Middle Market Debt Weekly: Odds of a Fed Hike Push Past 85%

Asset‑based lenders closed the week with evidence that secured capacity remains abundant across every tier of the risk spectrum — and that it is repricing in the borrower’s favor. Maurices, the women’s apparel retailer operating more than 800 stores, completed a refinancing that retained incumbents Wingspire Capital and Tiger Finance while adding Second Avenue Capital Partners to an upsized first‑in, last‑out term loan, extending maturities and lowering borrowing costs.^1,2 At the opposite end of the credit spectrum, Friedman Industries expanded its JPMorgan‑agented facility from $140 million to $200 million expressly to align commitments with growth in the underlying borrowing base,⁵ while Cooper‑Standard’s Bank of America‑led group added $20 million to reach $200 million, cut the applicable margin to a grid of SOFR plus 150 to 200 basis points, and removed credit spread adjustments entirely.^7,8 Three borrowers, three very different credit profiles, one message: collateral‑secured capital is available, and it is getting cheaper.

The macro backdrop turned decisively against floating‑rate borrowers. August CPI, released Friday, rose 0.4% for the month and held at 3.4% year over year, with gasoline up 3.9% and accounting for more than a third of the monthly increase; core CPI advanced 0.3%.^22,23 The print pushed CME FedWatch odds of a 25 basis point increase at the September 16 FOMC meeting to roughly 85%, up from 70% the prior day and 48.4% on August 11.^24,25 The Committee has held the funds rate at 3.50% to 3.75% since voting 9‑3 to stand pat on July 29.²⁶ Ten‑year Treasury yields climbed 18 basis points on the week to close at 4.96%, the highest since 2023, while the two‑year ended at 4.63%.^28,29 For asset‑based borrowers priced off SOFR, the all‑in cost of the revolver is about to move the wrong way — which makes the spread compression described above considerably more valuable than it appears on the term sheet.

Maurices Adds Second Avenue to an Upsized FILO as Retail ABL Reprices

Maurices announced on September 9 that it had completed a refinancing that both extends maturities and lowers borrowing costs, expanding a longstanding relationship with Wingspire Capital and Tiger Finance and welcoming Second Avenue Capital Partners into the structure.¹ Second Avenue, a Schottenstein affiliate that specializes in asset‑based loans to retail and consumer products borrowers, joined an upsized FILO term loan — the first‑in, last‑out tranche that sits behind the revolver on collateral but ahead of everything else.^2,3 Houlihan Lokey Capital Solutions acted as exclusive placement agent.¹ Facility size was not disclosed; the 2021 predecessor transaction was a $200 million senior secured facility — a $100 million revolving line and a $100 million term loan — that Wingspire agented alongside SLR Credit Solutions.⁴

The structural detail is the story. A FILO tranche is the mechanism by which an ABL group lends against the portion of the borrowing base that ordinary advance rates leave stranded — and upsizing it means the lender group grew more comfortable with the appraised value of inventory, not less. That a third lender chose to enter a specialty retail credit at this point in the cycle, rather than the incumbents quietly extending among themselves, is the supply signal. Retail ABL has spent two years being described as a shrinking, defensive business; a competitive FILO with a new entrant is not what a shrinking business looks like.

The transaction also arrived the same week Caleres reported second‑quarter results showing $288 million drawn under its asset‑based revolver against $357.3 million of remaining availability.¹⁰ Read together, the two data points describe a retail ABL market where borrowers are carrying meaningful revolver balances into the fall inventory build while retaining substantial undrawn capacity. For lenders, the implication is that the fourth‑quarter seasonal draw will be absorbed within existing commitments rather than forcing amendment conversations — provided appraisals hold.

Borrowing‑Base Growth, Not Leverage Appetite, Drives Upsizes at Friedman and Cooper‑Standard

Two bank‑agented upsizes disclosed on September 10 illustrate how differently ABL behaves from cash‑flow lending when a borrower grows. Friedman Industries entered a Seventh Amendment to its amended and restated credit agreement with JPMorgan Chase as administrative agent, increasing aggregate commitments from $140 million to $200 million — a 43% increase — with the filing stating plainly that the purpose was to align the facility size with growth in the underlying borrowing base.⁵ The $60 million increase is exactly the accordion the facility already carried: as of June 30, 2026 the company disclosed that the ABL could be increased by up to an aggregate of $60 million in minimum $5 million increments.⁶ Friedman exercised it in full.

