sell at a later date and private equity firms doing equity only deals are emblematic of the times. And as expected more creditor on creditor violence and aggressive capital structure management is happening as we speak. I would guess we are just in the first innings of that.

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Performing / High Yield Content: Conversations with Reorg: Changing Dynamics in The European Leveraged Loan Market And The Potential Impact of More Permissive Documentation On Restructurings: Reorg has been massively ramped up our Expert Views series. This was one of my favorites of recent past

Stressed / Distressed Content: Mitel Executes Non-Pro-Rata Priming Exchange With $857M of New Debt Ahead of Existing Loans: And it begins. Given the amount of capital raised in drawn down structures from credit opportunity funds and the weakness of governing documents, there are going to be a lot of these

Other Content You Mind Find Interesting

The Crypto Story: Matt Levine comes out with a MONSTER piece (I'm only 1/2 done) on everything (and I mean everything) crypto. For people ultra familiar with the space I think you'll learn something new from all the anecdotes and missives

The $30 Million Lottery Scam: I think one thing people are underappreciating is how long it takes the excesses to unwind in the market. Yes the UK pension scheme sorta blew up and Madoff was uncovered months after Lehman filed - that said I think you are going to see many many more shoes to drop over the next two years

Something I Bet You Didn't Know You Could Do On Reorg

Lets say you are a lender to a company going through some challenges. And we know a lot of companies are going through challenges. There could be ideas on amendments floating around or an uptier exchange or covenant breaches etc. If lenders wanted to organize they may call a desk or speak to lawyers to see who else is involved. Well all that data is on Reorg. Lets use a topical one: Mitel:

We've recently rolled out some data initiatives to better display and link the data across Reorg's databases. You'll see more of this data in Reorg stories soon. To access the database you can go here: Reorg CLO Database

Takeaway Tuesday #7

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 18:15:00 +0000

A couple weeks I noted how bad sentiment was...this was posted by @jasongoepfert "Last week, retail traders bought $19.9 billion worth of puts to open. They bought only $6.5 billion in calls to open. This is the first time in history that puts were 3x calls."

My prediction: We are going to have a bad recession, and the market will start discounting that 6-9 months in advance just like every time in the future. Multiples still generally high, rates are going higher (market has never bottom when rates were rising), and the credit market is awful. Reorg usage is up dramatically versus last year and everyone is gearing up for a big restructuring cycle in 2023. No one can catch the bottom though...

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Performing / High Yield Credit - Carnival’s New Notes Issued By NonGuarantor Subsidiary Suggests Focus on Structurally Senior Debt Over Additional 1L, 2L Debt; Unlimited Transfers Within Restricted Group Permitted by All Carnival Debt Documents - Hot off the presses...The best trade for a while in the past couple of years was top of capital cruise lines. Structure and seniority still matters...

Stressed / Distressed - Lots of content related to Bed Bath and Beyond (especially with the news today) - We wrote before the announcement about the advisors circling the company and bondholders.

Other Content You May Find Interesting

@the_red_deer Aggregating a Series of Credit Interviews the Past Couple of Weeks: I especially liked Boaz Weinstein's selling protection to the banks on IGs the need hedging given revolver capacity / worries of the market. Generally speaking sentiment was neutral / opportunistic for most of these interviews.

How a Chinese American Gangster Transformed Money Laundering for Drug Cartels: Holy hell this was a crazy read. The reporting was nuts. Incredible piece by ProPublican

Something I Bet You Didn't Know You Could Do On Reorg

Our Docket / PACER technology is still one of the most used features on the site with thousands of users getting alerted to docket updates in real time. We applied a data science model to our millions of dockets to parse them down into what the actual dockets point to. So for instance if you were looking for backstop motions you can do that:

What's great is that you can then filter by Judge, districts, industry, time, law firm etc. Its incredible. And lots of associates are using it to help with docket research, writing motions, getting comps etc.

Takeaway Tuesday #6

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 22:52:00 +0000

After last week's post and just limping in to what felt awfully bad Sunday night futures (Emergency Fed Meeting, rumors on CS, etc) the relief rally came right in the nick of time. Does anyone else feel like we are in the beginning of the beginning though?

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Performing/High Yield Credit - Sector Insights: European Supermarkets, Food Retailers Wrestle With Inflation Hit on Customer Purchasing Power, Balance Passing on Food Inflation With Protecting Market Share, Focus on Cost Initiatives to Offset Margin Squeeze; No Significant Near-Term Maturities Except for Casino - The consumer is weak and inflation is skyrocketing not just on this side of the pond but in Europe as well. Across European food retailers margins are declining, leverage is increasing and liquidity is running tight.

Distressed Credit - LATAM Airlines - LATAM Airlines Anticipates Emerging From Bankruptcy in Q4; Proposed $1.5B Bond Debt Secured by Frequent Flier Program, Cargo Business, IP, Slots in US, UK - Feels like the end of an era on this one. I know its only been a couple lifetimes since the company filed but given where we thought we would be at petition data- its interesting to see this one come closer to exit

Other Content You May Find Interesting

America's Throwaway Spies: How the CIA failed Iranian informants in its secret war with Tehran: This was a fascinating piece by Reuters Investigates. Given how much clandestine operations have been in the news combined with extraordinary reporting, I think you'll enjoy this one

Mobile Homes, the Last Affordable Housing Option for Many California Residents, Are Going Up in Smoke (disclaimer: My wife works at Inside Climate News - you should read it!) - This is a harrowing piece and given our community and knowledge of PGE it sorta gave me the feels / anger

Something I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg.com

We spent the last 18 months building the most comprehensive data lake for all things credit and restructuring related. Its the best thing we ever built.

