The manager, not the market, decides value in direct lending
Mid market loan spreads are contracting, but that’s a reflection of low volatility not excess cash

Points up front: Talking his book (which is available on Amazon)
For listed asset managers, an earnings call is generally not the right forum to market or advertise upcoming funds. But it might be exactly the right place to try and sell your book.

Regrettably, a small number of CLO debt investors insist on ‘hardcoded’ Sofr replacement provisions
Sofr looks like the most likely candidate to replace Libor, but it is still risky to write it into CLO documentation

Typical CLO structures can’t take advantage of dislocation in the high yield bond market – yet
High yield bond buckets in CLO 1.0s allowed managers to build par — it is time CLO 2.0s had the same opportunity

Points up front: Best to price your deals between 12 and 6am
The latest addition to JP Morgan’s index suite — which aims to quantify the impact of US president Donald Trump’s tweets on the financial markets — has been so popular it has landed its own Wikipedia entry

If national income were a four-cylinder engine, the US economy is really only firing on one
The US economy’s reliance on consumers increases the likelihood of further rate cuts and diminishing returns for credit investors

For enhanced CLOs to outperform, investors need the credit cycle to turn — and quickly
If the current credit cycle doesn’t end within two years, triple C-heavy CLOs will not see a return on their high financing costs

Points up front: Loan deal with 23 takes Griezmann to Barcelona
Soccer financing firm 23 Capital has been adding credit experts to its team and now has a CLO specialist captaining its capital markets effort, with former Guggenheim Securities co-head of ABS/CLO syndication Sreesha Vaman joining last month. The squad already features credit portfolio managers Sam Filer (ex-BMS Finance), David O’Connor (Mizuho) and Ardeshir Sorabjee (Deutsche Bank).

Enhanced CLOs are no more enhancing than run-of-the-mill distressed funds
Triple C-heavy CLOs that try to time the market may be paying for options they never use

Points up front: Benefits of being unethical
Investing ethically is increasingly becoming part of a credit manager’s mandate, with environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies all the rage.

Tourists have turned high yield into a sketchier neighbourhood… IG credit could be the answer
Using CDS to exploit roll-down in IG credit can generate good returns even in a low-rate environment

CLOs are pricing with an acronym premium rather than an illiquidity premium

John Popp of Credit Suisse Asset Management takes our credit quiz

PE hold periods have shrunk but fast acquisitions can lead to botched integrations
Buyout multiples are likely to stay high – but moving fast and specialising can help firms make money

Being fully invested can have a greater impact on IRRs than avoiding 2% defaults annually
The IRR differential can be as much as 3.3% for a fully invested CLO versus one that maintains a 5% cash balance

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

Just because there have always been loan fees doesn’t mean they are the right way of doing things
Scrapping loan transfer costs of up to €3,500 per transaction is a bridge Europe should cross for the sake of liquidity

You can’t time everything 100% correctly, but being too early can be a mistake
ArrowMark's Kaelyn Abrell takes our credit quiz

Q4 2018, which had loan price volatility without defaults, was close to nirvana for CLO investors
The current vintage of CLOs could be the best ever if the volatility in Q4, when retail funds dumped loans, repeats itself, says our columnist Thomas Majewski

Past returns: Columbia wins at long game
Ten years ago in Creditflux we reported on loan and bond holders squabbling as they sought to extract maximum value from LyondellBasell debt after the company filed for bankruptcy in January 2009

They said it: "I enjoy problem-solving and puzzles"
CQS founder Sir Michael Hintze on his role as senior investment officer at the London-based credit fund manager

I liked it when banks could hold risk and actually had inventory to shift
Louis Gargour, CIO of LNG Capital, takes our credit quiz

Loans have changed. Leverage and docs are different. So what does this mean for recoveries?
With Fed chiefs past and present signalling rising financial risk, managers need to check their metrics, writes our columnist and Churchill Asset Management's head of capital markets and origination 

You don’t need a 15% default rate to make money in credit
Jeanne Manischewitz, head of North American credit at York Capital Management, takes our credit quiz

Selling at the time of the default or downgrade can often be the worst value decision for the CLO
CLOs don’t have to be forced sellers during distress cycles: skilled CLO managers and well-structured indentures can give optimal recoveries, says our columnist Thomas Majewski