Baird targets CLO arranging business
A New York brokerage with a CLO trading business is making a pitch to be the first debut arranger of the year. According to market sources, RW Baird has hired CLO origination specialist Mario Verna with a view to building out a CLO primary business. In March, Verna left Guggenheim Securities, where he served on the CLO desk as a managing director.

Credit funds at a glance

Fund performance

Ares hires Natixis deputy CEO for the Americas to credit investing role
Ares Management has poached the Americas deputy chief executive officer from Natixis's investment banking business

DFG hires experienced credit analyst in New York
DFG Investment Advisers has drafted in John Hwang as director and senior credit analyst on its leveraged credit team in New York

New investments drive Canada Pension Plan’s credit returns to 8.7%
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)’s credit portfolio has delivered good returns during the 2019 fiscal year, despite the market volatility, according to the institution’s annual financial report  

Superficial analysis in the press fails to account for critical differences between CLOs and CDOs
Credit risk is rising, but any failures among CLOs will not impact the financial system as a whole

Gateway sees an opening for CDOs with flexible mandates
Gateway Credit Partners is taking an unconventional route towards building a corporate credit management platform by creating its business around CDOs

It’s possible to be big — and still be picky

The Last Tranche: awards season is upon us [podcast]
A look at 2018 award offerings and finalist, plus some insight on direct lending and b-wics

Loan trading round-up: CLO managers fall out of love with First Data
An analysis of loan trading among CLO managers in February shows that First Data is falling down the pecking order with managers selling $182 million of the company's loans

Large, liquid loans aren’t always perfect
CLOs could be forgiven for rushing to buy Refinitiv loans — after all it was the biggest LBO since the crisis. But some large managers have abstained, while others have bought opportunistically

Moving on from the late 2018 hangover
It might be too early to call a full recovery, but it’s fair to say that the US loan market is back on track with $48 billion of institutional issuance in 2019 — 88% of which is made up of new issues

Leveraged loans pose credit risk but not systemic risk, conference told
Regulators and the press need to understand the difference between credit risk and systemic risk, claimed panelists at the IMN European CLOs and Leveraged Loans conference

Debut manager touts non-ethical CLO
“We are looking at this as a sort of Darth Vader of CLOs,” says the firm's portfolio manager

US CLO managers look to scale flat WALs in search of flexibility
The anticipation of a downturn in the credit cycle has made investors turn their attention toward document provisions that give CLO managers flexibility

Investcorp hires ex-Medley structured credit head as John Fraser retires
Investcorp has appointed a CLO specialist as co-head of US credit, following the retirement of the firm’s previous sole US credit head

Industry veteran joins B Riley's new credit unit to manage CDOs
B. Riley Capital Management has established a new credit platform 

Brookfield strikes deal to buy 62% stake in Oaktree
Brookfield Asset Management has agreed to buy a 62% stake in Oaktree Capital Management in a move which will lead to the creation of one of the largest asset managers in the business.

Affinion skipped interest payment impacts small number of CLOs
Only two CLO managers could be affected by the debt of Affinion Group, who skipped its scheduled 19 Feb interest payment ($22.2 million) to its first-lien 2022 term loan holders 

Loan sell-off leaves some CLO warehouses out of the money
The December sell-off in the loan market may have been good for CLO equity but it left many warehouses out of the money, according to several sources

CLOs are not like CDOs, says Barclays, but warns of loan quality impact
CLOs are far removed from the kinds of structured products that contributed to the 2008/09 global financial crisis, Barclays has argued in a wide-ranging research piece this week

Podcast: Secondary loans rebound, CLOs widen and covenants deteriorate
Creditflux, Debtwire and Xtract discuss the current state of the market