Here is more information and awesome video: https://www.reorg.com/products/credit-cloud/

Want to know every time Kirkland and Evercore worked together and what DIP looked in terms of fees or carveouts or budget like or the KEIPs that got denied in Delaware or the companies whose loans dropped the most in the past month with the least amount of liquidity that is also more than 7x levered. Want to see dashboards that show what your competitors are advising or investing in or maybe the fees law firms are charging for pre-packs...its all there

Effectively what we are trying to build: If you can ask the question in credit, Credit Cloud can provide the answer.

Give it a try or reach out to me and I'll set you up with the right person.

Takeaway Tuesday #5

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 03:46:00 +0000

The sentiment out there is bad. One of my favorite Twitter accounts to follow for sentiment is Sentiment Trader (@sentimentrader). They posted this chart earlier this week:

but admittedly it feels like we are teetering on an edge. When its hard for me to call in buy orders I know we are getting closer to a bottom.

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Performing / High Yield Credit - Reorg Covenants Weekly: Citrix LBO Notes Include Aggressive, Possibly Unprecedented Buildup Basket; NortonLifeLock’s Credit Agreement Expands Unused Carryforward Flexibility; Opendoor, LendingTree Initiation; Hersha Hospitality, Ultra Clean, StoneMor, Sylvamo Updates; CNX Resources, Citrix Primary Review - The feedback on my post last week on ability to submit documents for loan review was met with overwhelming response. As you can see we are covering a lot in the space and this content is absolutely incredible and best-in-class.

Distressed Credit - Everything and all Puerto Rico. We wrote a litany of stories on Puerto Rico last week and with the island being super topical given the struggles at the island (and Luma featured on John Oliver). Our most popular story of the week: Oversight Board Files PREPA Bond Litigation Schedule With Call to Continue Talks; Latest Bondholder, Oversight Board Restructuring Proposals Disclosed

Two Other Pieces of Content You May Find Interesting

The Sordid Saga of Hunter Biden’s Laptop - Given the House is most likely going to swing to Kevin McCarthy's leadership if I could buy mentions of Hunter Biden's laptop as a stock, it would be a screaming buy. As a don't like to get political here, this piece laid it all out there
Has The Zodiac Killer Mystery Been Solved (Again)? - An incredible piece by LA Mag. I lvoe this random guy taking it to the next level...

Something I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg.com

Our App is incredible. Here in the link: Reorg App on App Store. Look at that 4.9 rating. Beautiful...Seriously though I read all of our content on the app and I think you will too

Takeaway Tuesday #4

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 12:17:00 +0000

Don't look now - the 1 year T Bill is at 4% and banks are about to take a bath on everything from syndicated loans (Citrix...) to commercial real estate...everything is great out there...

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Performing / High Yield Credit - Petco / Lenders Object to Petco’s Effort to Transition Senior Secured Term Loan to SOFR From LIBOR Without Credit Spread Adjustment - given the underlying issues with the loan market its good to see the buyside work together to keep overall total return high for their own investors. We noted "The loan’s margin is currently L+325 bps. A transition to SOFR from LIBOR without a credit spread adjustment would have, in effect, lowered the coupon on the loan, given that one-month and three-month LIBOR indexes are currently 2.68% and 3.17%, respectively, while one-month SOFR is currently 2.28% and three-month is 1.92%."

Distressed Credit - U.S. Renal Care / Pimco, Other U.S. Renal Care Lenders Working With Milbank, Houlihan Lokey - We noted "Market participants are evaluating the possibility of certain lenders to the dialysis provider proposing and executing a transaction that involves funding new money to extend the company’s maturity runway while rolling up their debt holdings that would prime other lenders, known in recent years as creditor-on-creditor violence, the sources said." This is something I think we are going to see a continued massive increase over this cycle

Two Pieces of Content I Found Interesting

The Great Buenos Aires Bank Heist - This is a WILD story. The article came out pre pandemic (so about 20 years ago) and is just a super fun / crazy read

AI Art: World’s First Bot-Generated Graphic Novel Hits the Market - My kids and I have spent far too much time on Midjourney. We are in the 1st inning of the application of AI Art and its absolutely incredible the progress in just a couple years

Something I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg.com

At Reorg, we very much built our business around distressed debt and bankruptcies in the early years. While we have continued to invest and deepen our expertise there, I believe we currently have the best covenant product combining deep editorial research and data in both the U.S. and Europe.

And I bet you didn't know we analyze every single primary issuance (bonds and loans) in a fashion that blows away the competition. We do this in the pre-marketing / pre-syndication phase as well.

If you are looking for an analysis of a new loan in particular, you can reach out to our Covenants team at this email: CovenantLoanReport [at] reorg-research.com and request a review. We push these to the platform for topical credits to make people more aware of the service

Takeaway Tuesday #3 9/13/2022

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 13:29:00 +0000

After a lot of suggestion, we may be moving this to a substack of sorts. Apparently 2009 technology doesn't translate well to 2022...(yes the blog started 13 years ago - I had a lot more hair then)

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Performing / High Yield Credit: Veritas Technologies has been one of the most searched names on Reorg in September after they reported results with EBITDA down 50% y/y. While the company seemingly has a tremendous amount of liquidity, its capital structure has traded down past results.

Distressed Credit: Two of the most read stories last week on Reorg focused on two names familiar to distressed debt and event driven credit investors: Reorg was the first the to break the Second Circuit's reversal of SDNY decision in Revlon and Reorg did a huge number of stories on Cineworld which filed last week.

Two Pieces of Content I Found Interesting

Johnson & Johnson and a New War on Consumer Protection: While most credit investors will be familiar of the situation, this article dives super deep on the history of J&J and its troubled history with asbestos

Real Money, Fake Musicians: Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme: As someone that has failed to get a blue check (THIS GUY), I found this article so entertaining. The reporting on the piece is incredible. And I really feel like the scheme game is at an all time level right now.

Something I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg.com

Given inflation is the talk of the town, I bet you didn't know you could compare what law firms are charging their clients on Reorg, by level. Lets compare associates Proskauer and Latham, both huge players across many aspects of credit

What we did was index EVERY final fee application over the past 5-6 years by law firm by position utilizing data science to break down these comp numbers.

