Vontobel names fixed income trading head amid four senior hires
Vontobel Asset Management has appointed four senior hires to its team including a newly created role of head of fixed income trading

HIG hires two from Tikehau for French direct lending
HIG Capital has bolstered its French direct lending team by appointing two principals in the firm's Paris office

MidOcean CLO PM joins European credit manager to lead US expansion
Former MidOcean Credit CLO portfolio manager Jim Wiant has joined a Copenhagen-headquartered manager to lead the firm's US expansion

Fund performance: CLO funds pick up where they left off
New year, same funds leading the way with CLO strategies the top performers in January

Ucits at a glance: CIFC nears positive 12-month returns
Ucits funds have started 2021 on a quiet note as 72% of funds achieved a positive return

High yield fund sets pace with 22% return in January
Wasserstein Debt Opportunities Fund has set the early pace for credit hedge funds in 2021 after registering a 21.7% gain in January. This builds on the high yield fund’s success last year and takes 12-month returns to 40.44%. 

Redhedge squeezes relative value out of tight IG bonds
Going outright long investment grade credit is a tough position to be locked into given today’s ultra-tight spreads. But London-based Redhedge has developed a relative value approach to this market in the past four years that aims to be beta-neutral and uses quantitative models to come up with long/short European bond combinations

It's all relative: CLOs march tighter as macro traders open positive CDS skews
Credit default swaps are back near where they started the year after giving up their early-February gains amid a rise in government bonds. CDS curves steepened over the past month and macro hedging has left indices trading with positive skews. But CLOs paint a calmer picture in which spreads have inched tighter  

Credit fundraising: ESG centre stage as capital pours into new strategies
Sustainability was the watchword for fundraising in February, amid a flurry of fund launches as well as first closes for impact funds and sustainable bond funds

Renewed energy boosts credit as relief rally resumes
Energy companies are performing well and credit indices have resumed their push tighter after a strong surge inwards Monday, outpacing moves in other parts of the financial market

HIG bolsters European direct lending presence with senior hire in Madrid
HIG Whitehorse has appointed a managing director in the firm's Madrid office

AlbaCore adds distressed hire among raft of new arrivals
AlbaCore Capital Group has added four hires to its investment team in recent weeks, taking its total headcount to 46

CLO equity investor bullish as it offers new share class on listed fund
The London-based manager is offering shareholders in its publicly traded junior CLO fund the chance to invest in a new listed share class - and it remains bullish on global CLO equity

Ares holds first close of junior direct lending fund as it eyes 'dozens more' $1 billion-plus funds
Ares outlined several credit fundraising initiatives in its fourth quarter earnings call - among which were a first close of its latest junior direct lending fund, upping the target for its credit special situations fund by over $1 billion, as well as new product launches including an evergreen alternative credit fund

It's all relative: CLOs are lagging no more, as Carlyle deal drags market tighter
“CLOs are lagging” has been a much repeated refrain over the last nine months. But Carlyle Group has this week produced a US CLO that has dragged spreads to their tightest point in three years so that, rather than comparing CLOs to pre-covid levels, they should be assessed against early 2018

Senior Pimco distressed portfolio manager joins ICG
Intermediate Capital Group says that it has hired a senior Pimco official as managing director and co-head of special situations in London

Search firm highlights lack of diversity across Euro credit
A report on diversity within the corporate credit industry has shed light on the imbalances that persist

It's all relative: senior CLO tranches tighten 18% in Europe as CDS indices sit out rally

BofA restructures special situations and distressed debt trading desks
Bank of America has restructured its regional special situations and distressed debt trading teams

Credit touches November levels as nerves fray on France and Fed
Fears of a third national lockdown in France and the risk of disappointment from Wednesday's US Federal Reserve meeting have pushed credit wider along with a sell off in stocks

Credit Rendezvous: heading for homes
Fund managers in structured credit, real assets and distressed are bullish on the prospects for residential housing in 2021. Elsewhere, niche royalty-based strategies are in favour and although a CLO repricing wave is expected, it may not be easy to execute resets. For more, read our 13-page quarterly report on credit. 

Credit funds at a glance: several funds post double digit November returns
November was a strong month for credit hedge funds listed by Creditflux, with latest returns demonstrating the effect of the vaccine/US election rally on fund perfomance

Alcentra co-CIO for liquid credit set to leave this month
A high profile figure in the US CLO business is leaving Alcentra

UK pension seeks direct lending manager for £250 million commitment
Essex Pension Fund has issued a request for proposals to allocate up to £250 million to a direct lending fund

Europcar CDS auction shocks protection buyers with zero pay-out
Wednesay's auction to settle Europcar Mobility Group CDS has left protection buyers on the company with nothing to show for their investments and hedges, after dealers produced an unexpected 100% recovery on contracts due to a technical mismatch in bids and orders