France records 39 restructuring mandates in H1 2026 as lenders take ownership

France recorded 39 restructuring mandates in the first half of 2026 covering €14.57bn of debt, according to Debtwire data reported by Alternative Credit Investor. The reporting describes lenders taking control of a growing number of private equity-backed companies as borrowers that loaded up on debt before rates rose struggle to refinance.

The most prominent example is Colisée, the elderly care operator taken from EQT by senior lenders including CVC Credit, KKR, Blackstone and HIG Capital. The deal cut Colisée's net debt by about a third to €1.2bn and brought in €285m of new financing, Alternative Credit Investor reported. That implies net debt of roughly €1.8bn before the deal, some €600m higher.

At Atalian, a facilities management company, the new owners came from a different part of the capital structure: a group of bondholders agreed in June to take ownership.

Virginie Gasnier, a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal Debt Advisory, said a 2021 reform had made French restructuring "notably more lender-friendly than it used to be". The reform wrote the EU Restructuring Directive into French law and introduced cross-class cram-down mechanisms; Gasnier ties the shift in negotiating leverage to it.

Thomas Marcorelles, who leads Alvarez & Marsal's French restructuring practice, said the legal change had also pulled international capital back into the market. "It's a scheme that works and we see some appetite from international investors and credit funds for the French market, who had bad experiences 15 years ago and are back on the market after this amendment in the law," he said.

Marcorelles pointed to two constraints on the pipeline. The next presidential election could shape how the country is run and how debt is treated; it would not change the law, he said, but "it will definitely impact the investor community". He also flagged a maturity wall, with a lot of French debt due in the next couple of years, and said "our feeling is that the level of activity will be high by definition", with business plans still carrying uncertainty and volatility.

Marcorelles also said bank behaviour has shifted: most of the Covid-era state-guaranteed loans, known as PGEs, have now been repaid or restructured, changing how banks negotiate with borrowers.