Why is this important:

If you are a buysider and you are comparing pitches/engagement letters from law firms, you can use this data to keep law firms honest
If you are a law firm BD, you can use this data to build marketing materials, comp sheets, and generally be more aware of the market
And if you are a law firm recruiter: this has the data down to the named associate/counsel/partner which can be used for head hunting purposes.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Takeaway Tuesday #2 9/6/2022

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 12:57:00 +0000

I hope you all had a great LDW. As always, any feedback on the format as it begins to shape up, please let me know.

Reorg Content (subscription required)

Bausch Health's exchange offer was one of the most searched terms on Reorg last week. The Reorg analyst team put together an incredible exchange model that allows users to enter in their own assumptions. Our takeaway: "Assuming 100% participation...Reorg calculates that total debt would be reduced by $2.982 billion and that the net debt leverage ratio would decrease to 6.8x from 8x as of the end of the second quarter"

Cineworld continues to be topical and one of the most searched companies on Reorg. The team put together a detailed waterfall recovery analysis. We are assuming a bankruptcy filing could occur before the end of this month. Given the complexity of the situation (Cineplex litigation) and capital/corporate structure, this is going to be a fascinating case.

Two Pieces of Content I Found Interesting

The Humiliating History of the TSA - about 5 years ago, my oldest child had one of their toys taken away by a TSA officer in Chicago. In disgust, a letter was written to the TSA (utilizing the best 7 year old penmanship could offer). This article gives a detailed account of some of the crazy that goes on at the organization

An Anatomy of Erasure: How a free and open Hong Kong became a police state - in 2019, I visited Reorg's Hong Kong offices two times. Once in June and again in November. Between those short couple of months, the world completely changed. We had numerous meetings cancelled in November because of tear gas in offices. It was so sad to see.

Something I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg

One thing that is just starting to get air in the mainstream media is spread widening of the direct lending market. New issues are coming much wider in terms of spread relative to this time last year - underwriting is tighter and its affecting everything from PE IRR calcs to cash flow to service debt etc.

A couple years ago, Reorg built what I think is the best and most comprehensive database on the BDC market. We index every BDC that files with the SEC (both publicly traded and privately held) and updated their numbers and marks almost instantaneously when an SEC filing occurs.

On Reorg BDC's page, I can isolate all collateral in the BDCs that have been marked down or marked at a level that would signal distress. I could compare marks across various BDCs. I can see new loans coming in and loans that have exited to get a sense for how spreads have changed. And if I'm a lawyer or advisor, this helps me get in front of lenders / companies that may need an assist with liability management / formal restructuring. Or if I'm a lender, I can uncover companies that may need emergency capital to fend the current storm.

Give it a try and if you have any questions please reach out to your CSM at Reorg.

Takeaway Tuesday #1 8/30/2022

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 15:53:00 +0000

Welcome to the inaugural Takeaway Tuesday (or Tuesday Takeaways...still haven't decided). As a reminder the format is:

Two Reorg articles, one performing credit/one non performing credit
Two articles I found interesting this week
One thing I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg

Reorg Content (subscription required)

The incredible saga of 3M ($MMM) on both the combat litigation and the potential monsoon of issues from PFOA and PFOS designations...or how fast can $70B of market cap / or an IG rating get eliminated...

Diamond Sports, one of, if not the most topical name in stressed/distressed credit - Reorg penned a piece of hypothetical bankruptcy catalyst considerations. One takeaway we had: "If DSG were to reject certain unprofitable team rights contracts per section 365(d)(2), those teams would need to arrange for backup production capabilities, distributor relationships and advertisement deals. Such operational complexity while teams would need to fund their costs, such as payroll, might also place Diamond into a more favorable position to push back on its existing contract terms."

Two Pieces of Content You may Find Interesting

China on the tightrope - I learned so much from this article and admittedly I don't think people are talking about this enough. Global demand destruction for everything could have serious deflationary consequences
Google Doc on Conversation Starters - Put together by Rob Walker who writes The Art of Noticing. My favorite: If you did not have to sleep, how would you spend the extra 8 hours?

Something I bet you didn't know you could do on Reorg

When I was an analyst I would run redlines on anything from 10Qs vs last quarter 10Qs, to amendments to other disclosures. On Reorg you can do this under our SEC Filings technology

First click on a 10-Q...then click Compare Documents

Pick the document you want to compare your document to....(I did the most recent Q versus same quarter last year Q) and boom....

If you have any questions, you can always reach out to your Customer Success Manager at Reorg.

If you guys have any ideas on how to improve this format, please hit me up on Twitter (@ddinvesting) or my email. In future, I'll try to incorporate some video here as well. Thanks all

Tuesday Takeaways Preview - we blast off tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 14:27:00 +0000

The last couple of months have been busy. Feels like summer just getting started...

One thing I learned from the process (I'll figure out the best medium to discuss it at length in the future) is Reorg is still regarded as a stressed / distressed-only shop. While we built the company starting from hard core bankruptcies like Lehman, Madoff, etc, our coverage (and technology + product offering) now spans over 5,000 credits globally.

In other words, awareness is one of Reorg's biggest challenge. Not just coverage but technology and product wise as well.

And because I've never been more excited about the company or its prospects (no, I'm not riding off into the sunset), I thought I would work to bring that awareness to the forefront the good old fashion way: blogging. If my kids taught me to use TikTok I would do that too...

On most weeks I'll be posting "Tuesday Takeaways" (or Takeaway Tuesdays...?) - I'll post three things each week:

Two Reorg article links (one performing, one non performing)
Two non-Reorg articles I think you would find interesting
Something you may or may not know you can do on Reorg with screenshots

If you have feedback on this format, let me know and I'll incorporate as much as I can. Honestly, if you told me 10 years ago when I was first showing people the Reorg docket technology, we'd be where we are today I'd call you crazy - I can't begin to express my appreciation and gratitude to everyone that has supported us along this journey. And I am ever grateful to my incredible team of nearly 300 Reorgers around the world that work tirelessly to put out the best product possible.

