Get the download on debt markets with Cloud 9fin, where our team pulls back the curtain on corporate credit and gives you the inside scoop on leveraged finance, private credit, distressed debt and everything in between. Through its AI-powered data and analytics platform, 9fin provides everything you need to get your head around credit or win a mandate — all in one place. We help subscribers win business, outperform their peers and save time. Come and join the discussion on the hottest debt m ...
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The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision on 27 June ruled that a bankruptcy court does not have the statutory authority to provide non-consensual third party releases. Such releases had been a crucial part of the Purdue Pharma Chapter 11 plan, among others, where the bankruptcy system was being employed to shield non-debtors from litigation without full…
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Not all liability management deals are "violent"; in fact the majority of deals in 2024 have allowed for participation by non ad hoc group lenders who in the past had been entirely cut out of the economics of non pro rata priming transactions. For this week's episode of Cloud 9fin, global head of distressed and restructuring Max Frumes, distressed …
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US leveraged buyout volumes are slowly starting to improve, with the likes of Apollo, Thoma Bravo, CD&R and TowerBrook making moves. This comes after a long period where buyers and sellers struggled to find common ground in valuations and could bring a welcome shot of new debt issuance for investors that are eager to lend. So what changed? And is t…
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When one door opens another one CLOs, with Napier Park's Serhan Secman
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The credit markets are constantly evolving, and CLOs are no exception. As hopeful new managers enter, less successful platforms fall away. This keeps the market healthy, says Napier Park’s global head of the CLO management platform Serhan Secmen. But what makes a manager successful? In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, Serhan joins our own global …
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Tumultuous waves have long beset Thames Water, but last week a massive one hit the imperiled UK utility company head on as Moody's cut its opco debt to junk. With too much debt, poor quality assets from decades of under investment, and a plan the water regulator rejected, Thames's opco downgrade was widely expected across the market. But what happe…
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For the vendors and firms owed money by a bankrupt company, the primary motivation to join an Unsecured Creditors’ Committee is often simple: maximize economic recoveries. But Doctor Dennis Deruelle had other priorities. Listen as Dennis recounts the struggles faced by hospital staff and patients from his viewpoint as the Executive Medical Director…
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Knowing your place, with Hayfin's Carlos Pla
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In the realm of private credit, thinking local is a must. Which means knowing your place can determine whether an investment will succeed or generate losses. For this week's episode of Cloud 9fin, senior reporter Bianca Boorer sits down with Hayfin's Carlos Pla. They talk about the nuance of private credit special situations in Europe, how it diffe…
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Shout if you’ve heard this one before: a CPA and an MD walk into a bar. The MD says, “Plz Fix,” and the CPA says, “sure, but I’ll need three forms of ID and an engagement letter first.” In response to which the MD, of course, literally explodes. Not heard it? Well you may soon, because private equity ownership of auditing firms is causing concern i…
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Overheard in the Southern District of Texas: Don’t be a meanie! Ok, we may be paraphrasing here a bit, but taking the decision in Robertshaw and the anticipated Incora decision together, the court may be signaling that lenders need to stop being so Incora-gible and tone down the violence. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, reporter Max Reyes dig…
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When it emerged from bankruptcy in 2021, Hertz was something of a success story. Everyone involved who wasn’t named Carl Icahn made out OK. But here it is again, challenged by an overstep into EVs and loaded up with pricey new debt. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, global head of distressed and restructuring Max Frumes breaks it all down with …
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Last week at the Fed, nothing happened. Usually when nothing happens, we don’t report on it, but in this case it got us thinking. What are the consequences of higher-for-longer? Did the Open Markets Committee leave themselves a trapdoor to push through a series of rate cuts across the back half of the year? And what’s up with rates in Europe and th…
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Lawyers might finally be done filing large, complex Chapter 11s in the Eastern District of Virginia. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, our very own global head of distressed and restructuring Max Frumes digs into the shocking denial of Vinson & Elkins’ retention application in the Enviva proceedings with distressed legal analyst Jane Komsky. Re…
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The ABCs of private credit LMEs, with Freshfields
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36:40
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In recent years, the term ‘lender-on-lender violence’ has become a popular way to refer to deals that are more politely known as ‘liability management exercises’. Both terms are euphemistic — so what are we actually talking about here? And what happens when these often quite bruising battles between companies, their sponsors and their lenders, take…
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The rise and rise of SRT with Matthew Moniot of Man Group
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19:52
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At what point does a trend become a megatrend? In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, our very own ABS editor Owen Sanderson is joined by Matthew Moniot, co-head of credit risk sharing at Man Group, in a conversation about Significant Risk Transfers (SRTs) and their potential to reshape the US credit markets. Have any questions or feedback for us? W…
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What does the UK election mean for credit?
