August: fund performance
CLO spreads jumped wider in August, but funds that invest in these assets have been able to outperform

September: credit funds at a glance
White Oak Global Advisors held a $2.1 billion final close on a new direct lending fund, while Phil Raciti's move from CVC Credit Partners to Halcyon Capital Management was one of the biggest moves in the credit industry

Weighted average life divides CLO industry
Creditflux’s second CLO Census reveals stark differences of opinion on weighted average life and par-flush for US CLOs. But there is a clear consensus on which bank is best at CLO execution

Loan market finds balance as spreads edge wider
New issue volumes were robust in July with relatively few loan refinancings getting done. Loan portfolio managers say the loan market is finally balanced, having been in favour of borrowers

Swedish pension fund's credit portfolio recovers with strong 2018 results
Andra AP-Fonden (AP2), the SEK 352.4 billion ($38.7 billion) state-owned pension fund, generated 5.6% absolute returns from non-domestic credit investments for the first half of 2018

Credit drives strong returns for five of the largest asset managers in the business
Carlyle is close to hitting its ambitious fundraising target; direct lending has been kind to Ares; and Och-Ziff has decided to shed its US CLO risk retention stakes after exiting its financing agreements

Points up front: BlueGreen OneTreeHill United, the CLO team
Inspired by Serhan Seçmen’s keynote address at Creditflux’s CLO Symposium in May, we’ve come up with a World XI of CLO managers.

They said it: “Occam’s razor, the marshmallow test and the Pareto principle – what do they have in common?”
The simplest solution is often the best solution, delayed gratification and the 80/20 rule; these can all be used in the assessment of CLO manager performance

Experienced CSAM holds off boutiques to win biggest prize
Credit Suisse Asset Management became a two-time winner of the Creditflux Manager of the Year award last month after picking up the 2018 trophy in front of a packed house at London’s Landmark Hotel on 9 May

CSAM wins Creditflux Manager of the Year award for a second time
From two guys and a Bloomberg to being named the best manager in the credit industry: Credit Suisse Asset Management wins big at the 2018 Creditflux Manager Awards

CLO performance is faltering – a loans shock would help
Early CLO 2.0s benefited from wide loan spreads. Today, that arbitrage opportunity has closed and returns have gradually diminished – yet there are now similarities to the market in 2007

Tracking down the credit industry’s original winners
All winning managers at the first Creditflux awards survived the crisis, under their own names – like BlackRock – or under new owners. But what happened to the people who collected the trophies?
 

79% of credit managers expect US high yield to widen, survey reveals
The International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers (IACPM) has revealed the results for its latest IACPM Credit Outlook Survey – and the outlook appears to be bleak

Structured credit specialists seek future-proofing in direct lending
At the turn of the last credit cycle, structured credit recovered spectacularly – but credit managers today seem to be gravitating towards private credit as the area to pick up excess returns in a downturn

CSAM in contention for US and European CLO honours
Credit Suisse Asset Management, CVC Credit Partners, Spire Partners and Sound Point Capital Management are among the CLO managers that have secured multiple finalists positions at this year’s Creditflux Manager Awards

Structured credit investors look beyond US RMBS
Re-remic, re-performing loans, non-performing loans and single family rental securitisations have come into favour as non-agency RMBS issuance dries up

Direct lenders pile into "turbocharged" market as fundraising skyrockets: report
Growth in the direct lending market in the 12 months to 31 December was “turbocharged,” growing robustly in the fourth quarter 2017 in particular due to a consistently growing Eurozone economy, according to Deloitte

Join the debate: flippin' heck, you're distorting the CLO market
After our report on a CLO investor flipping 2018 bonds before the deals had even closed, one reader pointed out that this "masks true demand"

Cheyne generates double-digit returns for hedge funds
Cheyne Capital has delivered with two credit hedge funds that have reached their maturity

Synthetic CDOs seek to follow CLOs
Growing issuance, interest in longer maturities and the emergence of a secondary market are encouraging dealers to believe that bespokes are on the road to acceptance. By Sayed Kadiri

Natixis AM reports $1 trillion AUM in 2017 results
Paris-headquartered Natixis has reported solid growth, and an end-of-2017 AUM of $1 trillion, for its asset and wealth management unit

ICG increases fundraising goal as direct lending funds near full deployment
London-based Intermediate Capital Group has increased its fundraising target to €6 billion per year on a rolling three-year basis

So much capital, so few deals: specialists fear for direct lending
No covenants, increasing leverage ratios and an outlook for rising rates means that direct lending is not all it's cracked up to be, according to several credit market participants

Hurdle rates topple as direct lenders look to boost fees
Some direct lending managers are lowering their hurdle rates in a bid to increase their fees