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

Sandalwood funds of credit funds outperform in February
Credit funds of funds came out on top in February, a month characterised by the sell off in US treasuries

Moving fast pays off for hedge funds
2020 was an up and down year in credit, and credit hedge fund managers had to move quickly to capture opportunities from the dislocations that inevitably opened up

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%. 

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  

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

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

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. 

Beneath the triple C: 13 CLO loans take a dive but defaults subside to a ripple
22 corporate debt issuers were downgraded to triple C or below in November and December by Moody’s or S&P, out of which 13 can be found in CLO portfolios  – hurting $4.55 billion of US CLO loans, €1.87 billion of European CLO portfolios and almost $80 million of middle market CLOs loans, according to CLO-i

Fund performance: CLOs look to continue recovery with end of the year in sight
CLO funds claim the majority of positions in our top 10

It's all relative: Euro CLO mezz rallies to follow month-long IG/HY compression
European credit suffered this week with Brexit talks between the UK and the EU dragging on and both sides conceding that a trade deal is unlikely to be reached by Sunday’s deadline. But European CLO tranches have held up reasonably well with mezzanine spreads tightening by almost 13% in December

Europe leads corporate credit rally, but US outperforms in CLOs
iTraxx Crossover has been the CDS market's outperformer this week, tightening over 30 basis points, or 11.4%, to trade at 235bp today. But in the CLO market, US deals have come out on top thanks to a BlackRock CLO that priced its double Bs at some of the tightest levels this year

Compression plays out as HY and European CLO double Bs outperform
Investment grade and high yield credit spreads have tightened in sync with each other this week, but CDS and CLOs alike underline that the big theme over the past month has been compression between investment grade and high yield

LP round up: Monroe and Angelo Gordon beat 25 for direct lending mandate, as private credit plans brew
US public pension funds have disclosed $1.2 billion in commitments to credit focused strategies

IG and crossover indices converge while European CLO double Bs rally
iTraxx Crossover is again outperforming Main today with the investment grade index widening 0.11bp to 52.56bp while the crossover index is 2.42bp tighter to 296.99bp. Meanwhile bank research signals that junior CLO tranches could benefit as investors look at covid industries through a different lense 

Credit fundraising: Dubai manager gets in on the act as direct lending takes off
Shuaa launches credit fund in the Gulf as Ares, Contingency, HPS and Perceptive are among those to close billion-plus funds

Apollo appoints head of credit valuations from sell-side
Apollo has appointed a head of credit valuations, as its previous head of credit valuations has transitioned internally to cover private equity valuations

Ares holds €6.97 billion first close on European direct lending fund
Ares Management Group has collected $12 billion in gross credit commitments over the third quarter of the year, according to the firm’s earnings presentation, including $8.2 billion for the first closing of its fifth European direct lending fund

Credit Rendezvous: sometimes you have to dive deep to find value
Some parts of the credit market are fraught with danger, but that does not mean portfolio managers are avoiding them entirely, according to the Credit Rendezvous, Creditflux's 10-page quarterly report eaturing comments from 15 credit experts

Fund performance: A third of funds reach positive territory in 2020
August has been another successful month for the CLO category as seven of the top 10 funds invest primarily in CLOs

Barings and PGIM win loan and structured credit mandates as pension puts £2.7bn in credit
The firms will manage global syndicated loans, securitised credit, emerging market debt and global high yield credit for Border to Coast Pension Partnership's £2.7 billion ($3.43 billion) multi-asset credit fund 

Alcentra appoints DeSimone as CEO
Alcentra has appointed Johnathan DeSimone as chief executive officer following David Forbes-Nixon’s decision to step down and take an investment role at the firm