That base is the conventional steel‑sector construction: 90% of eligible accounts receivable, plus 85% of the net orderly liquidation value percentage from the most recent inventory appraisal applied to eligible inventory. The facility is led by JPMorgan with Wells Fargo as a 40% syndicated participant, matures August 29, 2030, and prices term borrowings at SOFR plus 165 basis points, with a springing fixed‑charge covenant that tests only when availability falls below the greater of 10% of commitments or $14.0 million. At June 30, 2026 the company carried $91.5 million drawn at a 5.3% applicable rate, with the borrowing base supporting full access to the facility.⁶

Cooper‑Standard’s subsidiaries entered Amendment No. 6 to their Third Amended and Restated Loan Agreement with Bank of America as agent, adding $20 million of commitments to reach $200 million across the U.S. and Canadian allocations and extending maturity to September 3, 2031.^7,9 Pricing moved to an availability‑based grid of SOFR or CORRA plus 150 to 200 basis points — base rate or prime plus 50 to 100 — and the amendment removed credit spread adjustments outright.⁸ That last point is worth dwelling on: CSAs were a transitional artifact of the LIBOR conversion, and their disappearance from a mid‑tier automotive supplier’s facility is a quiet five‑to‑ten basis point giveback that competitive lenders are now conceding without being asked.

Neither borrower levered up. Both simply grew a collateral pool and their banks followed it. This is the defining virtue of the asset class in a rising‑rate environment, and it is worth stating to credit committees explicitly: an ABL commitment sized to a borrowing base self‑adjusts to the borrower’s actual working capital need, while a cash‑flow facility sized to a leverage multiple does not. When the Fed hikes on September 16 and EBITDA multiples compress, the borrowers who will still be able to finance inventory are the ones whose facilities are indexed to receivables and appraisals rather than to trailing earnings.

Capacity Shows Up in Equipment and Non‑Bank Channels — and One Borrower Leaves Its ABL Behind

The week’s largest secured financing was collateralized by hardware. DigitalOcean announced on September 10 a $725 million equipment finance facility maturing September 10, 2030, with an accordion of up to $300 million the company said it intends to exercise — potentially carrying the structure past $1 billion.¹¹ MUFG Bank served as sole administrative and collateral agent, with Axos Bank, BMO and Wells Fargo as joint lead arrangers and PNC Bank as document agent; proceeds fund GPU, CPU and related equipment.^11,12 A five‑bank club assembling three quarters of a billion dollars against depreciating, technologically obsolescing collateral is an aggressive statement about equipment lender risk appetite, and secured lenders should note the residual‑value assumptions such a structure implies.

In the middle market, Limbach Holdings entered a new $300 million credit agreement with PNC Bank as administrative agent on September 9, maturing September 9, 2031 — a $200 million revolver (including a $20 million swingline and $25 million letter of credit subfacility) plus $50 million of term loan and $50 million of delayed‑draw term loan, priced at Term SOFR plus 150 to 250 basis points on a net leverage grid.¹³ The facility replaced a $125 million revolver with Wheaton Bank & Trust, repaying roughly $118.1 million of principal, and carries incremental capacity of up to the greater of $150 million or 100% of consolidated EBITDA.¹³ A regional bank relationship was displaced by a national one at more than double the commitment — competition among bank lenders for acquisitive middle market platforms is live.

Running the other direction, DPC Holdings — the parent of Doncasters — announced on September 8 that it had completed a refinancing anchored by a new $325 million unsecured senior multicurrency revolver syndicated to six banks, running three years to September 2029 with a two‑year extension option and $150 million of uncommitted accordion capacity.¹⁴ Together with proceeds from its June IPO, the facility replaces Doncasters’ pre‑IPO financing — which, per the company’s IPO prospectus, included a seven‑year senior secured asset‑based facility with Wells Fargo entered into in March 2020 and amended in August 2022.¹⁵ This is the graduation risk every ABL shop underwrites against: a borrower that improves enough to trade collateral monitoring for an unsecured structure and simply leaves. Separately, IBEX extended a $25 million HSBC secured revolver to October 2029 and maintained a committed $50 million post‑shipment receivables facility with HSBC Bank Middle East, granting a security interest over its accounts receivable under the UAE Movable Assets Security Law capped at $58.9 million — a useful reminder that cross‑border receivables collateral now has a perfection regime in jurisdictions where it recently had none.¹⁶

Collateral Lessons From LIV Golf, New Fortress, and a Covenant Reset at 1‑800‑FLOWERS

