Restructuring__

Can we agree on when we can call an A&E an LME? If rolled at par it's an A&E?

If you find this interesting, you'll like this tracker 👇

5) Perpetual holding period Bloomberg's article makes a good point that "Evaluating Bending Spoons’ success is difficult, because it keeps buying companies and doesn’t publicly disclose financial details" and is yet to either sell an app or bring anything public. This said, this strategy could very well tie with the concept of cigar-butt investing. Bending Spoons is buying mediocre businesses are great prices, making them slightly better and extracting cash flow for as long as possible - brilliant stuff. It will be interesting to see how their story evolves and what "distressed app" will be their next target

THE SOFTWARE PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM OF THE FUTURE: BENDING SPOONS While most PE firms are marking down their software portfolio, an Italian company is flipping the playbook and is building something unique: a roll-up of distressed apps 1) Origins of Bending Spoons 2) Cigar-butt investing approach to software 3) Off-shoring to Italy 4) Evernote Case Study 5) Perpetual holding period A 🧵Thread about this unique private equity firm

As we move through the current earnings season, the narrative around AI is shifting from experimentation to measurable financial impact. This earnings season tracker provides a great overview of how companies are deploying AI across: - Core Operations & Enterprise Productivity - Commercial & Enterprise Decisioning - AI-Native Products & Platforms alpha-sense.com/resources/repo…

Disclosure, I am an equity investor in Arvo

Introducing Arvo, my first venture investment! Arvo is led by Kunal Valrani. If you have done banking, you know that everyone says they will launch a business, but then 99.9% of people just accept their Mega-Fund PE Associate offer once it knocks on the door (myself included). Kunal did not; he took a risk, bet on himself, and launched Arvo with a strong team, and I deeply admire him for the decision. I am extremely excited to announce that we invested in Arvo’s pre-seed round, and we are sharing the news in conjunction with their official launch. So, what is Arvo? Arvo eliminates the need for bankers and investors to manually take notes on the 40+ hours of weekly calls they’re on. Beyond capturing notes, Arvo logs meetings directly into CRMs, automates post-meeting workflows, and surfaces intelligence ahead of meetings to help teams close more deals. The tool was built alongside Umer Haider, an experienced software engineer, and a team of SEC and cybersecurity experts to ensure proprietary, finance-specific compliance controls. As someone who has wasted way too many hours of my life taking notes, I see the potential and I am very excited to be on the cap table. If you are tired of wasting your life taking notes, book an introductory call, and see how they can help you! What makes Arvo different? Compliance teams are (rightfully) blocking use of AI note-takers. Arvo is the first AI meeting assistant the industry can actually use thanks to their compliance-first approach purpose-built for finance. The team launched in stealth in the fall, and they are already used by 10+ investment banks and private equity firms. Last month, they signed the first Mega-Fund with $100bn+ in AUM. Try their product today (arvohq.com) and save time!

And they say lawyers do not work on interesting deals

Hey guys, The Fundamental Academy (advanced course for hedge fund analysts) is starting its next cohort in mid May. Took this myself and highly recommend it. My perspective and thought process about public markets largely comes from Brett and his lessons and case studies – 100% worth the (high) price. Send me a DM if you are interested, have any questions, and would like my discount code for the May academy!

Florida’s Brightline Seeks Rescue to Avoid Bankruptcy 🚆👀

@AminLabadi @PariPassu_Rx Thank you!

@Restructuring__ @PariPassu_Rx great read.

One Identity, Five Tranches Quest Software is a private enterprise IT company backed by Clearlake Capital, and its recent liability management activity has turned it into one of the clearest live case studies in the next phase of sponsor-backed LMEs. What this write-up goes into is how Quest was not a weak business on the verge of collapse but a large software platform trying to manage a difficult SaaS transition under a heavy LBO debt load. 1) A Software Platform at the Center of LME 3.0 2) How Quest Started Scaling 3) The SaaS Transition Collided With Debt 4) The May 2025 Deal Recut 5) The Sponsor Took the Pain 6) A Second Exchange 🧵

6) A Second Exchange Before the market had much time to digest the first transaction, Quest launched another exchange in August 2025. This second step focused on the fifth-out term loan, allowing those lenders to swap into a newly created “3.5-out” tranche at 85 cents, effectively moving ahead of Clearlake’s fourth-out paper. Even without every detail fully public, the message was hard to miss. Clearlake was again willing to let third-party creditors move up in exchange for discount capture and more breathing room for the business. That raises the most interesting question in the case: whether this is simply a sponsor staying proactive while Quest works through its SaaS transition, or whether the need for another exchange so quickly signals that the margin for error is already narrowing again.

5) The Sponsor Took the Pain What really stands out is what the transaction says about how the market is changing. Earlier headline-grabbing uptiers often revolved around one group of lenders taking a clearly superior position while everyone else was left far behind and then rushed into litigation. Quest still involved a reshuffling of priority, but the economics were softer, and the sponsor itself absorbed much of the pain. Out-group first-lien lenders were not entirely buried. Clearlake, by contrast, accepted a materially worse place in the stack in exchange for more runway and a better chance of preserving equity value. That trade only makes sense if Clearlake still believes Quest can work through the transition and regain enough momentum for the equity to matter. It also shows how powerful a coordinated creditor group can become once it has time, organization, and a sponsor facing real urgency. The recovery work in the full article makes this dynamic clearer, because the spread between creditor outcomes changes meaningfully depending on valuation, but the bigger point is simpler: Quest’s May deal was as much about negotiating leverage and sponsor incentives as it was about liability management mechanics.