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It’s happening! Voters in the UK will head to the polls in just over a month, and most polls forecast a resounding victory for Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. Notwithstanding multiple reshuffles under the Conservatives over recent years, this would be the first proper regime change in the UK since 2010. So it’s kind of a big deal — and while the…
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Talking SaaS with Thoma Bravo, feat. Oliver Thym
16:28
16:28
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Enterprise software is a sector with a lot to love if you’re a private credit investor: long-term contracts and sticky customers. But how will AI impact software companies? And what is the growth outlook in the sector, which has had a tough time over recent years? In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, private credit reporter Peter Benson and Oliver…
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From a colony of bats plaguing one of its hospitals in Florida to an alleged connection to money laundering in Malta, Steward Health‘s descent into bankruptcy is anything but ordinary. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, global head of distressed debt reporting Max Frumes and deputy distressed editor Rachel Butt walk through the lead-up to Stewar…
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Navigating the new paradigm with Rob Fawn of PGIM
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The current interest rate environment is driving a rise in downgrades, special situations and liability management exercises. But how to know which of the increasing number of stressed and distressed credits are worth adding to — or keeping in — the portfolio? In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, senior reporter Bianca Boorer sits down with Rob Fa…
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Managing messaging with Jude Gorman of Collected Strategies
21:39
21:39
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Finance is about money, obviously, but it’s also about narratives. That’s especially true in the world of activist investing and proxy battles, and in the high-stakes arena of distressed debt. In an age where news travels faster — and through more channels — than ever before, how do companies and investors manage their messaging? For this week’s ep…
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SBTi U-turn rocks world of sustainable finance
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The SBTi’s sudden change in stance on the use of carbon credits came as a shock in the world of sustainable finance last week. In this episode, our hosts Sammy Cole and Oliver Wise, unpack the latest events and talk to Nawar Alsaadi, the CEO and founder of Kanata Advisors, a sustainable fintech advisory firm based in Toronto, to get his take on the…
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The end of cheap borrowing is showing its true colors — and for Intrum it’s a deep shade of red as the Swedish debt collector faces its own credit crisis. Following our deep dive into Altice last week, 9fin analyst Jennifer Munnings, distressed debt reporter Will Macadam and senior legal consultant Freddie Doust decipher the writing on the wall as …
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What do you get when a builder basket just keeps building, and building and building? You get a whole basketful of lenders caught off-guard by the massive amount of capacity that Altice France has to designate its subsidiaries as unrestricted, that’s what. In this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, editor Dan Alderson, senior legal consultants Chris Osb…
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Tailoring to the thesis with David Leland of BC Partners
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The question on everyone’s lips these days seems to be: are you going BSL, or are you going direct? But when private equity sponsors are building out their portfolio companies’ capital structures, their first concern is often whether the instruments they’re employing are a fit for the business at hand. In this week’s Cloud 9fin episode, 9fin senior…
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The Ozempic effect is coming for more than just your wardrobe! Last week, 9fin reported that a group of lenders to Weight Watchers parent WW International organized with law firm Gibson Dunn as the company loses subscribers to weight loss drugs. On a somewhat related note, 9fin also reported that Herbalife is facing challenges of its own after a ba…
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The best and worst of high yield bond covenants
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21:13
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European bond investors: your restricted payment builder baskets are under threat! But also, you’re probably better protected against being J.Screwed than you were in the past. Those are just two insights from 9fin’s European High Yield Bonds Covenants Report, which provides a deep dive on the state of high yield bond covenants, based on documentat…
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IWD Edition — Breaking through the bottleneck
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Everybody knows that finance is a male-dominated industry, and there are plenty of initiatives to change that. But when you look at the numbers, it can be quite staggering to realize that, for example, just one in 10 senior portfolio managers in private credit is a woman. For this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin, we’re celebrating International Women’…
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Restructuring reflections with Chris Schubert, Alcentra