LIV Golf filed for Chapter 11 in the District of New Jersey on September 8 with more than $500 million of debt, entering simultaneously into a restructuring support agreement with BC Partners.^18,19 Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — the sole prepetition secured lender, and the party that announced in April it would stop funding the venture — agreed to provide $49.6 million of debtor‑in‑possession financing subject to court approval, with the reorganized company expected to be majority owned by its players and BC Partners Credit serving as plan sponsor and exit financing provider toward an emergence targeted for early 2027.^18,19 The secured‑lender lesson is the familiar one, arriving in unfamiliar clothing: when the sponsor and the senior secured lender are the same party, the DIP is a control instrument rather than a liquidity instrument, and third‑party collateral claims get priced accordingly.

New Fortress Energy completed its recapitalization on September 11, extinguishing approximately $5.7 billion of debt and reducing corporate debt to roughly $700 million, with $136.5 million of new financing funded on the effective date.^20,21 The restructuring was executed through an English Restructuring Plan rather than Chapter 11, with creditors taking the Brazilian business as a standalone entity plus $2.45 billion of preferred liquidation preference, 65% of the surviving platform’s common equity and roughly $571.3 million of new term loans.²⁰ For U.S. secured lenders with cross‑border exposure, the Part 26A route is no longer exotic — it is a live alternative that a New York‑listed issuer selected over the domestic code, and intercreditor documents should contemplate it.

Closer to the ABL desk, 1‑800‑FLOWERS.COM entered a Third Amendment to its credit agreement with JPMorgan on September 9, replacing its financial covenants with a minimum liquidity covenant running through the fiscal quarter ending September 26, 2027 and a minimum consolidated EBITDA covenant thereafter.¹⁷ The amendment expanded asset‑sale permissions — allowing retention of up to $30 million of proceeds after a term loan prepayment of at least $15 million — added intellectual property transfer restrictions barring moves to non‑guarantor subsidiaries, and instituted monthly lender calls.¹⁷ That package is the modern template for a covenant reset done properly: relief on the ratio, purchased with tighter reporting cadence, IP leakage protection and a hard paydown trigger on dispositions.

Gasoline Does the Damage as the Fed Faces a Hike

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on September 11 that the Consumer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in August, leaving the twelve‑month rate at 3.4%.²² Core CPI rose 0.3%, slightly above consensus.²³ The composition mattered more than the headline: the gasoline index rose 3.9% and accounted for more than one third of the monthly all‑items increase,²² a direct consequence of the crude rally that carried West Texas Intermediate to roughly $100 per barrel on Middle East tensions before easing 2.4% on Friday.²⁷

Markets read it as confirmation. CME FedWatch odds of a 25 basis point hike at the September 16 meeting stood near 85.6% by Friday, having jumped to nearly 90% immediately after the release from about 70% the prior day — and against just 48.4% as recently as August 11.^24,25 The Committee last acted on July 29, when it voted 9‑3 to hold the target range at 3.50% to 3.75%, with Hammack, Kashkari and Logan each dissenting in favor of a quarter‑point increase.²⁶ A September move would mark a genuine reversal of direction, not a pause.

For asset‑based lenders the arithmetic is immediate. A borrower drawn at SOFR plus 175 on a $100 million revolver absorbs roughly $250,000 of additional annual interest for each 25 basis points, before any margin grid movement. The relevant question for portfolio review is not whether borrowers can pay one hike — most can — but whether fixed‑charge coverage covenants tested on a trailing twelve‑month basis will begin failing in the first and second quarters of 2027 as higher rates roll through the calculation. Lenders should be running that test now, at the hiked rate, rather than discovering it at the March borrowing base certificate.

The Ten‑Year Touches the Cusp of 5% and Equities Give Back Ground

The bond market moved harder than the stock market. The ten‑year Treasury yield climbed 18 basis points over the week to finish September 11 at 4.96% — its highest level since 2023 and within four basis points of the psychologically significant 5% threshold — as a global sovereign selloff intensified into the inflation print.^28,29 The two‑year ended at 4.63%, near its highest since July 2024, reflecting the repricing of near‑term Fed expectations rather than a term premium story.²⁸

Equities finished lower but recovered into the close. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% on the week, the Dow lost 1.6% and the Nasdaq declined roughly 0.7%; Friday snapped a four‑session losing streak with the S&P up 0.9%, the Dow up 1.0% and the Nasdaq up 1.0% as oil cooled and traders looked past the inflation data.²⁷ The divergence — yields sharply higher, equities only modestly lower — suggests the market is treating the hike as a policy correction rather than the start of a sustained tightening cycle.