See you tomorrow

Kent

FTLive Reorg Global Alternative Credit Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 12:53:00 +0000

Hey everyone - Wanted to keep you up on an exciting event Reorg is putting together with the FT on May 4th and 5th - I will be kicking off the NY event and hope to see you there!

As background on the idea: Private credit is booming with estimates suggesting the market is now worth more than US$1 trillion. Having moved to the mainstream, with many buyside firms establishing direct lending or private credit arms, this asset class is creating changes in the debt capital markets, as investors seek out steady and healthy returns, and borrowers opt for new non-bank sources of finance.

The market is already enormous and GROWING. There are interesting questions to consider though: Despite ample capital, there structures didn't really exist at scale during the GFC and as or if the global credit cycle turns what are the implications for recoveries and how processes play out.

When thinking about the conference agenda, and speaking to participants, we wanted to tackle some of the below:

To what extent has it matured to meet the risk and return profile of an increasingly sophisticated pool of global investors?
Can current rates of return be sustained in developed markets, against a fast changing and uncertain macro-economic and geo-political background?
To what extent will Asia follow a similar growth path?
As demand for direct lending, distressed debt, structured credit and leverage finance increases, where will new avenues for growth emerge?
How concerned should investors be about warnings around systemic risks, market opacity, standards and illiquidity issues?
Where will the regulation of private credit come from?

In partnership with Reorg, FTLive's Global Alternative Credit Summit will tackle these and other major questions. The summit will bring together leading investors, borrowers, lenders, regulators and advisers from the US, EMEA and Asia. Our agenda looks at how private credit is evolving and shaking up debt markets, assessing the key drivers behind its current rate of growth, and where the industry will go from here within the backdrop of rising inflation, war in Europe and the aftermath of the global pandemic.

--------------------------------

When: Two days of streamed global content May 4-5, 2022, including in-person VIP sessions and networking in London and New York.

Register at https://alternativecredit.live.ft.com/home using the promotion code Reorg15 to access a 15% discount for all digital content.

I hope to see you all there!

Kent

The CoVax Files

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:49:00 +0000

Hey everyone - First off, Happy New Year! 2020 was a wild ride and 2021 is off to a wilder start. Here's to some normalcy in the coming months...

Late last year I found myself wanting more information on the development and run-up the the COVID vaccines. I was not getting enough information from the NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, sell side reports, etc. Further, like most investors or business leaders I do not find medical journals accessible.

In my opinion the COVID vaccine and potential therapeutics is the only way out of this mess we find ourselves.

Given that huge gap of information I worked with an amazing journalist, Surani Fernando, to produce a podcast on the vaccine, its development, clinical trials, distribution, manufacturing, how it will deal with mutations and variants, etc. We will explore in future episodes logistic issues, continuing research in the field, the Biden administration's plan of 100 million in 100 days, etc.

If you want more information on the COVD vaccine, please give our podcast, The Covax Files, a listen.

Apple Podcast: The CoVax Files
Google Podcast: The CoVax Files
Sticher: The CoVax Files

Please let me know any feedback you - excited for each of you to learn more.

-Kent

10 Years Goes By Fast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 15:59:00 +0000

On April 2nd, 2009 I sat down to write a post on distressed debt entitled "What is distressed debt investing?"

The blog celebrates its 10 year anniversary today.

A lot has changed in ten years. My wife and I celebrated our own 10 year anniversary late last year, we have two wonderful kids (girl and a boy), my beard is more salt than pepper (let's be honest, almost all salt) and somehow, magically, and with the help of so so many people, I am blessed to have built Reorg into what it is today.

I cannot thank each of you individually. I wish I could. I am so lucky to have gotten to know and build relationships with many of you and its been amazing to see your careers develop in this industry in which we all love. Its also been great to see a new generation of investors rise up over the past ten years and take a few of the lessons from the blog and apply it to their investing or advising activities. I am grateful for all of your support over the years.

Finally, I am truly humbled to lead Reorg every day. Taking a phrase from Warren Buffett, I tap dancing to work everyday. I have never been more excited for the future of Reorg - its amazing what the team of nearly 200 people are accomplishing, building and striving for to inform and empower our customers each and every day. I am grateful that I get the opportunity to work with each of you as we push forward through 2019 and beyond.

Thank you. Truly, thank you so much for everything. Here's to another amazing ten years!

-Kent

Reorg M&A Coverage of NXTM/FMS FTC Approval

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 17:19:00 +0000

Reorg's M&A product has really taken off of late with expanded coverage of all things merger and merger arb related. Here is an example of one of our stories in February. To get a trial of the product please reach out to your sales contact at Reorg, me or click here: https://reorg.com/trial/

NXTM/FMS: FTC Approves Deal 3-2 With Divestiture to B. Braun; Democratic Commissioners Dissent on Vertical Analysis

February 20, 2019 06:00

NXTM FMS

Relevant Documents:
FTC Press Release
Complaint
Analysis of Agreement Containing Consent Order to Aid Public Comment
Decision and Order
Statement of Chairman Simons, Commissioner Phillips, and Commissioner Wilson
Statement of Commissioner Chopra
Statement of Commissioner Slaughter

Takeaways

The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the transaction with divestiture to B. Braun. All five commissioners contributed to statements regarding the consent. Democratic Commissioners Rebecca K. Slaughter and Rohit Chopra individually wrote dissents, and the Republican majority responded with their own statement.
Slaughter noted her “strong reservations” about the vertical aspects of the transaction, and she expressed concern that the merger creates a “monopoly or near-monopoly position.” Meanwhile, Chopra noted the FTC had “clear evidence that the transaction will delay or inhibit entry by new firms.” He suggested that Fresenius “could achieve cost savings and other benefits through sourcing and supply agreements” rather than through the acquisition of NxStage.
Chairman Joseph J. Simons, Commissioner Noah Joshua Phillips, and Commissioner Christine S. Wilson wrote that the evidence did not support a conclusion that Fresenius would foreclose or raise rivals’ costs. On the contrary, the transaction could lead to much greater use of home hemodialysis, they predicted. Further, both CVS Health and “at least one other firm” are expected to offer home hemodialysis machines in the relatively near future, they wrote.
The complaint and accompanying settlement come more than 18 months after the merging parties first announced the transaction in August 2017.

