Packaging company Schur is painful for European CLOs
The dramatic fall in loans taken out by Austrian flexible plastic packaging manufacturer Schur Flexibles has shocked CLO managers. The firm is hiring PJT Partners and Allen & Overy ahead of a potential restructuring

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

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

CSA does not make sense for new loans and CLOs, say market participants
Credit market participants have not been too hung up on what the credit spread adjustment should be on new CLOs and loans aligning to term Sofr – and that’s a positive, according to speakers on a webinar hosted by DealCatalyst

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”

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)

Migration into floating rate kicks off with record loan inflows
The leveraged loan market received record-breaking inflows from retail funds in January as investors pivoted into floating rate products in advance of interest rate rises

Marathon sees value in Sofr CLO tranche over fixed-rate option
Marathon Asset Management stole a march on other CLO issuers by including a Sofr tranche as part of a new issue transaction on 10 November via Bank of America. Officials at the company say the Sofr tranche makes a compelling alternative to a fixed-rate tranche

CLOs prove resistant to omicron in boost for new issue market
The CLO market has withstood the impact of the omicron coronavirus variant with barely a dent on CLO liability pricing

Market ponders Sofr spread adjustment amid investor lag
The CLO market is waving goodbye to Libor as a benchmark rate and transitioning to alternatives for the first time in the history of the asset class. But there is no consensus as to what the Sofr spread adjustment should be, and some of the largest buyers are said to be slow to consider the impact of a benchmark transition

Citi's former European CLO head earns promotion to MD
A long-time European CLO specialist is among the 306 promoted to managing director at Citi, according to reports

CLO lower cap stack will outperform with $175bn new issuance in 2022: JP Morgan
Equity and lower rated tranche investors will do best as $175 billion of global new CLO issuance arrives in 2022, predict JP Morgan strategists in their annual outlook, taking market size to $1.2 trillion

Elfa launches ESG exclusion checklist to streamline process for CLO managers
The European Leveraged Finance Association has launched an environmental, social and governance exclusion checklist, which it says is designed to “streamline the negative screening and exclusion” for CLO managers

CLO resets drive equity returns to highest in five years: JP Morgan
Equity investors in US CLOs are earning, on average, the biggest returns of the past five years, finds JP Morgan – with deals reset this year having done most to raise the numbers

Amherst Pierpont takes total return approach as it builds CLO analytics platform
Amherst Pierpont is making CLO analysis the focal point of a push into the asset class, with the brokerage creating a platform that looks at the alpha and beta generated by a CLO manager, as well as their pricing on CLO liabilities.

Sofr transition timing puts CLO debt and equity at odds, says BNP Paribas
CLO investors look to have tough conversations ahead on the structure implications of the transition from Libor to Sofr, with BNP Paribas strategists noting CLO debt will benefit from an early move while equity tranches would do better to wait

Nomura closes in on Sofr CLO milestone with 15bp emerging as standard for spread adjustment
Nomura is close to a major breakthrough by arranging the first CLO transaction with a Sofr pricing component

Aquarian takes over Gallatin CLO platform
New York-based Aquarian Holdings has bought Gallatin Loan Management's CLO management business 

Creditflux CLO Census 2021 closes with record participation
The Creditflux CLO Census 2021 has closed with 245 people in the industry casting their vote and having their say on key issues affecting the market

CLO Census latest: voting crosses 200 as range of dealers lead in CLO origination
CLO market participants are placing value on the specialist service that dealers are providing, according to Creditflux’s CLO Census, with three different banks leading the way for US CLO execution, structuring and syndication. A silimar trend is in play in Europe

Spread adjustment curve emerges for ground-breaking Walker & Dunlop Sofr loan
Walker & Dunlop has changed the credit spread adjustment (CSA) on its fully-Sofr $600 million loan, Debtwire reports, with a varied structure depending on the benchmark tenor    

The Last Tranche with Capital Four: 26% of new European loans have an ESG-linked margin ratchet, and the US could follow fast
In this episode of the Last Tranche, Capital Four's Torben Skødeberg and Jim Wiant discuss the emergence of loans linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria

CLO Census latest: banks in tight race, 51% optimistic on Sofr and large managers viewed as outperformers
More than 100 CLO market participants have already cast their vote in the most tightly-contested Creditflux CLO Census ever with a single vote separating the top three banks at US and European CLO execution. Meanwhile, most voters are unworried by the Sofr migration and BlackRock, CSAM, CIFC and PGIM are among the CLO managers viewed as having outperformed following the covid crash. Click here to vote: CreditfluxCLOCensus2021

Banks reject mandates amid loan surge as settlement lengthens
M&A bankers are turning down mandates and settlement times for US loan trades are extending as understaffed desks struggle to cope with record deal volumes

CLO issuers sit on Sofr as they brace for short-term hit
Times are about as good as they get in the US CLO market, with new issuance breaking records as daily volumes in September regularly topped $2 billion, but in three months new CLOs will have to adopt Sofr as a benchmark and thoughts are turning to how the CLO industry will manage the accompanying basis risk