EP 31 | Michael Gatto on Distressed Debt, Caesars Goes Private & The Tom Clancy Debate

EP 31 | Michael Gatto on Distressed Debt, Caesars Goes Private & The Tom Clancy Debate

Michael Gatto, partner at Silver Point Capital and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and Fordham's Gabelli School of Business, joins at (02:12) to talk teaching, distressed investing, and how he went from a firm running $120 million to a $50 billion shop as its first non founder partner. He makes the case for hiring the gritty Fordham underdog over the Ivy pedigree, and explains why credit has always been a game for strivers. The timing is not subtle. BDCs are gating, First Brands had its disclosure statement denied with the US Trustee moving to convert to Chapter 7, and Jamie Dimon has been muttering about cockroaches. Gatto digs into what a credit analyst should actually learn from First Brands (19:43), what allocators should be asking direct lending managers (30:53), whether there is any fun left now that private credit went from the hottest asset class on the street to a beat down dog, and the O'Shea Center for Credit Analysis he founded at Fordham with Bob O'Shea. The conversation turns to Caesars Entertainment (38:35), the largest casino company in the US with 53 properties across 18 states, and Fertitta Entertainment taking it private in a $17.6 billion all cash deal at a 49 percent premium. Kyle Owusu, Director of Credit Research at Octus, walks through it (39:37), the $11.9 billion of debt Fertitta is inheriting, the $569 million in interest the company pays every quarter, the change of control put bondholders were watching, and the go shop window that is still open. The real story sits in the digital business, which more than doubled EBITDA last year while the Strip slipped about 5 percent, and in the enterprise value math that runs from the 2008 Apollo and TPG buyout through the brutal 2015 bankruptcy to today. Then Culture Corner (55:02) on Jack Ryan: Ghost War, the John Krasinski reboot that hit number one globally on Prime with Wendell Pierce and Michael Kelly back in the fold. The guys get into the TikTok theory that the whole thing was funded by Dubai tourism, the debate over the greatest Tom Clancy movie ever made with The Hunt for Red October as the benchmark, and why one host insists he was only resting his eyes. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt Guest: Michael Gatto (Partner, Silver Point Capital) Guest: Kyle Owusu (Director of Credit Research, Octus) Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard A Production of The Octus Podcast Network Link to what we talked about: The Credit Investor's Handbook: Leveraged Loans, High Yield Bonds, and Distressed Debt (Wiley Finance) Links - amzn.to/4vne6Oz [http://amzn.to/4vne6Oz]  What Can a Credit Analyst Learn from the Rise and Fall of First Brands -  https://bit.ly/3SehLzy [https://bit.ly/3SehLzy]  What Questions Should Allocators Ask When Evaluating Direct Lending Managers  - https://bit.ly/4enYRNO [https://bit.ly/4enYRNO]    00:00:05 Cold open and the fine print 00:02:12 Michael Gatto on teaching and Silver Point 00:19:43 What a credit analyst learns from First Brands 00:30:53 What allocators should ask direct lending managers 00:38:35 Caesars goes private 00:39:37 Kyle Owusu on the Fertitta deal 00:55:02 Culture Corner and Jack Ryan Ghost War 01:03:25 Wrap and close