Yesterday, Feb. 19, the FTC announced its conditional approval of the merger between Fresenius and NxStage. The commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines, indicating that other merger reviews could face prolonged investigations or otherwise become politicized within the agency.

All five commissioners contributed to statements regarding the consent, with Commissioner Rebecca K. Slaughter and Commissioner Rohit Chopra issuing dissents and Chairman Joseph J. Simons, Commissioner Noah Joshua Phillips, and Commissioner Christine S. Wilson offering a statement in support of the commission’s action.

The announcement of the settlement represents the conclusion of an exceptionally long FTC review. The transaction was initially announced on Aug. 8, 2017, and received a second request in October of that year. The complaint and accompanying settlement come more than 18 months after the merging parties first announced the transaction.

Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Slaughter

Although Commissioner Slaughter noted her agreement with the FTC’s allegation of harm to horizontal competition in the bloodlines market, she wrote that she also has “strong reservations about the competitive implications of the vertical aspects of this transaction.” Slaughter described the current hemodialysis markets as “highly concentrated” and expressed concern that the merger creates a “monopoly or near-monopoly position” in both at-home and in-center dialysis machines. Further, entry barriers are significant, she wrote.

According to Slaughter, Fresenius may have a profit incentive “to foreclose or raise the costs of its rivals” post-acquisition. “Indeed, the investigation indicated that these strategies could be profitable for Fresenius,” she wrote. Slaughter urged the FTC both to monitor competition levels in dialysis markets and to conduct a retrospective study of the transaction’s effects.

Overall, Slaughter’s statement is consistent with the views she expressed in her Essendant/Staples dissent. In that case, she offered similar comments on vertical mergers, stating that “they present an enforcement challenge that we must meet.” She also raised concerns in her Essendant/Staples dissent that “the current approach to vertical integration has led to substantial underenforcement.” Specifically, she was concerned that the agency’s conclusions are dependent on “unreliable assumptions and predictions about how a vertically integrated firm will conduct itself” and give too much weight to claimed efficiencies of vertical mergers. Slaughter also called for a retrospective study of the Essendant/Staples transaction.

Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Chopra

Commissioner Chopra in his dissent noted that “vertical mergers can choke off entry by innovators by shrinking the potential market to a point where it doesn’t make economic sense for a new business to launch.” Fresenius and DaVita are “essentially a duopoly” in the operation of hemodialysis clinics, Chopra wrote. Further, Fresenius is already vertically integrated.

The NxStage acquisition “essentially eliminates the potential for sales to Fresenius, since Fresenius will have little incentive to purchase in-home hemodialysis machines from a competitor,” Chopra wrote. As a result, fewer companies will be able to bring home dialysis machines to market. “There was clear evidence that the transaction will delay or inhibit entry by new firms,” Chopra noted. The long-term consequences could be “severe,” he wrote. He also raised the question of whether Fresenius “could achieve cost savings and other benefits through sourcing and supply agreements” rather than an outright acquisition of NxStage.

Additionally, Chopra pointed out that the FTC did examine the horizontal overlaps that existed in a transaction between two companies with the only FDA-approved home hemodialysis machines. However, the agency’s discussion of this issue has not been made available to the public. Chopra suggested that the FTC “should look to provide more transparency in the analysis made available to the public, such as a discussion of the analyses conducted regarding potential anticompetitive effects, data relied upon to justify a remedy (or lack thereof), and discussion of entry conditions post-transaction.”

Statement of Chairman Simons, Commissioner Phillips and Commissioner Wilson

The FTC “thoroughly and extensively” scrutinizes vertical mergers involving concentrated markets, Simons, Phillips and Wilson wrote. In this instance, the evidence “did not support a theory of harm” other than in the area of bloodlines, they noted. “To the contrary, the investigation—including information gathered from a number of current and potential market participants—showed that the transaction would likely increase the sale of NxStage’s in-home machines and thereby improve health outcomes by making in-home hemodialysis available to more qualifying ESRD patients.”

The evidence did not support a conclusion that Fresenius would foreclose or raise rivals’ costs, they wrote. More likely, the transaction could lead to much greater use of home hemodialysis, they predicted.

With respect to market entry, Simons, Phillips and Wilson pointed out that the announcement by CVS Health to offer a home hemodialysis machine came long after the public announcement of the NxStage/Fresenius transaction. Further, “the evidence showed that at least one other firm is likely to enter in the relatively short term,” they noted. The NxStage acquisition could actually increase market entry, in the eyes of the majority.

Finally, Simons, Phillips and Wilson wrote that FTC staff did examine a “potential horizontal overlap” between NxStage and Fresenius in home hemodialysis machines. However, the Fresenius “Baby K” machine is not regarded by customers as a substitute for the NxStage at-home machine, and the Baby K has not affected the pricing of the NxStage machine, they noted.

The Complaint and Proposed Settlement

Product Market

The FTC defined the market in the complaint as “no broader than the development, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of bloodline tubing sets compatible with hemodialysis machines indicated for chronic renal failure treated in dialysis clinics.”

