Growth in structured finance sets off legal merry-go-round
The departure of John Goldfinch from Milbank’s structured finance practice in late 2023 began a succession of moves between law firms looking to expand their structured finance practices

Tariffs kill off year-long CLO boom
The global impact on CLOs of President Trump’s tariffs was plain as volatility increased and spreads blew out. But managers helped keep US issuance steady with print-and-sprint deals

CLO Symposium 2025
The Creditflux CLO Symposium will be held at the Nobu Hotel, London on 14-15 May 2025

SRTs aren’t exactly a new idea

Big managers hold steady in CLO boom
After a late surge, 2024 saw USD 588bn of new global issuance from 1,331 CLOs, as well as the launch of multiple managers. But the biggest players mostly held on to their high rankings

A profitable year for credit funds
An almost 18% rise ensured our CLO fund index was the best performer in 2024. But other credit indices werenʼt far behind as funds across the credit spectrum delivered strong returns

Slow and steady wins the day
It’s often thought CLO managers add value to their deals via high volume trading strategies. The data shows this can be true — but on average, top performing CLOs are less actively traded

Taking stock after a long hot summer
As fall approaches, the global CLO and leveraged loan markets are in a strong position. But will records set in 2021 tumble?  We compare the numbers — and find out what the market thinks

A strong year for CLO strategies
After the pain of 2022, credit fund managers must have been praying that 2023 turned out better. It did.

What CLO investors really need to know
From the drivers of CLO performance to cashflow modelling, these are the seven things every CLO equity investor needs to know. This article is an extract from Dealscribe and CLO Research’s guide What CLO Equity Investors Need To Know

Setting standards for emissions data
Macroeconomic trends may have pushed the topic of ESG reporting down the news agenda this year, but this is changing with a raft of new regulations in countries around the world

The wall is coming down
Refis and extensions have greatly reduced the height of the maturity wall looming over European CLOs in the near term — but, further out, WAL test cushions remain critical

CLO Census: It’s time to put the shop in order
After a lacklustre year for the CLO market, the 539 respondents to our comprehensive survey are increasingly calling for structural changes, from electronic trading to standardised documents

European CLOs win out against US deals
Last month, our analysis explored the performance of US CLOs that were previously reset. We found that they delivered higher distributions than deals which weren’t reset, with the exception of the 2017 and 2018 vintages (Creditflux September 2023 — Do resets help CLOs perform better?). This article expands that analysis to the European market, and compares the performance of US BSL and EU CLO equity tranches.

Primary market roars into life
The primary CLO market pickup that started in August continued strongly in September, both in Europe and the US. Although the overall direction was the same on both sides of the Atlantic, the type of activity was quite different.

Fund performance
Good month for CLO funds sees six in top 10 as Axiom sets pace

Arcmont and Barings land direct lending doubles
Readers with long memories may recall that Creditflux used to award a handful of prizes for direct lending funds at the Manager Awards. But this year those gongs were spun out into their own glittering gala.

We made the most of a tricky situation
The contrast between 2021 and the following 12 months could not have been starker. But although some heavy hitters remained on the sidelines, 94 US CLO managers priced new deals in 2022

Not every CLO can be a winner
The CLO industry has undeniably performed well enough to justify the plaudits it receives. But there will always be some unloved CLO tranches that slip into triple C territory

Weren’t there more of us than this?
According to this year’s Creditflux CLO Census, the CLO industry is not feeling optimistic. Some investors have vanished and managers have not taken advantage of helpful market conditions

We can cope with downgrades again

You seem familiar
The overlap between European CLOs has risen to 51.6%, but the largest issuers are only slightly more aligned to their peers at 55.19% — so bonds are proving to be an important differentiator

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?  

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

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