The implication for middle market credit is a widening gap between what floating‑rate and fixed‑rate borrowers are experiencing. A ten‑year at 4.96% raises the hurdle for any sponsor contemplating a fixed‑rate takeout, which pushes more paper toward the floating‑rate bank and private credit markets precisely as the Fed adds to the base rate. Asset‑based facilities become relatively more attractive in that configuration, not less — their pricing starts several hundred basis points inside unitranche, and the borrowing base insulates availability from the EBITDA compression that higher rates will eventually produce.

Private Credit’s Pricing Premium Widens to 162 Basis Points as Banks Take Back Refinancings

PitchBook LCD reported on September 10 that new‑issue private credit loan spreads averaged 502 basis points over the three months ended August 31, up from 475 basis points in the first quarter — and that the 500 to 549 basis point bucket now accounts for 52% of all sponsor‑backed direct lending deals, against just 25% in the first quarter.^30,31 The gap between syndicated and private credit loans reached 162 basis points, roughly 39 basis points wider than in the first quarter.³⁰

That widening is pushing borrowers back to banks. Catalent refinanced a $4.2 billion direct lending term loan from its 2024 Novo Holdings buyout with a $4.1 billion syndicated loan, cutting annual interest expense by approximately $100 million; FDH Aero replaced direct lender financing with a $1.1 billion syndicated term loan in July.³⁰ Traffic in the other direction was negligible — in March, May and July, not a single syndicated loan migrated to private credit.³⁰ Redemption pressure is part of the explanation: Cliffwater’s direct lending interval fund saw investors seek to redeem 16% of shares outstanding in the third quarter, down from 17% the prior quarter, and Blackstone’s BCRED reported 10%.³⁰

Asset‑based lenders should read this as competitive intelligence rather than as a private credit story. When unitranche pricing pushes through 500 basis points and the syndicated market reopens for large borrowers, the middle market companies left behind — too small to syndicate, too asset‑heavy to price attractively on cash flow — are exactly the ABL prospect list. The repricing of private credit is an origination opportunity, and the Maurices, Friedman and Cooper‑Standard transactions above suggest the market is already acting on it.

Thoma Bravo Buys Lender Protections in the Sophos Refinancing

The week’s most instructive liability management development was one that did not happen. Thoma Bravo moved to refinance a $2.1 billion loan due March 2027 at its cybersecurity portfolio company Sophos, proposing approximately $1.67 billion at 500 to 525 basis points over the benchmark offered at 97 cents, plus a €350 million tranche, with a $300 million privately placed junior PIK instrument and $98 million of balance sheet cash applied to reduce overall leverage.^32,33

To get it done, the sponsor conceded a package of structural protections: an omniblocker restricting preferential terms to select creditors, a Serta blocker preventing non‑pro‑rata exchanges that subordinate existing lenders, and a Pluralsight blocker barring transfers of intellectual property or other assets outside the lender group.³² Thoma Bravo faces roughly $9 billion of software‑related maturities over the next two years — more than any private equity peer — and recently agreed to approximately 40 lender‑friendly amendments in the Proofpoint refinancing.³²

The signal is that creditor documentation discipline has genuine pricing power again. Lenders extracted covenant protections from a top‑tier sponsor with an urgent maturity, and the sponsor paid rather than pursue a coercive alternative. Elsewhere the same lender‑favorable dynamic produced conventional repricings: GMR Solutions obtained binding commitments on September 11 to reprice Global Medical Response’s $2.9 billion Term Loan B due October 2032 from SOFR plus 325 to SOFR plus 275, combined with a $200 million cash paydown to approximately $2.7 billion, for roughly $28 million of annual interest savings.^34,35 For secured lenders, the lesson carries directly into ABL intercreditor negotiation: the blockers are now market, and asking for them is no longer an outlier position.

Items to Discuss in Your Monday Meetings

Re‑Run Fixed‑Charge Coverage at the Hiked Rate Before Wednesday. With CME FedWatch showing roughly 85% odds of a 25 basis point increase on September 16,²⁵ every floating‑rate credit in the portfolio should be stress‑tested at the higher base rate today rather than at the next borrowing base certificate. Focus on borrowers whose fixed‑charge coverage is tested on a trailing twelve‑month basis — the failure will surface in the first and second quarters of 2027, not immediately, which is precisely why it gets missed.