According to the FTC’s analysis of the consent agreement to aid in public comment, there are “no viable alternatives to bloodline tubing sets for hemodialysis equipment.” There are three companies that are “significant suppliers” of bloodline tubing sets in the U.S. The FTC asserts that Fresenius is the leading provider with 59% share of the market, NxStage has 23% and Nipro has 16%. Other players in the bloodline tubing set market, consisting of 2% of the total market, are small firms supplying proprietary bloodlines for closed architecture hemodialysis machines. Fresenius, NxStage, and Nipro supply open architecture hemodialysis machines.

Geographic Market

The FTC defines the relevant geographic market as the U.S. The logic here is straightforward - because the product market involves medical devices which are regulated by the FDA, medical devices sold outside the U.S. that are not FDA-approved are not viable substitutes for U.S. consumers.

Competitive Effects

The FTC argues that the merger, without the proposed remedy, would “substantially lessen competition in the relevant market in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act.” The lessening of competition would manifest, according to the commission; (1) by eliminating “actual, direct, and substantial competition” between Fresenius and NxStage in the market for bloodline tubing sets for hemodialysis machines; (2) by increasing the merged firm’s ability to unilaterally raise prices in the relevant market; and (3) by reducing the firm’s incentives to improve quality and innovation in the market.

The FTC’s analysis describes the potential for anticompetitive effects in simple terms - the merging parties are two of three significant players in the relevant market. By eliminating the competition between Fresenius and NxStage in a highly concentrated market, the surviving company would be able to, by itself, raise prices, reduce innovation, and lessen consumer choice.

Entry

The complaint asserts that entry in the market would not be “timely, likely, or sufficient in magnitude, character, and scope to deter or counteract the anticompetitive effects of the Acquisition.”

New entrants are required to invest significant time and capital to research products, obtain necessary FDA approvals, and establish the infrastructure necessary to sell, market, and service the offering. Such product developments, according to the FTC, “are difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, and often fail to result in a competitive product reaching the market.”

The Settlement

The FTC’s consent requires the companies to divest to B. Braun “all assets and rights to research, develop, manufacture, market, and sell NxStage’s bloodline tubing sets.”

The FTC’s decision and order requires Fresenius and NxStage to provide support services “sufficient to enable [B. Braun] to operate the Hemodialysis Bloodline Assets in substantially the same manner that Respondents have operated such assets prior to the Acquisition.” The order also requires the companies to supply B. Braun with bloodline tubing sets while B. Braun establishes its own manufacturing capability.

The FTC argues that B. Braun is an appropriate divestiture buyer, asserting that the company is “well positioned to restore the competition that otherwise would have been lost due to the proposed Acquisition.” B. Braun currently operates a hemodialysis business that is “highly complementary” to the assets that are subject to divestiture.

The FTC requires that the divestiture to B. Braun be completed no later than 10 days following completion of the merger. Should there be an issue with B. Braun, the FTC will require the assets be divested to a commission-approved buyer within six months of the date of the final order.

The proposed order includes a provision that involves the appointment of a monitor to ensure the companies are adhering to their obligations. Should the companies fail to divest the relevant products, the commission can appoint a trustee to assist in the divestiture.

After the consent package is filed in the Federal Register, it will be subject to a public comment period of 30 days. The commissioners will then vote to determine whether to make the proposed consent final.

Reorg to Discuss Mexcat on Thursday, Jan. 10, at 11 a.m. ET

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 19:25:00 +0000

One of the most topical situations in credit these days in the Mexico City Airport Trust or Mexcat. Lots of debt, lots of political noise and a lot of opacity means its fascinating credit for many investors.

Reorg will be hosting a webcast on on the MexCat situation this Thursday, Jan. 10, at 11 a.m. ET. You can register attend here: MexCat Reorg Webinar

And as always, if you want to see our continuing coverage of MexCat you can request a trial at Reorg here: Reorg Trial Request

Happy New Year all!

A lot going on at Reorg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:00:00 +0000

It has been an amazing 2018. For those that haven't heard:

Warburg Pincus Announces Investment in Reorg Research

I have never been more excited about all the amazing stuff going on at the company. From designing and deploying a new website, launching new verticals and existing products in more geographies and bringing on a world-class partner to help take us to the next level, I am ecstatic about where Reorg is headed and super proud of what we have accomplished in a little over 5 years.

With that said, the Reorg team makes it a priority to keep subscribers as well as our entire extended audience informed about what is going on at the company and its offerings (we plan on launching 3 new products in the next 6 months). We regularly release new products and features, produce insightful content such as whitepapers, infographics, podcasts and webinars.

Please sign up to hear directly from us when we have updates and announcements to share: Reorg Marketing Sign Up

Any questions, feel free to reach out to me. And as always, thank you for the continued support!

-Kent & the Reorg Team

Reorg Research - Official Launch of Reorg Covenants Prime

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:20:00 +0000

In April last year, we officially launched Reorg Covenants, a product that helps market participants and their advisers understand the inherent risks and pitfalls in debt documents of the most actively traded and complex public credits and capital structures. Feedback from our subscribers has been amazing and I believe that Reorg Covenants has established itself as the best product of its kind on the market.

Today, I’m excited to announce the newest addition to our Reorg suite of products and one that I believe perfectly complements Reorg Covenants: Reorg Covenants Prime. This new service allows subscribers to send private and public debt documents to our team of analysts who will prepare in-depth, tailored reports that include commentary on the material risks associated with debt instruments and a summary of covenant packages and other key terms that are important to stakeholders. Subscribers submitting multiple debt documents for one company can also receive an analysis of the material differences between the documents.

If you are interested in Reorg Covenants Prime and would like more information, please contact us here: Reorg Covenants Prime Info Request.

As always, if you have any questions on the product or Reorg in general, feel free to reach out to me directly or your Reorg sales contact.

-Kent Collier, Founder & CEO of Reorg

14th Annual Wharton Restructuring and Distressed Investing Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 18:17:00 +0000

The annual Wharton Restructuring and Distressed Investing Conference is always one of the best events in the distressed debt space each year. This year is no exception! The keynote speakers this year are Jamie Dinan, founder of York Capital, Marc Lasry, co-founder and CEO of Avenue AND Bruce Richards, CEO and co-founder of Marathon. That's a truly amazing line up in of itself.

