Robert Smith

Switzerland’s financial regulator has attempted to block the release of key documents to investors who are suing it after $17bn of bonds were wiped out in the rescue of Credit Suisse. The bank’s state-ordered takeover by UBS last year has led to at least $9bn of legal claims, largely related to the decision by Swiss regulator Finma to write down billions of dollars of Credit Suisse debt to zero. The investors owned additional tier 1 bonds, or AT1s, a form of bank debt that can be converted int…

Formal notice to bondholders fires starting gun on complicated debt restructuring

Paul Weightman is no stranger to high-profile corporate scraps. The 62-year-old Australian, whose audacious poaching of more than 20 senior executives from asset manager Barings last month has already sparked litigation, spent 20 years running a property business that was involved in its fair share of takeover battles. But it was his early career as a lawyer in Australian rugby league that provided the blueprint for the Barings raid, which has given Weightman a whole team of private credit exp…

Breaking down Sotheby’s foray into art-backed securities

Cracks in the financial plumbing of Thames Water’s complex corporate structure are making debt investors nervous about a supposedly safe financial model widely used across Britain’s privatised utilities and essential infrastructure. The growing crisis at the company this month triggered a default at its parent firm, which has ricocheted down to hit securitised bonds at the operating companies that were long thought to be bulletproof. The government is now working on contingency plans to nationa…

Altice took out a more than £1bn margin loan against its stake in BT, in a move that underscores the risky borrowing that is now piling pressure on billionaire Patrick Drahi’s sprawling telecoms group. The Franco-Israeli billionaire’s 24.5 per cent stake in BT was built through substantial loans and derivatives financing, allowing Altice to borrow heavily against the shares, according to people familiar with the situation and loan documents seen by the Financial Times. The company’s borrowing…

French authorities’ action against Pavel Durov hits IPO plans and leaves bondholders nursing steep losses

Arch-rival Christie’s also suffering from slowdown in auctions

Pavel Durov’s company has been coining it in

Revenue leapt to $525mn in first half of 2024 before chief Pavel Durov was detained over alleged criminality on platform