Ucits at a glance: Amundi and Loomis Sayles funds register big gains in H1

BlackRock launches $2 billion coporate credit fund with special situations remit
BlackRock has closed its flagship opportunistic credit fund, Global Credit Opportunities, with $2 billion capital commitments

BlueMountain lands senior credit trader in New York
BlueMountain has hired an experienced trader in New York to cover credit and special situations

Upward flexes, CLOs gather speed and 'net-short' language develops [podcast]
The Acuris Fixed Income Group in North America recounts Q2 in the leveraged credit markets.    

Kayne Anderson targets direct lending and liquid credit mix for new fund
Kayne Anderson is looking to launch a closed-ended fund focused on direct lending, liquid credit and energy and infrastructure equity investments

Credit plays a big part as KKR increases AUM by $6.5 billion
KKR grew its assets under management by 8% over the second quarter, according to the firm’s earnings call, which took place on Thursday.

Goldman Sachs creates sustainable finance group
Goldman Sachs has launched a sustainable finance group, to deliver sustainable growth solutions to the bank’s clients, according to documents seen by Creditflux.  

Credit traders' kickstand: tighter and tighter we go, as outlook gets 'worse and worse'
It’s a strange world, where the president of the European Central Bank can say the economic outlook is “getting worse and worse” as credit markets surge into new territories of tightness

Weatherford CDS auction delivers 55.5 cent pay-out to protection buyers
A credit event auction to settle Weatherford International CDS returned a final price of 44.5 cents on the dollar, lower than where bonds had been quoted and meaning a pay-out to protection buyers of 55.5 cents

Final list of deliverables published for Weatherford CDS auction
There will be 17 notes deliverable into an auction on Thursday to settle Weatherford International CDS, the Americas Determinations Committee has confirmed

GSO adds $10 billion to inflows with direct lending, structured credit and energy
Blackstone grew its credit assets under management to $139.3 billion, up 13% on a year ago, according to the firm's second quarter earnings release

Morgan Stanley joins participating bidders for Weatherford CDS auction
Morgan Stanley has been added to the list of participating bidders for an auction next week to settle CDS referencing Weatherford International CDS, with the Americas Determinations Committee also confirming 17 deliverable obligations on the supplemental list

Investor requirements rather than performance is driving ESG push: Creditflux survey
Only 14% of respondents to Creditflux's global credit ESG survey said performance was the main reason they were adopting envoronmental, social and governance-themed strategies

Weatherford CDS auction next week could have 17 deliverables
There are 17 notes on the initial list of deliverable obligations for an auction next week to settle Weatherford International CDS, the Americas Determinations Committee has said

CDS has spillover effect on bond liquidity but could cause fire sales, finds BoE researcher
Single name CDS positioning is positive for the bonds of borrowers referenced by the contracts through a ‘liquidity spillover effect’, according to a new paper by a Bank of England research economist. But mark-to-market losses on CDS brought about by higher margining costs could lead to fire sales in the bond market, the paper adds.

Calpers misses returns target despite fixed income outperformance
California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers) has missed its annual investment target despite strong performance from its fixed income portfolio, which was its top performer  

NatWest brings in Nomura's head of credit trading in New York
NatWest Markets has announced the appointment of Michael Papa as head of its US investment grade credit trading and credit strategy.

Credit traders’ kickstand: curve flatteners and skew trades gain ground
Grinding tighter is the order of the day in credit markets – and indeed looks likely to be the order for much of next week, with an absence of obvious events and catalysts to dictate otherwise. But the strength of the rally in CDS indices has left ‘catch up’ opportunities for relative value traders in curve, basis and even skew based strategies, say market participants

Ontario pension selects new president and CEO

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has appointed Jo Taylor as its new president and chief executive officer, effective 1 January  

Former Apollo co-head of credit lands at MidOcean as credit CIO
MidOcean Credit Partners has hired Dana Carey as chief investment officer

Weatherford faces credit event auction with 50% area recoveries implied
The Americas Credit Determinations Committee has agreed to hold an auction to settle CDS referencing Weatherford International, having ruled last week the Houston headquartered oilfield services provider had triggered a bankruptcy credit event

Tourists have turned high yield into a sketchier neighbourhood… IG credit could be the answer
Using CDS to exploit roll-down in IG credit can generate good returns even in a low-rate environment

CLOs are pricing with an acronym premium rather than an illiquidity premium

John Popp of Credit Suisse Asset Management takes our credit quiz

Tranche trading is back: relative value plays power growth
Synthetic bespoke and index tranche markets are shifting through the gears and accelerating, say investors, as an increasing prevalence of relative value trading strategies evoke dreams of the products returning to pre-financial crisis glory.

Fund performance