In addition, the panels look great this year as well with some very interesting subjects including restructurings in the maritime space, distressed retail, litigation finance and a case study on Avaya, one of the more topical names in the past 12 months.

Reorg is a sponsor this year and will have a number of people participating. We hope to see you there.

For more information please visit the conference's website at: http://www.wrdic.org

and to purchase tickets please visit here: https://wrdic2018.ticketleap.com/wrdic2018/

Reorg Covenants is Hiring! Looking for Fantastic Legal Analysts to Join the Team

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 20:39:00 +0000

As some of you know, Reorg launched Reorg Covenants earlier this year. We cover companies across the credit spectrum ranging from crossover to distressed debt and focus on the weaknesses of companies' various debt instruments and capital/corporate structure. We've had tremendous success year building not just the what I think is the best editorial product on the market but also launching a number of amazing technologies that make the analysis of indentures and credit agreements a much more efficient and effective exercise. We have big plans for the product as we expand into a Primary Issuance and European offering!

The Reorg Covenants team is hiring! We are looking to add a number of legal analysts to our already amazing group of talent. Your job will be to research and analyze companies' debt documents and write content for our subscribers highlighting the risks, opportunities, pitfalls of various instruments. Our analysts speak to clients often and you will have the opportunity to speak to some of the brightest minds out there on the buy side, sell side and legal communities. This is a perfect opportunity for a lawyer that has experience working around and crafting debt instruments to take their career to the next level in anticipation to a potential move to the buy side.

For more information or to apply you can go here: Reorg Covenants Job Posting

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. Thanks!

Puerto Rico Benefit: Join Reorg Research and the Distressed Debt Community Tuesday Oct 24th in NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 15:10:00 +0000

Hey everyone - Like all of you, I have watched in horror as Hurricane Maria has devastated Puerto Rico. This disaster and its aftermath hits particularly close to home, as Reorg has two employees and numerous colleagues and friends who live on the island with their families and face a long journey back to normalcy.

Next week Reorg Research as well as a number of sponsors are hosting a benefit to raise funds for Puerto Rico. We are inviting our friends and colleagues across the industry to come out for this amazing cause next week, Oct 24th in New York City. Myself and most of the Reorg Research team will be out and we would love if you would consider attending. Will be an amazing event!

Here is where you can register / sign up: Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief Benefit

All proceeds will be donated to United for Puerto Rico. We really hope to see you there!

-Kent

Did You Know? Reorg Launched an M&A / Special Sits Product

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 13:56:00 +0000

Over the past four years Reorg has launched a number of products in the credit space. We have big plans to launch more in the future. With that said, we saw an opportunity to launch a product around M&A, antitrust and special situations using Reorg's formula of amazing reporters, analysts and lawyers combined with innovative technology.

You can learn more about the new product at: Event-Driven.com. You can request a trial here: Event Driven Trial Sign Up

I produced a sample of a story we wrote yesterday below - if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me or your Reorg sales contact. Thanks! - Kent

COL/UTX Ability to Provide Integrated Systems May be Crucial Distinction for Regulators

Event Driven Takeaways

The COL/UTX divestiture package will most likely be in the range of $300M as United CEO Gregory Hayes stated in an interview with CNBC and the $850M divestiture limit in the merger agreement. While this is small relative to the $30B deal value, the product lines involved will most likely touch DoD contracts raising single source supplier concerns for critical systems.
The antitrust/contracting concerns will be seen across a number of small verticals within the aircraft system software space, specifically “flight bags”, that aggregate system data for flight crews. These antitrust concerns will come down to issues of substitutable competitive products and how important system integration is to the final customer.
Honeywell is the primary competitor for United Technologies across all verticals including the verticals that overlap with Rockwell. There are also smaller component manufacturers that compete for government contracts, and should reduce antitrust concerns on overlap.
The termination date for the deal is September 4, 2018, which can be extended by six months to March 2019. Projected close for the transaction is 3Q2018. Regulatory scrutiny around the divestiture package could extend the review timeline past the 3Q projected close.

Avionics systems appear to be the primary overlapping verticals, specifically electronic flight bag systems, for the combined COL/UTX. While there are many substitutable components among these systems, there are limited fully integrated systems available that cover the entire aircraft the way the United systems do. This will raise both competition concerns and defense readiness concerns, which will be complicated to mitigate, and could extend the review timeline.

The DOJ and DoD reviews of the Rockwell/United deal will scrutinize narrow individual product markets, but importantly, may hinge on the combined companies’ ability to provide integrated systems for planes, something that vastly narrows the list of alternative providers. When a product is part of an integrated system so that a non-integrated component does not have the full functionality of the system, the product is not a full substitute.

As we discussed in our previous report, DoD single source supplier review could be a sticking point in the regulatory review of the Rockwell/United deal. Civilian antitrust regulators have the final say, but the DoD’s analysis on the competitive effects of the transaction will carry significant weight. Both agencies will look at the competitive overlaps among the companies’ product lines, and the DoD will specifically look at readiness concerns around single source suppliers.

Both Rockwell and United offer electronic flight bag, or EFB, products that aggregate avionics data for flight crews. Rockwell’s SSR-7000 Secure Server Router “combines the capabilities of traditional wireless data transfer and avionics interface devices with ultra-secure EFB and crew wireless access.” United’s Tablet Electronic Flight Bag platform “enables real-time data exchange between [EFBs], aircraft avionics and airline operations while lowering costs and securely protecting data.”

Similarly, both companies offer aircraft data management solutions for route tracking and optimization. Rockwell’s ADS-3000 Air Data System “computes and displays all parameters essential to flight,” including airspeed and altitude. Rockwell also touts its products’ compliance with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) regulations, which cover traffic, weather, and flight information. United’s Aircraft Data Management (ADM) solution offers “continuous in-flight position monitoring and aircraft health reporting.” Furthermore, United’s aircraft interface device (AID) includes the ability to access “key aircraft avionics data such as GPS position, ground speed and aircraft heading,” and also facilitates transmission of weather information and flight performance tracking.

