Barclays won't let sleeping dogs lie after another Newfoundland CLO reset
Newfoundland CLO, the long running and world's largest balance-sheet CLO, has been given a new leash of life by upsizing in a reset yesterday, according to announcements from Moody’s and Scope Ratings.

Proskaeur hires CFO specialist from SocGen
Proskauer has announced the appointment of Matthew Kerfoot as partner in its finance group in New York

Octaura hires former Morgan Stanley loan portfolio executive
Octaura, the startup firm founded to facilitate the electronic trading of loans and CLOs, has hired a former head of Morgan Stanley's loan portfolio group

First Eagle promotes four across syndicated loans and direct lending
First Eagle Alternative Credit has promoted four officials to senior-level roles across its direct lending and syndicated loans businesses

Carlyle appoint former Goldman executive as CEO
Carlyle Group have appointed former Goldman Sachs Co-President and CO-Chief Operating Officer Harvey Schwartz as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board, the firm has announced.

Credit Rendezvous: Make yourself comfortable, there’s a storm coming
In our Q1 outlook, we speak to Edwin Wilches, PGIM (US CLOs), Mikkel Sckerl and Flemming Dose, Capital Four (European CLOs),  Jim Fitzpatrick, CQS (US loans), Loic Prevot, Polus (European loans), Madelaine Jones, Oaktree (global high yield), Art Penn, Pennant Park (US direct lending), Mattis Poetter, Arcmont (European direct lending), Keerthi Raghavan, Waterfall (structured credit), Ray Costa, Benefit Street (distressed), Grant Webster, Ninety One (Emerging markets), Oumar Diallo, Aeon (real assets) for their views for the upcoming quarter. 

FS and Portfolio Advisors join forces to create $73bn asset manager
FS Investments and Portfolio Advisors have announced a merger in a deal which will see Portfolio Advisors become the institutional investment arm of FS

Stunning January rally means CLOs are back in business
Longtime observers of the CLO market tell Creditflux they have “never seen the market move so quickly” after a rip-roaring January saw a spectacular rally in both loans and CLO debt.

CLO equity investors join forces to take on lowly loan CSAs
Private equity firms have held the upper-hand against US loan investors in the past few months, but the largest CLO equity investors in the business are working together to redress the imbalance between PE sponsors and creditors

Fund performance: Credit funds end difficult 2022 on a positive note
In December 66% of credit funds reached a positive return, following an even better November where 81% of all funds pushed into the black

Credit hedge fund returns (February 2023)
Credit hedge fund returns

Credit funds at a glance (February 2023)
A round up of people moves and fundraising

"Some CLO managers are asleep at the wheel and surrendering economics without any objection"
Some CLO managers aren’t blocking loan amendments with insufficient credit spread adjustments  

"All that remains is to thank all of you who have kept faith with my monthly confessions of insanity"
With the economic outlook now beyond a joke, Welshcake signs off amid denials he is actually a Welsh footballer  

"Conditions making deal financing challenging for issuers can harm beneficial terms for investors"
Direct lending terms look better than at any point in the past decade. But is there enough to go around?

Octaura's first fully electronic syndicated loans trade

BC Credit targets $1.25 billion for third opportunistic credit fund
BC Partners Credit plans to deploy half the fund in private lending and structured equity opportunities and the other half in specialty lending and dislocated liquid credit deals

Lights go out for Heritage Power with 120 CLOs left in the dark
US based power plant operator Heritage Power filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the bankruptcy court of Texas on Tuesday night, impacting $124.45 million of assets held by 120 US CLOs.

Serta Simmons makes its bed again with default leaving CLOs with a restless night
$172.5 million of CLO assets defaulted on Monday after Serta Simmons Bedding filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

CLO community pulls together to block Wellpet loan amendment
The power the CLO community can wield – if members stick together – has been underlined after a loan amendment proposed by Wellpet failed to pass

Loan amendment alert: Wellpet offers 10bp CSA
Wellpet has issued a loan amendment request with a view to including a 10 basis points credit spread adjustment (CSA), market sources say. Although this is an improvement on recent amendments it still falls short, according to CLO investors.

Beneath the triple C: Life could be better, but it’s just a letter, under the CCC
Many market participants were eagerly looking forward to a break in December after a gruelling year, but the rating agencies were in no mood to oblige. 

Senior Investcorp official lands at wealth manager
A well-known name in the CLO industry has landed at a wealth management firm 

Fitch raises low end of its default forecasts for US leveraged loans and high yield
Fitch Ratings has increased the low end of its US leveraged loan and high yield default forecast ranges to reflect growing macroeconomic headwinds

ICG hires former BlueMountain lev loan and HY senior analyst
Intermediate Capital Group has hired a senior analyst focusing on liquid credit