Price the Removal of Credit Spread Adjustments Into Renewal Conversations. Cooper‑Standard’s Amendment No. 6 eliminated CSAs entirely alongside a margin grid of SOFR plus 150 to 200 basis points.^7,8 Incumbent lenders should expect the request; competitive lenders should consider leading with it. It is a low‑cost concession that reads as meaningful to a borrower and costs the lender five to ten basis points of a transitional artifact.

Reaffirm Inventory Appraisal Cadence Where FILO Tranches Are Growing. The Maurices refinancing upsized a FILO tranche and added a new lender to it,^1,2 and Friedman’s upsize rests on an 85% NOLV advance against appraised inventory.⁶ Both structures lend against the part of the borrowing base most sensitive to appraisal drift. Confirm that appraisal dates are current and that the facility permits a lender‑directed reappraisal if liquidation values move.

Build a Target List From Repriced Private Credit Borrowers. With direct lending spreads at 502 basis points and the premium over syndicated paper at 162 basis points,³⁰ asset‑heavy middle market companies too small to access the syndicated market are facing a real cost increase at their next refinancing. Screen the portfolio’s prospect list for sponsor‑backed borrowers with unitranche maturities inside eighteen months and meaningful receivables or inventory.

Add Serta and Pluralsight Blockers to the Standard Intercreditor Ask. Thoma Bravo conceded an omniblocker, a Serta blocker and a Pluralsight blocker to refinance Sophos.³² When a sponsor of that standing pays for lender protections rather than pursuing a coercive alternative, the provisions have become market. Secured lenders negotiating alongside term loan tranches should be asking for the same IP‑transfer and non‑pro‑rata exchange restrictions as a matter of course.

Conclusion

The week’s asset‑based deal flow told a consistent story from three directions: a specialty retailer attracted a new lender into an upsized FILO, two industrial borrowers were rewarded with larger commitments and tighter pricing because their collateral pools grew, and a five‑bank club committed $725 million against equipment. None of that is the behavior of a capital‑constrained market. What changed underneath it is the cost of money — a 3.4% CPI print driven by gasoline pushed hike odds past 85%, and the ten‑year closed the week at 4.96%, its highest since 2023.^22,25,28 The borrowers who negotiated spread reductions and CSA removals over the past ten days will find those concessions worth considerably more on Wednesday afternoon than they appeared when the term sheets were signed. Meanwhile private credit’s pricing premium widened to 162 basis points, pushing large sponsor borrowers back toward the banks and leaving behind precisely the asset‑heavy middle market companies that constitute the ABL prospect list.³⁰ The coming weeks will test whether that origination opportunity is real: if the Fed hikes and the ten‑year clears 5%, the borrowers who discover that a facility indexed to receivables and appraised inventory behaves very differently from one indexed to a leverage multiple will be looking for an asset‑based lender — and the lenders who spent this week adding capacity will be the ones positioned to answer.

