Acrisure faces debt pressures amid Guggenheim ties, impacting high-yield credit markets

When a company valued at $32 billion starts cutting thousands of jobs and watching its debt trade at steep discounts, it tends to get the attention of credit markets. Acrisure, the insurance brokerage and fintech hybrid, is having that kind of year. The firm announced in late May that it would eliminate roughly 2,250 positions, about 11% of its global workforce, primarily in the US. The cuts are framed as a modernization push, leaning into AI and automation to streamline operations. Leverage that keeps climbing S&P Global Ratings revised Acrisure’s credit outlook from Stable to Negative back in April 2026. The reason was straightforward: adjusted leverage had ballooned to 9.6x by the end of 2025. S&P’s forecasts suggest leverage could gradually improve to the 8-9x range through 2026, but that still leaves the company operating with a debt load that limits its financial flexibility. Acrisure has been an aggressive issuer in the high-yield bond market. Among its outstanding debt is a $925 million tranche of 8.25% senior notes due in 2029, issued in early 2024. Those bonds, along with other Acrisure debt instruments, have slid in price since the start of 2026 but have remained...