EP 30 | Meme Stock M&A, Del Monte’s Peaches & Supreme Court Fight Club

Some weeks the news is weird. This week it is weird, litigious, and somehow involves 420,000 uprooted peach trees. Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] & Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/] open with Ryan Cohen's unsolicited, non binding offer to acquire eBay for $125 a share in a cash and stock deal (04:16), a bid that valued the target at roughly $56 billion from a company with a $12 billion market cap. Cohen showed up on Squawk Box in a leather jacket (05:33), could not explain the math to Andrew Ross Sorkin, and watched the stock drop 10% in real time. Michael Burry sold his entire position the next day. eBay called the bid "neither credible nor attractive." The hosts disagree on whether Cohen is a visionary or a chaos agent, and the debate is genuinely good. From there (14:30), the conversation moves to Del Monte Foods, a 130 plus year old company that filed Chapter 11 in July 2025 after an aggressive LME bought the company nine months. Asset sales closed in March 2026, with Fresh Del Monte, Pacific Coast Producers, and B&G Foods splitting the business for roughly $499 million combined. Judge Michael Kaplan's ruling on non pro rata DIP roll ups is the legal crux, and Kevin's conflicted feelings about it are some of the best radio on this episode. Also, 420,000 peach trees are being ripped out of California orchards. Producer Tanya called it a crisis, and she is not wrong. The episode closes with the debut of the Clout Audit Tribunal (24:08), Neal Katyal's TED Talk, Harvey AI, and the Supreme Court bar's collective meltdown over a Burning Man photo (31:16), before landing on Your Friends and Neighbors Season 2 (38:42), Jon Hamm, James Marsden's Owen Ashe, a deer shot dead on a beach, and the show's running thesis that rich people behaving badly in expensive houses is one of TV's most reliable pleasures. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] & Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/] Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-hubbard/] A Production of The Octus Podcast Network

EP 29 | Spirit's Final Flight, AMC Hangs On & The Parent Trap

Some companies die because the math was never going to work. Spirit, AMC, and fire truck pricing all make that case differently. Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] and Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/]open with an emergency segment on Spirit Airlines (02:31), which ceased all operations on May 2nd after 34 years, 17,000 jobs, and a wind-down that happened overnight. Kevin, who covered the case at Octus, walks through why the Twitter narrative blaming the Biden DOJ is missing about 90% of the actual story. The Trump administration floated a $500 million bailout, but when the DIP lenders said no, it evaporated. The hosts debate whether Spirit was ever going to survive, why the JetBlue merger is a red herring, and what the crowdfunding campaign to "buy Spirit" actually tells you about the internet. Then (19:03), Krishan Sutharshana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishan-sutharshana-cfa-48012836/], senior distressed debt analyst at Octus, joins to walk through AMC. The largest movie theater chain in the world has raised nearly $4 billion in equity since the pandemic and still cannot generate positive free cash flow. Krishan explains the LME, the $3 billion maturity wall, the streaming window compression, and why the box office needs to hit $10 billion before AMC breaks even. From there (36:19), Kevin breaks down how private equity rolled up the fire truck market, with Rev Group sitting on $4.4 billion in unfilled orders while prices have risen 5x and used trucks jumped 62% in a year. The show closes with the debut of The Parent Trap (42:10), a new segment about the things you do for your parents.  Jason spent a long weekend helping his parents move out of the Pittsburgh house they lived in for 40 years. Kevin produced a photo of his father on the field alongside O.J. Simpson and Dan Marino, which raises more questions than it answers. And the show's first ever mystery write-in arrives: an orchid dispute at an assisted living facility from a listener who is definitely not anyone on the production team. The hosts took it extremely seriously and provided the full legal analysis it deserved. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] & Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/] Guest: Krishan Sutharshana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishan-sutharshana-cfa-48012836/] (Senior Distressed Debt Analyst, Octus) Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-hubbard/%20] A Production of The Octus Podcast Network

