Fortress Investment Group co-founder Wes Edens faces a financial calamity with Brightline, the privately run Florida passenger rail service born from a $3.5bn buyout of Florida East Coast Railway. After 15 years, Brightline is nearing a major restructuring to address a complex debt load approaching $6bn, with creditors including Redwood, Nut Tree, Nuveen, and First Eagle. Fortress equity was effectively zeroed out years ago; 2025 ridership reached only 3 million against an 8 million projection, leaving the operation barely break-even before debt service.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has become the dominant player in AI infrastructure financing. Leveraged finance co-head William Graham pioneered a hybrid bond structure "wrapped" by hyperscaler balance sheets, enabling data centre developer Tera Wulf to raise $3.2bn at a 7.75% yield. The bank has since sold over $40bn of such construction bonds, driving debt and equity capital market fees to $2.3bn in H1 2026, up from $1.4bn a year earlier.

In the UK, Thames Water creditors Silver Point Capital and Elliott Management offered a "golden share" to new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, conceding some control over the utility burdened with £20bn of debt. Burnham has advocated public ownership, raising the prospect of special administration. Creditors hope to avoid renationalisation but face steep political risk that drove KKR away from a £4bn rescue last year.

Separately, Evercore plans to expand its Germany office with senior hires from Lazard and UBS, while UBS named new EMEA financial sponsors country leaders.