Credit funds at a glance (March 2022)
A round up of fundraising and people moves in credit

Impact of Russia-Ukraine war on Euro CLOs will be indirect, finds BofA
European companies largely do not have much direct exposure to Russia or Ukraine, but pricing and inflationary pressures may impact companies

Willis Towers Watson promotes manager research specialist to global credit head
Willis Towers Watson has named a global head of credit for manager research

Man names co-heads for new SRT business
Man Group has appointed two Elanus Capital officials as co-heads of its new credit risk sharing strategy, which will sit in its $3.5 billion private market business

Banks join fight against slow loan settlement in mini-win for CLOs
Several developments are in the works to tackle painfully slow loan settlement times in Europe, with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Clifford Chance and the Loan Market Association among the firms looking to drive change

BlueBay opens Madrid office with sales director relocating to lead team
BlueBay's new office will be located within parent company Royal Bank of Canada’s Madrid office

Infrastructure manager targets €1 billion for eclectic mix of project finance debt and SRTs
A Copenhagen-based firm is launching its first credit fund and has partnered with an SRT specialist in London for a component of its potential €1 billion offering  

CLOs should realise gains from reorg equity positions: Pearl Diver
Reorg equity sitting within CLOs has risen in value over the last year and Pearl Diver Capital says it may be a good time to exit these positions “and realise value for CLOs”

Credit hedge funds (February 2022)
Credit hedge fund returns

Credit funds at a glance (February 2022)
A round up of fundraising and people moves in credit

They said it: "The third term is Jinping’s legacy..."
... He does not care about near-term growth."

Points up front: A true rock star lawyer
When corporations proclaim they are looking to recruit ‘rock stars’ (as is common these days), this usually means they are seeking highly proficient candidates for a desk job

Sofr spike boosts CLO debt as Europe and US go out of sync
The sharp rise in three-month term Sofr has caused CLO relative value to shift decisively towards primary US CLO debt tranches in January as the floating rate benchmark shot up from 9.11bp to 17.06bp (from 1-20 January)

"Boardrooms are being hustled by activist shareholders using ESG data to drive economic value"
Pledges have been made and the Race to Zero has begun. Firms need to put their plans in place

Fund performance: Wasserstein's early 2021 performance drives it to the top
The final top 10 of 2021 featured a variety of funds as five different strategies were ranked among the best. US high yield was the most highly represented with two BlackRock funds and an Angel Oak in the top 10

Ucits at a glance: Robus claims top spot in 2021 after tight race
Ucits funds have ended 2021 on a high as 62% made positive returns in December

Barclays seeks head of SRT risk
Barclays is looking to hire a head of SRT risk for its wholesale credit portfolio, having established a credit risk transfer programme under the Colonnade branding 

Broad sell-off as market moves to price five or more Fed hikes
Financial market sentiment has taken another dive in the wake of the US Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, with many taking Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s comment that “this cycle is different from the previous one” to mean a steeper tightening than previously thought

Credit Rendezvous: the upside of inflation
It is clear, inflation is not transitory and central banks are acting with several interest rate hikes likely in store for the US this year. That makes loans and CLO debt tranches attractive, but there could be opportunities beyond these floating rate assets

Gapstow expects strategic deals as credit manager M&A volume slumps to $120 billion
M&A volume involving credit asset managers dropped last year with total target value assets under management slumping to $120 billion from $149 billion in 2020 (and $254 billion in 2019), according to Gapstow Capital Partners

Värde promotes three credit specialists to partner
Värde Partners has promoted Jim Dunbar, Aneek Mamik and Carlos Sanz Esteve to partner

Investors take nuanced approach to ESG as they move on from negative screening: Elfa
European bond and loan investors have evolved their ESG investment frameworks with 86% saying that they integrate ESG factors 'systematically and explicitly' in their investment process

RBC hires head of European loan trading from NatWest
RBC Capital Markets has built out its leveraged finance and financial sponsors banking business in Europe to capture “the shift of capital from the public to the private realm and win mandates on increasingly larger, marquee transactions”

A fresh approach to loss distribution
Considering how cash balances change over time, loss distribution models can look very different to conventional thinking. So is your CLO’s pricing based on incorrect assumptions?  

Banks and loans to benefit in 2022 as safe havens dwindle
Safe havens and sector pitfalls are among some of the top considerations for portfolio managers this year, as a consensus forms that credit could suffer versus other asset classes