Värde promotes three credit specialists to partner
Värde Partners has promoted Jim Dunbar, Aneek Mamik and Carlos Sanz Esteve to partner

US pensions assign $1.5 billion to 16 credit managers in December
US public pensions rounded off 2021 by gifting credit managers around $1.5 billion in commitments, according to documents seen by Creditflux

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?  

"In 2022, being slow will not be such a bad thing"
St David losing its place as the UK’s smallest city would be a travesty. Replacing Libor might be worse

Eagle Point hits $300 million hard cap on BDC-lending fund
Eagle Point Credit Management says it has held a $300 million final close on its Defensive Income Fund, hitting its hard cap and exceeding its original $250 million target

Brookfield hires industry veteran as public securities CIO
Brookfield Asset Management has hired a long-serving credit and equity market professional as chief investment officer for its public securities group

Everyone’s ramping

Still plenty more fish in the triple C

Fitch cuts US leveraged loan default rate projection
US leveraged loan default rate is anticipated to be just 1.5% by year-end 2022, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings. That’s down from the rating agencies’ original 2.5%-3.5% projection

Alcentra makes leadership changes as European CLO head Rainbow goes part-time
Alcentra has announced changes to its leadership team with co-chief investment officer of liquid credit Graham Rainbow deciding to take on a part-time role at the firm

"In some ways, CLOs resemble a quirky, cottage industry more than a trillion-dollar market"
CLO volumes outstanding have passed $1 trillion, but index omission and private placements are holding us back

Liquidations emerge as speed bump to $1 trillion CLO market
CLOs are now a $1 trillion global industry, but liquidations are picking up and could hamper growth — as well as providing welcome relief to an engine that’s running somewhat hot. CLOs are now a $1 trillion global industry, but liquidations are picking up and could hamper growth — as well as providing welcome relief to an engine that’s running somewhat hot.

Ucits at a glance: mid market fund leaps into top four
The majority of Ucits funds end Q2 on a high note as 76% of those in our database recorded positive performance in June

US CLO portfolio manager set to join fast-growing Redding Ridge
A US CLO portfolio manager is set to join Redding Ridge Asset Management next month, taking the firm's CLO PM roster to three

Investors proclaim ‘CLO arb is good’
Hold on to your hats: at long last market participants agree that US CLO economics are in favour of equity tranche investors

Fund performance: Déjà vu as April leaders dominate
CLO funds stayed in the top flight for another month as they took over the top 10 credit hedge fund return table in May, when 87% of all funds listed made positive returns

Credit fundraising: managers take care of infrastructure with new partnerships
Credit managers were busy launching new partnerships to support growth in infrastructure and CLOs. There were 13 announcements in the month paving the way for upcoming funds, platforms, and joint ventures

It's all relative: CDX HY touches record tights but junior US CLO tranches leak wider
Credit spreads are marching tighter, but someone forgot to tell the CLO market. European and US CDS spreads have moved in step with each other for the most part with investment grade and high yield tightening 4-6% in the last week, whereas CLOs have been losing ground

Fund performance: CLO funds outperform as two hit over 100% 12-months return
CLO funds swatted away the competition in April on their way to dominating our top 10 credit hedge fund return table after an upbeat month

Lighten up, these are due an upgrade
CLO triple C buckets were overflowing last year, but the average exposure is now 7.3%. That is still close to trigger levels, but CLO managers are relaxed, as further loan upgrades are on the horizon

Woah, we’re halfway there
Judging by the 2020 vintage, European CLO overlap is 50%. But varied approaches to holding bonds and the many loans managers turn down mean there are ways for issuers to outperform

"Why can’t loans and CLOs simply move to three-month treasury bills as our reference rate?"
Sofr may be touted as Libor’s natural replacement, but the best known rate in the world is also an option

Fund performance: Lightning strikes twice as range of credit funds deliver
What seemed like a chance occurrence in February has struck again in March, as seven categories make our top 10 best performing hedge funds

Credit fundraising: three massive European direct lending funds notch up €17.6 bn
Fundraising figures continued upwards in April as just over $24 billion was raised for credit funds, alongside $3.2 worth of allocations to credit managers. Nine funds held final closes including the largest European direct lending fund raised to date

Fitch lowers US loan default rates for 2021 and 2022
The rating agency has $200.9 billion of ‘market concern loans’ on its radar, saying these have declined in volume for the 12^th month straight but are still up 16% from pre-pandemic.