There are many small component manufacturers that make substitutable parts of the EFB system, including: Adobe, Advanced Data Research (ADR), Airbus, Air Data Solutions, Aircraft Data Fusion, Aircraft Management Technologies (AMT), Astoria Software, Approach View, ARINC, Astronautics, Avrotec (In Development) Boeing/Jeppesen/Astronautics, CMS Electronics, Control Vision, Echo Flight, Eflightsystems, LLC, Flight Deck Resources, Flight Explorer, GSCS, Hangar B-17, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, ION Systems, Jeppesen, LIDO, Maestro Aviation Limited, NavAero, On Board Data Systems, Panasonic, Paperless Cockpit, RMS Technology, Rockwell Collins, Sporty’s Pilot Shop, Stenbock & Everson, Teledyne Controls, Ultra-Nav Universal Avionics, WSI, WxWorx.

However, the true value of the proforma United EFB system will be that the analytics are integrated from the tail to the nose of an aircraft. The regulators will determine the degree to which a product must substitute for the original product's functionality. This is a central principle of regulatory analysis of product substitution.

While many of these manufacturers make individually substitutable systems, very few offer full integration. Honeywell is the only competitor with a fully integrated system of equivalent quality. For antitrust purposes this is an important distinction, because regulators may be concerned with full system functionality in which case substituting an individual system will not alleviate competitive concerns. This is even more true for DoD review, as United makes EFB systems tailored to defense purposes such as EFB integration with night-vision, and weapons systems. The issue of integration could be a problem if there is a custom system for defense purposes that only works with the larger EFB system provided by United.

The EFB systems are also important for defense efforts relating to autonomous flight systems. In the current form EFB systems collect and analyze data from an aircraft for human consumption. EFB systems are made up of sensors, analysis, and user interface. As more flight systems move toward autonomous systems, the user interface will become less important, and the integrated system analysis will grow in importance. This transition from manned flight systems to autonomous flight systems will increase the importance of integration, and make the issue of substitutable components more prominent.

Appellate Division Confirms Reorg Research Journalists Have Benefit of Shield Law

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 04:16:00 +0000

You may have heard about an important case between Reorg Research and Murray Energy. The case was a potential landmark for journalists and media organizations in New York and beyond. We fought like hell to protect what we knew was right.

Today, we won.

Here is a link to the opinion: Reorg Murray Decision.

In a unanimous 5-0 decision, the First Department Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court ruled that Reorg Research’s editorial team is protected by New York’s Shield Law from being compelled to disclose the identities of its confidential sources.

The court held that “because it is a ‘professional medium or agency which has as one of its main functions the dissemination of news to the public,’” Reorg has the benefit of the shield law and is exempt from having to comply with Murray Energy’s request that it reveal its sources.

The decision arose from a “pre-action disclosure petition” that Murray Energy filed with the New York Supreme Court in September after Reorg Research published two stories that reported Murray’s financial results and an agreement between the company and one of its labor unions.

The court noted that while Reorg has a “relatively limited subscriber base” that pays “relatively high” subscription fees and agrees to limited restrictions on further dissemination of its stories, these features are “not uncommon” in today’s media landscape and that the result of ruling in Murray’s favor “is not broader coverage but no coverage at all.”

In a coda likely to resonate far beyond the distressed debt community, the court ended its opinion by noting that “[e]xtending protection to [Reorg] under the Shield Law is consistent with New York’s ‘long tradition...of providing the utmost protection of freedom of the press’” and “[t]o condition coverage on a fact-intensive inquiry analyzing a publication’s number of subscribers, subscription fees, and the extent to which it allows further dissemination of information is unworkable and would create substantial prospective uncertainty, leading to a potential “chilling” effect.”

I want to thank our amazing team at Davis Wright Tremaine, the amici, our general counsel Jude Gorman and finally, the amazing team of journalists and contributors at Reorg who day in and day out, provide the world's most comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the high yield and distressed debt market.

-Kent

A Better Way to Read SEC Filings on Reorg Research

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 19:10:00 +0000

One thing that we constantly try to do at Reorg Research is look at how the buy side, bankers, traders and lawyers are consuming source information through other channels, platforms and mediums and improve upon those functionalities. We started in 2013 doing this around legal and bankruptcy filings. We now do it across a wide variety of data sets. For instance, this week we released a new and improved way for our subscribers to access SEC filings on Reorg:

You can access any SEC filing on Reorg Research and get instant alerts on any company out there (distressed or not distressed). You can run a full text search across all our data sets to find the information you need faster.

If you are a subscriber, you can access the SEC Filings portal here: SEC Filings on Reorg Research. If you aren't a subscriber and want to learn more, you can request a trial for the product here: Reorg Research Trial Request

Official Launch of Reorg Covenants

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 18:35:00 +0000

As many of you know, last year we rolled out a beta of Reorg Covenants. We saw a void in the market for a product that combined subject matter expertise around complex capital structures, whether it be a high yield or investment grade credits, along with innovative technologies that would make the analysis of indentures, credit agreements and other debt documents more efficient, effective and intuitive.

After amazing feedback from our beta participants, I believe we have built the best product on the market so market participants and their advisers can better know and understand the inherent risks and pitfalls of a particular credit or debt instrument. Names (and links to some our recent coverage) include:

Sears
Valeant
Concordia
Hexion
J.Crew
iHeart
Neiman Marcus
Gymboree
Sprint

If you are interested in trying out the product, please fill out the trial request form here: Reorg Covenants Trial Request

In addition, here is a press release with the official announcement: Reorg Covenants Press Release

As always, if you have any questions on the product or Reorg in general, feel free to reach out.