Goldman Sachs collects $6.4 billion for opportunistic credit fund
Goldman Sachs’s merchant banking division has collected $6.4 billion from more than 1,500 investors on its inaugural opportunistic credit fund, West Street Strategic Solutions I

LP round up: Oregon eyes $1.8 billion into structured credit
Institutional investors have earmarked over $6 billion to credit funds over the past two weeks

UK pension seeks managers for £1.5 billion multi-asset credit fund
Brunel Pension Partnership is looking for asset managers to oversee a £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) multi-asset credit fund

Covid could trigger 'mega trend' into private debt, says Blackstone's Gray
The coronavirus pandemic could spark a 'mega trend' of investors into alternatives in private credit, Blackstone's president and chief operating officer said on the firm's second quarter earnings call on Thursday

Credit Rendezvous: record fiscal stimulus provides pick-me-up
Credit markets had a mini bounce-back in the second quarter as central banks poured cash into the economy. But there is great uncertainty about the effects of a second wave of coronavirus. As part of our quarterly report on credit - the Credit Rendezvous - Creditflux spoke to experts across 12 segments of the credit market

CLO managers push for deeper triple C buckets
CLO managers in the US have launched a concerted effort for greater flexibility on their triple C test limits since the coronavirus-triggered sell off in March

First Eagle expands in asset-based lending with two senior hires
First Eagle Investment Management is expanding into asset-based lending and has hired two industry veterans to lead the business

Beneath the triple C: downgrades hold steady as Travelport loses its luggage
For the second month in a row downgrades to triple C steadied, with just under $9 billion of CLO loans falling to this rating across 34 corporate borrowers

LP round up: managers keep fundraising hopes high as GSO targets $7.5 billion for mezz offering
Institutional investors allocated $1.6 billion into credit this week, according to documents seen by Creditflux

Apollo joins forces with Mubadala for big direct lending deals
Apollo Global Management has launched a ‘large scale direct lending’ platform, which it says is anchored by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company

Candriam agrees deal for Rothschild's European fund of fund business
Candriam has bought Rothschild’s “multi-management” business, representing €350 million of assets

Trading places: it can pay to bet on the little guy
It’s assumed investors know how good a CLO manager is by the rate at which they trade their way through a crisis. But this time fi ve small, nimble managers are outperforming the market

Loan slump brings managers closer
A 19% slide in new US loan volumes last year has left CLO managers with fewer options in the primary market, and portfolio overlap between US managers has increased to 35.3% on average

Revolutionary ESG-linked loan wins CLO support
European loan investors welcomed a novel concept in June when Carlyle Group-backed Logoplaste issued the first term loan with pricing linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors

MeDirect confirms corp credit step-back, as CLO team seeks spin-off
MeDirect has confirmed it will reduce corporate lending to focus on retail clients, following a question by Creditflux on the firm's plans to spin off its CLO-managing specialist credit team

Calpers plans $80 billion leverage play to boost returns
California Public Employees’ Retirement System has outlined plans to boost returns for its nearly $400 billion portfolio in the long term. But the proposal, dubbed ‘towards a 7% solution’, has come under criticism

Governance has greatest impact on short-term changes in company valuation out of ESG factors, finds MSCI
Governance has more impact than environmental and social factors on company financial fundamentals and stock price in the short term, but ‘E’ and ‘S’ play their part over the long term, according to analysis from MSCI

Fund performance: CLO funds keep up the momentum for second month running
May returns have been led by continued momentum from CLO funds. In the last month, funds that invest in CLO notes in some capacity have made up 90% of our top 10, while 97% of funds listed generated positive returns - an improvement of 15% on last month's figures.

Credit funds at a glance (July 2020)
A round-up of fundraising and people moves

Ucits at a glance: Ucits recover lost ground
The foot has come off the gas for many funds - 57% of funds did not break the 2% return barrier.

Managers prepare for new habits in post-lockdown world
A new world beckons as lockdown measures gradually loosen; one in which consumer behaviour has changed and credit investing will have to adjust. But it won’t be as easy as compartmentalising investments into ‘covid sectors’ and ‘non-covid sectors’.

They said it: Can I be a bond investor and invest in Netflix?
The response of a loan portfolio manager after we asked where should loan investors park their cash?

Canadian pension Imco outlines two-year $6 billion credit plans
The Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (Imco) has a range of credit strategies in its sights as it seeks to deploy $6 billion in the next two years as part of the build out of a global credit platform, according to officials at the company

Points up front: Channelling Twain, Agent Smith and Mike Tyson
Lockdown can adversely affect one’s grasp of reality, and for credit portfolio managers this has manifested itself in a penchant for quoting famous (sometimes fictional) figures

Morgan Stanley hires leveraged loan MD from Credit Suisse
Morgan Stanley has hired a leveraged loan managing director in London with over 15 years' market experience