Pimco targets securitisation-friendly assets for $1 billion fund
Pimco is winning US pension fund support for a strategy geared towards purchasing what it describes as private credit assets “that have historically been securitised”

Dealers set Windstream credit event auction date
An auction to settle CDS referencing Windstream Holdings will take place on Monday, 18 March

Marathon proposes alternative to long-running Medley BDC merger dispute
Marathon has joined the race to take on two business development companies managed by Medley

Isda tables plans to rid CDS market of narrowly tailored credit events
After lengthy deliberation, a working group of major firms is today set to publish proposals aimed at ridding the market of ‘narrowly tailored credit events’, whereby borrowers are persuaded to default on debt payments in order to trigger pay-outs for CDS holders

Windstream set for high CDS pay-out as DC picks initial deliverable obligations
Windstream Holdings CDS protection holders look set for a high pay-out, as the cheapest deliverable obligations into the defaulted company’s credit event auction are quoted in the mid-20s

"It makes no sense in a one-to-one world": Goldman BDC dissolves JV with pension fund
Goldman Sachs BDC (GSBD) has dissolved its joint venture partnership with Regents of the University of California as the Senior Credit Fund “no longer makes sense in a one-to-one world”, according to the business development company's Q4 2018 earnings call.

Capitala BDC forms $150 million mid-market JV with Kempner
Capitala Finance Corporation and Kemper subsidiary Trinity Universal Insurance Company have teamed up to launch another direct lending joint venture, following a loan-focused JV in 2015

Los Angeles pension seeks high yield managers
Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System has launched a request for proposals, searching for firms to manage up to $216 million each in a mix of high yield strategies, through separately managed accounts  

Ares grows credit 34% with direct lending boost, but high yield takes rough ride in Q4
Ares Management Corporation reported strong returns for its European direct lending strategies in the fourth quarter of 2018. But the firm's overall revenues slumped and its US loan funds and high yield strategies were hit by the volatile credit market 

CIFC launches CLO fund with investment grade mandate
CIFC Asset Management is back in the market with yet another CLO-focused fund – this time, aimed at investment grade opportunities

San Francisco pension deploys $125 million into private credit
San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System has bolstered its private debt bucket, making a $125 million commitment to a senior debt fund and opportunistic credit fund that builds on other private debt investments since last year

HPS targets $8 billion for flagship mezzanine strategy
HPS Mezzanine Partners 2019, the firm's fourth fund in its mezzanine strategy, has won $100 million from a Louisiana pension fund 

Carlyle performance dips in Q4, but credit teams ride global volatility
Credit fund performance dipped for the Carlyle Group in the fourth quarter, as market volatility and fund outflows put a dent in the industry’s much stronger performance of the previous three quarters

Oaktree reports distressed gains over year despite Q4 losses
Oaktree was not immune from challenging fourth quarter globally. Its distressed debt strategy, for instance, returned a gross loss of 1.5%

Isda seeks fallback spread vendor for derivatives
The International Swaps & Derivatives Association is seeking an independent service provider to calculate and publish adjustments to fallbacks it will use in interest rate benchmarks for its Isda definitions

FrontFour continues to urge shareholders to vote against Medley BDC merger
FrontFour Capital Group, a shareholder with 3.8% ownership of Medley Capital Corporation, has issued yet another statement for shareholders to vote against the proposed merger of Medley Management with Sierra Income Corporation. 

Florida pension fund backs Atalaya distressed strategy
Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) has committed $100m to Atalaya Special Opportunities Fund VII, as part of the Florida Retirement System’s portfolio.  

Boost for Parker Drilling protection buyers as CDS settles lower than expected
Parker Drilling credit default swaps have settled at a lower value than expected, after physical settlement sell requests drove down the price at auction and increased the windfall for protection buyers

WhiteHorse forms $125 million middle-market JV with Ohio pension
The $79.8 billion Ohio pension fund has teamed up with WhiteHorse to form a joint venture that will have a $375 million total lending capacity

Parker Drilling recovery implied at 45 cents as dealers get set for CDS auction
An auction to settle credit default swaps referencing Parker Drilling will take place today, with bond trading levels of the defaulted company implying a payout to protection buyers of around 45-46 cents on the dollar

Sears CDS settles well above bonds on physical settlement squeeze
Predictions that credit default swaps referencing Sears Roebuck Acceptance Corp would recover at a high level have been borne out, with an auction to settle the contracts having returned a value of almost 80 cents on the dollar – nearly 30 points higher than where bonds of the bankrupt US retailer have been quoted

Dealers gear up to settle Sears CDS and rule on Ziggo successor
The long wait to settle the final price of Sears Roebuck Acceptance Corp credit default swaps will end today with a credit event auction, while investors could also learn whether there is successor to contracts referencing deregistered Ziggo Bond Finance

IAM closes senior debt fund at C$843 million
IAM Private Debt Group, the private debt business of Integrated Asset Management Group, has closed its sixth private debt fund at C$843 million ($634 million)

Credit spread improvement is calm before the storm, warn strategists
European and US credit markets have begun 2019 with a more buoyant tone than they ended 2018, but strategists warn that bearish factors still outweigh and suggest the overall direction of spreads this year is likely to be wider

CIFC prepares CLO-focused fund
CIFC Asset Management is in the market with another CLO fund, only eight months after teaming up with New York-based City National Rochdale to launch a CLO-focused credit interval fund