Footnotes

1. Maurices Announces Successful Refinancing and Expanded Lending Partnership, PR Newswire, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maurices-announces-successful-refinancing-and-expanded-lending-partnership-302874248.html
2. A women’s retailer with more than 800 stores adds a lender, StockTitan, https://www.stocktitan.net/news/OWL/maurices-announces-successful-refinancing-and-expanded-lending-dzqi8wtf624c.html
3. Maurices completes refinancing, adds new lender, Chain Store Age, https://chainstoreage.com/maurices-completes-refinancing-adds-new-lender
4. Wingspire Capital provides $200 Million Senior Secured Credit Facility to Maurices, Wingspire Capital, https://wingspirecapital.com/blog/2021/09/13/wingspire-capital-provides-200-million-senior-secured-credit-facility-to-maurices-2/
5. Friedman Industries, Incorporated, Form 8‑K (Seventh Amendment to Credit Agreement), September 10, 2026, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000039092/000143774926030072/frd20260910_8k.htm
6. Friedman Industries, Incorporated, Form 10‑Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (Note 4 — Debt, ABL Facility borrowing base), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/39092/000143774926026305/frd20260630_10q.htm
7. Cooper‑Standard Holdings Inc., Form 8‑K (Amendment No. 6 to ABL Agreement), September 10, 2026, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001320461/000132046126000119/cps-20260903.htm
8. Cooper‑Standard amends credit facility, increases commitments to $200 million, Investing.com, https://www.investing.com/news/sec-filings/cooperstandard-amends-credit-facility-increases-commitments-to-200-million-93CH-4895519
9. Cooper‑Standard Holdings Inc., Exhibit 10.1 — Sixth Amendment to Third Amended and Restated Loan Agreement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001320461/000132046126000119/exhibit101sixthamendmentan.htm
10. Caleres (CAL) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript, The Motley Fool, https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/09/09/caleres-cal-q2-2026-earnings-call-transcript/
11. DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc., Form 8‑K Exhibit 99.1 — $725 Million Equipment Financing Facility, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001582961/000110465926106704/tm2625205d1_ex99-1.htm
12. DigitalOcean secures $725M financing facility from MUFG, Equipment Finance News, https://equipmentfinancenews.com/news/lender-operations/digitalocean-secures-725m-financing-facility-from-mufg/
13. Limbach Holdings, Inc., Form 8‑K — PNC Credit Agreement and Termination of Wintrust Credit Agreement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001606163/000162828026061042/lmb-20260909.htm
14. Doncasters Completes $325M Debt Refinancing, StockTitan / Business Wire, https://www.stocktitan.net/news/DPC/doncasters-completes-debt-wp19la2i1rsf.html
15. DPC Holdings PLC, Form S‑1 Registration Statement (description of the Wells Fargo ABL Facility), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2107018/000110465926066058/tm269965-2_s1.htm
16. IBEX Limited, Form 8‑K — HSBC Facility Amendments and UAE Security Agreement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001720420/000172042026000024/ibex-20260908.htm
17. 1‑800‑FLOWERS.COM, Inc., Form 8‑K — Third Amendment to Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001084869/000108486926000024/flws-20260909.htm
18. LIV Golf files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/08/liv-golf-chapter-11-bankruptcy.html
19. LIV Golf Takes Strategic Action to Secure Its Next Era, LIV Golf, https://www.livgolf.com/news/liv-golf-takes-strategic-action
20. New Fortress Energy Inc. Successfully Completes Restructuring and Recapitalization Transaction, Business Wire, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260911211839/en/New-Fortress-Energy-Inc.-Successfully-Completes-Restructuring-and-Recapitalization-Transaction-Capital-Raise-Participation
21. New Fortress Energy Completes $5.7B Debt Restructuring, StockTitan, https://www.stocktitan.net/news/NFE/new-fortress-energy-inc-successfully-completes-restructuring-and-zqtu3yl2uqjf.html
22. Consumer Price Index — August 2026, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_09112026.htm
23. CPI inflation report August 2026, CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/11/cpi-inflation-report-august-2026.html
24. Fed rate hike in September is all but guaranteed after CPI report, economists say, CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fed-rate-hike-september-likelihood-cpi/
25. With Just 5 Days to Next FOMC Meeting, Odds of Fed Rate Hike Surge to Over 85%, Yahoo Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/just-5-days-next-fomc-145150594.html
26. Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement, July 29, 2026, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20260729a.htm
27. Dow rises 500 points to snap 4‑day slide as oil cools, traders look past inflation report, CNBC, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/10/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
28. Treasury Yields Snapshot: September 11, 2026, Advisor Perspectives, https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2026/09/11/treasury-yields-snapshot-september-11-2026
29. Global Bond Selloff Sends 10‑Year Treasury Yields to Cusp of 5%, Bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-11/global-bond-selloff-sends-10-year-treasury-yields-to-cusp-of-5
30. Private credit loses its edge in the battle for PE borrowers, PitchBook, https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/private-credit-loses-its-edge-in-the-battle-for-pe-borrowers
31. Private credit loses its edge in the battle for PE borrowers, Yahoo Finance, https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/private-credit-loses-edge-battle-213250231.html
32. Thoma Bravo offers lenders more protections in Sophos refinancing, Private Equity Wire, https://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/thoma-bravo-offers-lenders-more-protections-in-sophos-refinancing/
33. Thoma Bravo Again Rolls Out Sweeteners With Sophos Debt Deal, Bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-10/thoma-bravo-again-rolls-out-sweeteners-with-sophos-debt-deal
34. GMR Solutions Inc., Form 8‑K Exhibit 99.1 — Term Loan Repricing and $200 Million Debt Paydown, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001898718/000110465926107124/tm2625250d1_ex99-1.htm
35. GMR Solutions refinances $2.9B loan, cuts interest rate, Investing.com, https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/gmr-solutions-refinances-29b-loan-cuts-interest-rate-93CH-4898479