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23:14
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9fin sits down with Chris Schubert, executive director in special situations at Alcentra, to talk about his expectations for the distressed market this year. We take a look back at restructurings he’s been involved in including Ideal Standard and lessons he’s learned from these cases. Schubert also goes into challenges posed by whitelists and the n…
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Who could have imagined that Red Lobster’s endless shrimp promotion might have unintended financial consequences? Does distress at retailers like Express, Jo-Ann’s and The Children’s Place mean the US consumer is in trouble? Is ‘liability management’ a better term than ‘credit-on-creditor violence’? And why is communications firm C Street starting …
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In November 2023, California circumvented the US Securities and Exchange Commission and released two regulations aimed at increasing climate disclosures for US companies. The SEC initially proposed its now twice delayed climate disclosures in 2022, but the regulations are expected to be released early this year. In this Cloud 9fin episode, host Jen…
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Repricing deals have flooded the European market over the past few weeks, with many companies taking advantage of lower interest rate forecasts and tighter high yield credit spreads. But is this trend set to last? For this week’s podcast, Alessandro Albano, financial journalist at 9fin, sat down with host Sammy Cole to talk about the repricing wave…
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Riding the repricing wave, with Himani Trivedi of Nuveen
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25:15
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US leveraged loan borrowers are repricing their debt at a frenetic pace, and it’s starting to hurt — in some credits, they’re testing the base limits of the CLO managers holding their debt. Himani Trivedi, head of structured credit at Nuveen Asset Management, has seen a lot of history in the CLO market, so she’s perfectly placed to put this intense…
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A deep dive on cross-border recognition with Riz Mokal
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Cross-border recognition is where every good restructuring deal hopes to end. Recognition was historically a more clearcut part of a restructuring process, but in a post-Brexit world, with the advent of restructuring plans (in the UK and across Europe), and the rule in Gibbs potentially in doubt, the apple-cart may have been upset. In this week’s p…
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Loan repricings came thick and fast in the US market this week, with borrowers looking to slash their borrowing costs on more than $30bn of debt — but bonds are also coming back in a big way. Companies such as Hilton and Chobani highlighted the compelling value on offer in the high yield bond market, which could help define the shape of some hefty …
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Cinven answers investors’ LBO Christmas wishes with Synlab takeover
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11:19
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German medical diagnostics provider Synlab answered investors’ Christmas wishes for another big European LBO deal by coming to market with €1.5bn in bonds and loans in early December. The funding was used to finance UK private equity fund Cinven’s acquisition of a majority stake in the company. For our first podcast of 2024, Cloud9fin sits down wit…
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What the collapse of Enviva and Inclusive means for ESG
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16:17
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The collapse of wood pellet producer Enviva last month was swift and brutal. The story’s not over yet for all of the company’s investors (for an extremely thorough analysis, check out our distressed team’s deep-dive report) but it is for at least one of them: Inclusive Capital. Founded just a few short years ago to great fanfare, Jeff Ubben’s much-…
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Looking back on 2023, we’ve seen financial markets tested by ongoing geopolitical upheaval. We sit down with 9fin’s CEO Steven Hunter to take us through the highs and lows of the year as well as our company’s growth story. Also tune in to find out how Steven unwinds in his spare time and what he thinks about pints in New York!…
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“9fin AI enables our users to find and process the information they need quicker. Speed is essential in financial markets and debt is no exception.” 9fin has been leveraging AI since the company was founded back in 2016, but we’ve recently stepped-up our game. ‘9fin AI’ allows subscribers to ask questions about companies within debt capital markets…
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Rich Byrne of BSP on why CRE lending is the real deal
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Commercial real estate is in crisis — specifically, office buildings. The pandemic unleashed an unpredictable torrent of changes in how people work and live, and the dramatic rise in interest rates over recent months has broken funding models for many property owners. That’s extremely bad news for a lot of investors in the real estate market, but i…
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Corestate’s lawyers on its protracted “alternative” restructuring
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25:00