EP 28 | BDC Trust Gap, Carl's Jr. Collapse & The Pitt

Private credit was supposed to be boring. This episode makes the case that boring just got complicated. Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] & Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/] open with a cruise recap and the $80 million law firm hire that broke the internet before bringing in Mark Fischer [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fischer-b1582182],, Head of Financial Research at Octus (08:17). He breaks down why private credit is facing its first genuine stress test. Not COVID, not rate hikes in isolation, but both cycles hitting at once: floating-rate loans repricing into a distressed environment, dividend coverage cracking, and BDC marks on the same asset sitting 40 points apart depending on who’s holding it. The conversation moves to redemption pressure (22:19), where Blue Owl’s Technology Income Fund absorbed repurchase requests on 40% of outstanding shares and could only honor 5%. Saba Capital has since launched a tender at a 33% discount. Mark stays diplomatic on whether the marks are wrong. The hosts are less diplomatic. From there (31:27), the episode shifts to Friendly Franchisees Corporation, a 65-unit Carl’s Jr. operator in California that just filed for Chapter 11. Owner Harshad Dharod blamed AB 1228, the law that raised the fast food minimum wage to $20. A UC Berkeley study released this month found no net job losses and only minimal menu price increases. Jason and Kevin are unconvinced the law is the villain here. Culture Corner (43:55) covers The Pitt, the HBO Max medical drama that actual ER doctors call the most realistic show they’ve ever seen. The hosts debate whether watching exhausted professionals make life-and-death decisions under institutional pressure hits a little too close to home for two former restructuring lawyers. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] & Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/] Guest: Mark Fischer [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fischer-b1582182](Head of Financial Research, Octus) Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-hubbard/%20] A Production of The Octus Podcast Network

EP 27 | Vail's Avalanche, 'We Listen But We Don't Judge' & Love Story's Crash Landing

Jason Sanjana [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sanjana-a030a77b/] and Kevin Eckhardt [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eckhardt-26a955138/]open with the shot heard round the NCAA Tournament (00:01:32)Braylon Mullins' 35 foot buzzer beater that completed a 19 point UConn comeback to stun No. 1 overall seed Duke 73 to 72 in the Elite Eight. Jason confesses to rewatching the postgame press conference on repeat, Kevin sets aside his Syracuse era UConn hatred to celebrate, and the two trade stories about hating Duke, including Kevin's rejection letter despite a recommendation from Coach K himself. From there (00:06:07), the conversation turns to the federal antitrust class action filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company. The lawsuit, brought by DiCello Levitt, Berger Montague PC, and Salahi PC, alleges an illegal duopoly in which Epic Pass and Ikon Pass bundling schemes inflate day pass prices, now as high as $356 at Vail, and coerce consumers into buying season passes they don't need. The hosts walk through the Sherman Act Section 1 tying theory (00:08:06), the ESPN/Disney parallel from the Dish Network litigation Kevin is tracking at Octus (00:09:39), and why Vail's defense that Epic Pass reduced season pass prices by 60% when it launched in 2008 doesn't address the day pass problem (00:13:01). Kevin predicts the case settles with vouchers and coupons, but Jason flags the motion to dismiss as the real inflection point (00:18:41). At (00:20:17), the hosts debut We Listen But We Don't Judge, a new segment inspired by the TikTok confessional format, applied to the bankruptcy and restructuring world. Three confessions follow: first, Judge Michael Kaplan appointing himself mediator in the Multi Color Corporation prepackaged Chapter 11 (00:22:18), a move so unprecedented the hosts can't find another example of a sitting judge mediating their own case. Second, White & Case's $14 million fee application as UCC counsel in ModivCare (00:31:19), where the debtors allege a partner threatened to run up $30 million in fees if the UCC didn't receive a $30 million payout, which Kevin and Jason argue is just good lawyering. Third, Burford Capital's $16 billion judgment against Argentina getting invalidated by the Second Circuit (00:34:25), wiping out a concentrated asset that underpinned the litigation funder's entire balance sheet. After a fake WD 40 ad break (00:39:00), the show closes with a review of Ryan Murphy's FX series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette (00:40:43). Despite record viewership and a 90s aesthetic that made Kevin want to smoke again, both hosts agree the nine episode series couldn't sustain itself on two characters who weren't written with enough depth to carry the story. Jason's biggest gripe: the show ignored the broader political and cultural context of late 90s America. Kevin's: the plane crash scene played like a parody. They agree the most interesting character, Jackie Kennedy played by Naomi Watts, got only three scenes. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-hubbard/] A Production of The Octus Podcast Network