If you’re not finding black talent, you’re not trying hard enough
In the past few weeks, it has been easy to put up our billboards and tweet our condemnation of the treatment of black people. Now we need to change the way companies work

It takes just a few CLO collateral managers selling into the distressed community to start cracks forming
It is becoming increasingly clear that CLO collateral managers need to improve their collaboration efforts in distressed situations

They said it: Can I be a bond investor and invest in Netflix?
The response of a loan portfolio manager after we asked where should loan investors park their cash?

Points up front: Channelling Twain, Agent Smith and Mike Tyson
Lockdown can adversely affect one’s grasp of reality, and for credit portfolio managers this has manifested itself in a penchant for quoting famous (sometimes fictional) figures

Some managers calculated their CLOs were passing OC tests, only to find them failing the next day
Corporate credit downgrade storms have been weathered before, but this one has come out of season

There will surely be jewels in the high yield dung heap, but the risk-reward is more compelling in IG
Whatever the long-term effects of the pandemic, one thing stays the same: IG looks attractive

They said it: There will be a re-tiering of managers after this
"There will be a re-tiering of managers after this"

I take strength from the composure investors have shown when told their payments are being deferred
It’s tempting to head to the beach or grab a CLO distribution, but investing is all about playing the long game

Where are the gloating I-told-you-so columnists who claimed CLOs would bring global destruction?
We have seen a measured response to the coronavirus crisis: fund managers aren’t collapsing and investors are not shunning CLOs

Past returns: Death by triple Cs? A step too far
15 months ago in Creditflux we reported that corporate credit downgrades, rather than defaults, were the biggest problem facing CLO portfolio managers

Points up front: Blame it on capitalism
You know it’s a tough month for returns when a hedge fund manager quotes Lenin and laments that capitalism and globalisation have failed to distribute wealth efficiently

Miscast as the villains of the 2008 crisis, CDS may prove to be the heroes of 2020
Credit default swaps provide investors with valuable signals on the depth of the coronavirus crisis

Investors need to ask: can my asset manager survive the crisis?

The opportunities to build par and spread within a CLO haven’t been this plentiful since 2009
Last year’s CLOs could become the benchmark for manager performance

Distressed exchanges offer pathways to recapture value that others are trying to take from CLOs
Volcker rule amendments could protect CLOs from losing out to distressed funds in a restructuring

Past returns: the genesis of managed CSOs
Five years ago, we reported that managed CSOs were being discussed for the first time since the financial crisis.

Points up front: Betting on ESG CLOs
Investing ethically is becoming a big part of credit, with CLO managers among the first to adopt environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment guidelines. So it’s no surprise that ESG criteria were high on the list of talking points at the Structured Finance Association’s SFVegas gathering last month.

Points up front: Credit picking follows on from investor picking
Credit picking skills will be important this year amid heightened idiosyncratic risk, so everyone seems to say. But Ares Management, one of the biggest names in direct lending, has demonstrated that asset managers can also be picky with the mandates they take on, when the firm walked away from a private debt mandate with London CIV in January.

2020 will be about relative value, watching for idiosyncratic risk and a good deal of running away
Investors must embrace change — it’s time for structured credit investors to look beyond vanilla CLOs

You need a balanced portfolio that’s ready for calculated risk taking — so consider a barbell approach
Investors can’t afford to be too conservative as they prepare for the end of the cycle

Don’t get too comfortable. The truth is there are hundreds of things that could be catalysts for a sell-off
Just because there’s no obvious sign of a sell-off, doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. Often, market moves defy logic

‘Buying the dip’ is going to be a poor investment strategy when the next downturn comes
The next credit downturn will be shallower but more prolonged than the last, so what works will be different, too

Not all old tier one CLO managers lived up to their premier billing

Farewell Mike
After two decades, Mike Peterson, the founder and long-time editor of Creditflux, is moving on.

Points up front: There are lies, damn lies and awards pitches
We’re hearing empty boasts, trash talking of their rivals and no shortage of promises that will absolutely be delivered.