Northleaf appoints private credit officials in Chicago, London and Toronto
Northleaf Capital Partners has expanded its private credit team with three hires - including an ex-Barclays head of international corporate credit

CLO pipeline: managers seek to return as others arrive, after testing Q1
With the first quarter of 2019 now in the books, the CLO market looks to be continuing where it left off.

Direct lending challenges in 2019: competition, lack of quality assets and high transaction multiples
Results from Proskauer Rose's survey show these are not putting off 75% of respondents, who are fundraising for a debt fund

Global 2019 YTD CLO league tables at a glance
Global 2019 YTD CLO league tables at a glance

Searchlight nears first close for $2.75 billion special situations fund
Searchlight Capital Partners is expecting to hold a first close for Searchlight Capital III April, according to documents seen by Creditflux

Church Pension Fund anoints infrastructure debt fund with $40 million
The $13.3 billion pension fund has invested in a fund managed by New Energy Capital

Bespoke gains pull CLO buyers as market tipped to hit $100bn
Synthetic bespoke issuance could catch up with the more visible CLO market this year, say structured credit specialists

Direct lenders split over best way to manage loan restructuring
Direct lenders are divided on how best to set up internally when dealing with loans that require restructuring. Some managers argue that a deal should be restructured via the original deal team

CLO monoline businesses return with new purpose
CLO tranche insurance is making a comeback. Assured Guaranty has underwritten two middle market transactions, while in Europe various firms are testing the waters for this type of insurance, according to sources.

CVC, Octagon and Spire vie for multiple Creditflux awards
Creditflux is pleased to unveil the finalists for the most prestigious awards dinner in the credit

Mizuho looks to make return to CLO management
Mizuho is shaking up its credit business in Europe and is pushing into CLOs as both manager and arranger, according to several sources

Past Returns: Repacking in land of the rising sun
Five years ago in Creditflux, we reported that Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ was embarking on a strategy of buying repackaged CLO triple A notes denominated in Japanese yen

Japan regulation affords CLOs breathing room
Japan’s regulators have avoided disruption of the global CLO market by softening the impact of their risk retention rules that came into effect in March

Points Up Front: What’s a welshcake?
Our new guest columnist, Welshcake, has developed quite the following since debuting two months ago, with potshots at mainstream media coverage of the credit derivatives market, as well as taking loan market participants to task for their transfer fees

Points Up Front: The best opportunities are way, way over there
Competition was a big theme at last month’s Creditflux European Direct Lending conference. The market has evolved to the point where new entrants are on the fundraising trail, which could lead to a compression in any illiquidity premium prevalent in direct lending loans

Bubble-watchers cite the popularity of leveraged lending as evidence against it
Growth in direct lending has been strong — but the sector is tiny compared to equities or bonds 

Credit funds at a glance

A round-up of fundraising and people moves in credit

CLOs at a glance
Managers focus on AUM building via new issues

Fund performance
Long-short and high yield keep up the momentum

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

Finding the best managers, CLOs and direct lenders

Tabula launches ETF to capture iTraxx Crossover and CDX HY volatility premia
Tabula Investment Management, a European fixed income exchange traded fund (ETF) provider, has launched a product aimed at capturing the volatility premium embedded in index options on iTraxx Crossover and its US counterpart CDX HY

BlackRock names global alternatives head amid senior leadership shake-up
BlackRock has reshuffled its leadership and made several senior changes across various parts of its business, according to an internal memo seen by Creditflux

LSTA's Coffey floats five-point plan for Libor replacements
"Unlike Brexit, a benchmark is definitely going to happen", the audience at the IMN European CLO and Leveraged Loan conference heard 

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