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German real estate is very in vogue in distressed land. In keeping with that trend, German real estate investment firm Corestate Capital is trying to turn its ill fate around through asset sales after finally completed its debt restructuring three months ago. The restructuring deal took a whole year to push through after a lot of back and forth wit…
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What's next for Adler's Restructuring Plan
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27:19
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On 21 April this year, the High Court sanctioned Adler Group's UK Restructuring Plan, enabling the group to pursue a solvent wind-down of operations and sale of assets over a two-year period. But one group of creditors was pretty peeved by the plan (understatement of the century). In this week's episode of our Cloud 9fin podcast, 9fin editor Chris …
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Bonus Episode — Talking ESG with lawyers, Sukhvir Basran and Alex Smith
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ESG has had a rocky ride in 2023, so how is the legal sector responding? This week, 9fin’s Head of ESG, Jack David talks with prominent sustainability-focused lawyers Sukhvir Basran from Cadwalader and Alex Smith from Eversheds about the evolving world of ESG and sustainability from a legal perspective. We cover the US backlash, the ins and outs of…
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Life insurance, on the face of it, is not the most exciting industry. The secondary market for life insurance policies, however, presents the perfect subject for a spooky Halloween special edition of Cloud 9fin. On this week’s episode, Will Caiger-Smith quizzes Sami Vukelj — who explains how and why private credit firms are buying life insurance po…
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The new high interest rate environment poses a huge challenge for companies with debt maturing in the next two years. What risks and opportunities do investors see in the current debt market? For this week’s episode of Cloud 9fin Bianca Boorer sits down with Mike Scott, Head of Global High Yield & Credit Opportunities at Man GLG. Scott discusses ho…
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Debt purchasers must soon decide how they plan on addressing upcoming maturity walls, but they are facing scrutiny over their business models. For this week’s episode of our podcast, host Sammy Cole sits down with 9fin’s Nathan Mitchell and Matthew Hughes to talk through debt purchaser predicaments, their options and predictions for the years ahead…
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The right place with Jess Larsen, Briarcliffe Partners
30:48
30:48
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Jess Larsen is in the right place at precisely the right time: after a tough period last year, investor interest in private credit is exploding once again, and his placement agency Briarcliffe Partners is perfectly positioned to benefit from this surge in popularity. The denominator effect is easing, and LPs are once again finding room for private …
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Bonus Episode — The short seller's guide to credit, with Carson Block
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Carson Block is not an unfamiliar name, at least in the equity markets. He and his short-activism fund Muddy Waters Research have been at the center of many notable trades in recent years — so notable, in fact, that the SEC began investigating him last year. He’s talked publicly about the covert techniques he and his colleagues use to uncover fraud…
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Private credit CLOs — they’re coming our way
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28:09
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When JP Morgan priced Ivy Hill XXI in July it marked the bank's entry into middle-market CLO arranging and underlined the expansion of the mid-market CLO industry. That deal also re-sparked the inevitable question of whether now is the right time for private credit CLOs in Europe. For this week’s episode of our podcast, Josie Shillito quizzes Chris…
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Banks push back on private credit with Eric Muller, Oak Hill Advisors
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35:16
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Can banks really compete with the big guns of private credit? Many are trying — but there are multiple constraints holding them back, from regulation all the way through to organizational structure and culture. This is just one of the topics we discussed in our podcast with Eric Muller of Oak Hill Advisors, a seasoned veteran not just of the direct…
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A new dawn for J Crew Blockers? Strong formulations we’ve seen in 2023
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10:26
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Lenders tend to feel reassured knowing their docs have a J Crew blocker, but not all J Crew blockers offer the protection they might expect. For this week’s episode of our podcast, Alice Holian and Olivia Mantock cover the ins and outs of J Crew blockers and run through some novel formulations they’ve seen in 2023. Is the ‘Dechra standard’ going to…
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It’s been a hot and heavy summer, and the pipeline is looking encouragingly full for next month — especially compared to this time last year. For this week’s episode of the podcast, Will Caiger-Smith and William Hoffman take a tour through the primary calendar and evaluate each deal’s chances for a smooth syndication. Featuring: Worldpay, Vistra, S…
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