Hot August sets tone for rest of 2025
Some European CLO managers still get time off in summer, but the days when the whole market shut down are long gone. So, in a busy year for CLOs, this August was the second busiest ever

Six months of records and turmoil at the top
The first half of 2025 saw convulsions in the US economy and Golub setting a record with a huge reset. Meanwhile, Blackstone slipped to third in overall issuance, despite winning out in US BSL

Disappearing Dealers: How The Pullback in SP Trading Balance Sheet Has Rewired Market Structure
Over the past 10 years, CLO issuance has multiplied, while dealer holdings fell. In the first of a three-part guest essay, Daniel Ezra looks at the causes of this change — and how it affects the market

Opportunity in CLO double B tranches
Given their low default rates, double B CLO tranches offer much higher coupons than might be expected — suggesting they offer some of the best risk/return trade-offs in all of fixed income

‘It’s rare something is both issuer and investor friendly’
In 2015, Apollo’s Albert Huntington invented CLO resets. But the most important thing he learned back then was how flexible CLOs can be if you get consent from all equity holders

Growth in structured finance sets off legal merry-go-round
The departure of John Goldfinch from Milbank’s structured finance practice in late 2023 began a succession of moves between law firms looking to expand their structured finance practices

Mapping the present and future of credit
Keynote speakers at this year’s Creditflux Symposium highlighted the success of credit markets during recent volatility and argued that a wave of securitisation could drive growth in Europe

We made it through to the other side
LMEs and Trump tariffs were hot topics at the Creditflux CLO Symposium 2025. But managers agreed that the market has survived — and maybe even thrived — through recent volatility

Tariffs kill off year-long CLO boom
The global impact on CLOs of President Trump’s tariffs was plain as volatility increased and spreads blew out. But managers helped keep US issuance steady with print-and-sprint deals

Don’t fall foul of bad language
A few years ago, maturity amendments were a major focus. But waning attention to European CLO documents is leaving some investors exposed to extension risk

SRTs are pricier but more effective
In the second of our two-part look at regulatory arbitrage, we investigate how SRTs improve upon the synthetic collateralised loan obligations that were popular before the financial crisis

CLO Symposium 2025
The Creditflux CLO Symposium will be held at the Nobu Hotel, London on 14-15 May 2025

Records tumble in fantastic February

SRTs aren’t exactly a new idea

Big managers hold steady in CLO boom
After a late surge, 2024 saw USD 588bn of new global issuance from 1,331 CLOs, as well as the launch of multiple managers. But the biggest players mostly held on to their high rankings

A profitable year for credit funds
An almost 18% rise ensured our CLO fund index was the best performer in 2024. But other credit indices werenʼt far behind as funds across the credit spectrum delivered strong returns

Banks predict record-breaking year ahead
Consensus figures generated from outlook reports by five banks suggest 2025 will be another strong year for CLO issuance. But last year, their estimates were well below the actual numbers

Slow and steady wins the day
It’s often thought CLO managers add value to their deals via high volume trading strategies. The data shows this can be true — but on average, top performing CLOs are less actively traded

Triple C assets and capital preservation
In the US and Europe, better performing CLOs tend to hold fewer triple C assets. But even so, a third of top performing CLOs in the US have more than 6% of their assets in the triple C bucket.

Static deals stand out in Europe
European CLO equity in redeemed deals has delivered excellent returns. But managers might be surprised to discover that static deals are the region’s stars

Taking stock after a long hot summer
As fall approaches, the global CLO and leveraged loan markets are in a strong position. But will records set in 2021 tumble?  We compare the numbers — and find out what the market thinks

CLO strategies outperform again
In 2023, our index of funds investing in CLO tranches and equity returned 22.9%. In the first six months of this year, the index reached 9.9%, as these funds again delivered outstanding results

Reset focus shifts to pre-COVID deals
As spreads tighten, managers are looking to reset CLOs that priced before the onset of the COVID pandemic — even if this slightly increases the deals’ weighted average cost of capital.

Full steam ahead in the US and Europe
We’re now six months into 2024, and according to our latest league tables, the CLO engine shows no sign of slowing down, as spreads grind tighter and resets get underway in Europe

European managers struggle to add alpha
Before the COVID pandemic, European CLOs comfortably outperformed the Morningstar European Euro-Denominated Loan Index. Since then, alpha has declined for many managers