What do you think?
The Creditflux CLO Census is back for its seventh instalment. Our annual stock-take of the global CLO industry begins on Monday, 2 October — it’s your chance to make your voice heard

The Italian connection
As Octagon and Conning come under the umbrella of large Italian insurer Generali, we spoke to the firms’ CEOs about their expectations for credit in general and their firms in particular

Question your assumptions
Valuing CLO paper is complicated, and loan prepayments are one of the trickiest parts. When pricing a new issue CLO, the market generally assumes that 15-20% of loans will prepay their principal annually. This prepayment rate is important because it essentially determines the pace at which a CLO’s rated debt is paid off after the reinvestment period, when the CLO pays down its own principal.

All change, please
This year has not only seen the fall of Credit Suisse, but also the arrival of two fresh faces — Scotiabank and CIBC — triggering a wave of hiring that has some way to run.

Fund performance
Good month for CLO funds sees six in top 10 as Axiom sets pace

Credit hedge funds
Credit hedge funds performance data

Credit funds at a glance
Fund performance, fund raising and LP commitments

CLOs at a glance
New CLOs this month

Treble top: CSAM wins best manager again
Returning to the Landmark Hotel in London, the 2023 Creditflux manager awards looked back at a year that saw the CLO market in flux. After the stability of 2021, the markets hit a rocky patch and US CLO triple As ranged from 110-290 basis points.

CLOs march onward despite broken arb
Speakers at Creditflux’s CLO Symposium agreed that the arbitrage has been terrible this year. But they were also united in their pleasant surprise that this hasn’t shut the market down

Celebrating diversity
The Creditflux London Women in CLOs event saw 100 participants gather for an evening of networking, empowerment and mentorship at the Landmark Hotel

Fund performance
A roundup of fund performance

Look deeper to uncover ESG performance in CLOs
New research from Fitch Ratings, which examines ESG Score analysis from Sustainable Fitch, examines how European CLOs are performing on ESG criteria and has confirmed that the wording in documentation really does make a difference — but only if you look below the surface.

Rope-a-dope brings knock-out returns
Post-pandemic US and European CLOs delivered mid-teen equity returns in 2022, despite a barrage of weak macroeconomic news and what could have been a heavyweight Libor mismatch  

We made the most of a tricky situation
The contrast between 2021 and the following 12 months could not have been starker. But although some heavy hitters remained on the sidelines, 94 US CLO managers priced new deals in 2022

Not every CLO can be a winner
The CLO industry has undeniably performed well enough to justify the plaudits it receives. But there will always be some unloved CLO tranches that slip into triple C territory

Weren’t there more of us than this?
According to this year’s Creditflux CLO Census, the CLO industry is not feeling optimistic. Some investors have vanished and managers have not taken advantage of helpful market conditions

We can cope with downgrades again

Can someone call the triple A? We’ve stalled
CLO issuers are in need of AAA roadside assistance. Despite the emergence of new buyers, a lack of senior CLO investors — particularly US banks — has brought the primary market to a halt  

You seem familiar
The overlap between European CLOs has risen to 51.6%, but the largest issuers are only slightly more aligned to their peers at 55.19% — so bonds are proving to be an important differentiator

Arb work pays off
With day-one arbitrage alone delivering projected CLO cash-on-cash returns of 20-25%, 2021 may have been the best year ever for equity investors — at least until CLO spreads began to widen  

HY fund is exception to rule of CLOs
CLO funds have had back-to-back years of outperformance versus credit, proving the asset class is a great place to invest, rain or shine. But a Wasserstein HY fund was the star performer in 2021  

I’ll see your 2020 and raise you 2021
Discounted loans, Libor floors and bond flexibility helped make 2021 an even better year for CLO returns than 2020, as US CLOs distributed 15.54% and European CLOs paid 13.93% annualised

A fresh approach to loss distribution
Considering how cash balances change over time, loss distribution models can look very different to conventional thinking. So is your CLO’s pricing based on incorrect assumptions?  

These CLO docs could be better
It seems there’s not much to worry about if you’re in the CLO market. In Creditflux’s CLO Census, voters said docs should follow a template as Jefferies, AGL and Hayfin emerge as rising stars