Credit Rendezvous: And breathe...
The unanimous verdict is that credit spreads will be moving wider – they have to. But the difficulty credit fund managers face is predicting when the next sell-off comes and how sharp it will be. In the Q3 instalment of Creditflux’s Credit Rendezvous, the over-riding message from portfolio managers is that there’s little point in taking on too much risk. The report features the views of prominent credit figures including Paul Horvath (Orchard), Himani Trivedi (Nuveen), Ronnie Jaber (Onex), Graham Rainbow (Alcentra) and Michelle Russell-Dowe (Schroders). The report looks at 14 segments of the market including CLOs, direct lending, leveraged loans, distressed debt and credit derivatives.  

CMBS market picks hotels for bright summer ahead
CMBS and RMBS markets are set to be among the biggest beneficiaries as the US economy opens up in the latter half of this year, but market participants caution that there will be bifurcation in certain sectors

Flat Rock completes hat-trick of CLO funds taking top spot
Hedge funds that invest in CLO tranches are the top performers in our database for a third month in a row.

Fund performance: Déjà vu as April leaders dominate
CLO funds stayed in the top flight for another month as they took over the top 10 credit hedge fund return table in May, when 87% of all funds listed made positive returns

Credit hedge funds (July 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Ucits at a glance: Ucits stay positive for second month in a row
Ultra-tight credit spreads are not taking away from Ucits funds – 80% of funds in our database have again recorded positive returns.

Coronavirus tiers up old ranking script
Forget everything you thought you knew about CLO manager tiers. Apollo and Blackstone are mainstays, but smaller, more nimble issuers are finding new ways to stand out from the crowd

The Last Tranche with Pretium's Goss: airlines are barometer for reopening trade
In this episode of The Last Tranche, Pretium's Roberta Goss and Creditflux's Hugh Minch discuss how the effects of the vaccine rollout and economic reopening are showing in the loan market.

First Eagle opts to liquidate listed US loan fund
First Eagle Alternative Credit is in the process of liquidating its publicly listed, closed-ended credit fund, First Eagle Senior Loan Fund

"In the afternoon I awoke from a pile of willow leaves to discover we had created a Welsh ether-based token"
A localised crypto-currency boom and bust cycle teaches Welshcake (again) that everything becomes correlated in a downturn  

Lupus Alpha CLO funds bounce over 100% in year-long rise
Lupus Alpha’s CLO funds have posted 100%-plus returns in the past 12 months, with Lupus Alpha CLO Opportunity Notes II up 137.24%

Fund performance: CLO funds outperform as two hit over 100% 12-months return
CLO funds swatted away the competition in April on their way to dominating our top 10 credit hedge fund return table after an upbeat month

Credit hedge funds (June 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Ucits at a glance: Altana sits atop tables as credit bounces back
Ucits funds picked up in April as 79% made positive returns

CLOs bask in 'golden period' as industry approaches $1 trillion market cap
The economic rebound following the reopening US economy has created a 'golden period' for the CLO market, market participants say

Climate change pair trade delivers as oil companies' CDS widens
A climate change pair trade proposed by Anthropocene in March has come good with Norwegian oil company Equinor’s CDS outperforming Total, a French oil company

Control position in strong 2018 Axa CLO on sale today
$29.2 million of Allegro VII, a 2018 CLO managed by Axa Investment Managers, is on sale today in an all US CLO equity b-wic at 10am EST (3pm UK time). The bond is the fifth US CLO majority equity position to be listed on a b-wic this year

CLOs come up smelling of roses
The coronavirus crisis could have cut back 10 years of CLO market progress, but investors’ foresight, trading chops and flexibility meant many saw their strategies blossom during 2020  

CLO fund comes top by distance in middling month for credit
A CIS Asset Management fund, which invests mainly in US CLO equity, was the star performer in March after gaining 7.36% in the month

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

Credit hedge funds (May 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Ucits at a glance: Altana moves into pole position
March marked a drop in pace for Ucits funds as only 62% of funds made positive returns, compared to 80% in February

CLOs are here to help with infrastructure expansion
Issuers of CLOs backed by infrastructure debt are looking forward to a boom as investors turn to infrastructure projects as a way out of the pandemic slump

China Huarong’s late annual report unsettles market
China Huarong Asset Manager, the state-owned bad debt manager, has been a big driver of credit volatility in an otherwise placid market, after its delayed annual report sent shockwaves through the region and beyond.

It’s all relative: the Cornetto trilogy of CLO triple Bs
CLO arrangers have let their imaginations run wild when assembling triple-B rated notes – not because these have been tricky to shift, but because there is appetite for triple B CLOs that don't taste vanilla. The result is fat, split and overlapping triple Bs