The Last Tranche with Napier Park's Secmen: tailwinds fuelling CLO market mask manager incompetence
In this episode of the Last Tranche, Serhan Secmen, head of US CLO investments at Napier Park Global Capital, joins to discuss how equity investors choose which managers to allocate to for the best long-term performance

Treasury desk lists $818 million b-wic as hedge fund looks to offload control CLO equity in bumper day
State Street once again listed over $800 million of US CLO triple A bonds on Tuesday, having sold $834 million of triple A paper last month

Amherst Pierpont takes total return approach as it builds CLO analytics platform
Amherst Pierpont is making CLO analysis the focal point of a push into the asset class, with the brokerage creating a platform that looks at the alpha and beta generated by a CLO manager, as well as their pricing on CLO liabilities.

Fund performance: Dominant CLO funds look to end the year with 20%-plus gains
Once again the Creditflux hedge fund top 10 is dominated by CLO funds, with seven funds among the best performers in September.

Credit hedge funds (November 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Ucits at a glance: Robus and Altana enter the final sprint neck and neck
A downward turn hit Ucits funds as 65% of them made positive returns in September,

Niche credit funds make mid-market flexibility count
Funds that have the flexibility to invest in mid-cap debt issuers prospered in September, amid the usual swarm of outperforming CLO funds

Global CLO trading lab: bank sells $834 million triple As in quarterly reallocation as hedge fund trades CLO equity
Thursday’s secondary CLO market was the busiest of 2021, with over $1 billion of US CLOs on offer. This featured an enormous b-wic worth $834.3 million, where sources have told Creditflux of the bank behind the aucton. While a large credit hedge fund is said to have sold out of control CLO equity 

Three control CLO equity blocks trade, including rare CIFC deal with ultra-low funding costs
Three US CLO anchor equity positions traded Tuesday courtesy of one b-wic at 9.30am New York time

Zais CLO reset prices wide of market, but strong portfolio boosts junior tranches
Zais Group has followed up its new issue CLO last month by resetting a 2020 CLO, sources say. Just like Zais CLO 17, the reset Zais 16 was arranged by Jefferies, and again priced substantially wide of market averages. However, the junior notes priced in line with, and at times tighter than, Zais 17 – perhaps reflecting the strong positioning of Zais 16’s portfolio.

CLO Census latest: banks in tight race, 51% optimistic on Sofr and large managers viewed as outperformers
More than 100 CLO market participants have already cast their vote in the most tightly-contested Creditflux CLO Census ever with a single vote separating the top three banks at US and European CLO execution. Meanwhile, most voters are unworried by the Sofr migration and BlackRock, CSAM, CIFC and PGIM are among the CLO managers viewed as having outperformed following the covid crash. Click here to vote: CreditfluxCLOCensus2021

US insurers’ CLO investments pose “insignificant risk”, NAIC reports
US insurer’s investments in CLOs remains an “insignificant risk”. That’s according to a report released last week by the National Association of Insurance Companies entitled Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) – Stress Testing U.S. Insurers’ Year-End 2020 Exposure

Everyone’s ramping

Still plenty more fish in the triple C

Fund performance: CLOs lead but variety is the spice of life
.An assortment of funds have made their mark in August as five different strategies make it into our top 10 for the month

Credit hedge funds (October 2021)
Credit hedge fund returns

Ucits at a glance: Angsana recovers from July slump
Just under 75% of Ucits funds made positive returns in August, holding steady from June and July

CLO issuers sit on Sofr as they brace for short-term hit
Times are about as good as they get in the US CLO market, with new issuance breaking records as daily volumes in September regularly topped $2 billion, but in three months new CLOs will have to adopt Sofr as a benchmark and thoughts are turning to how the CLO industry will manage the accompanying basis risk

Oxbridge fund tops the class to break CLO run
It has taken a fund that invests in a range of credit funds to stop the dominance of CLO strategies in our credit hedge fund rankings, as Sandalwood’s Oxbridge Partners returned 2.93% in August

CSAM regains best manager throne
Upstart CLO managers overtook more experienced rivals at last year’s Creditflux Manager Awards, but CSAM and other large firms, such as PGIM, emerged victorious in London this time around

CIFC's Vaccaro highlights importance of company culture [video]
CIFC Asset Management’s Steve Vaccaro gave an insight into his company’s approach to diversity and inclusion at Creditflux’s CLO Symposium earlier this month. He said that these values have been a focus for CIFC for a long time, culminating in the firm producing a CLO linked to a charitable initiative in May

Fitch places 102 US CLO tranches under 'observation' following methodology changes
Fitch Ratings says it has placed 102 tranches issued by 43 US CLOs and 13 tranches by seven Trups CDOs under criteria observation, following the update to its CLO and corporate CDO rating criteria earlier this month

Variety of US CLO-eligible loans makes ramping up a joy [CLO Symposium video]
A buoyant US CLO market is basking in a golden summer with record issuanc. Speakers at Creditflux’s CLO Symposium earlier this month pointed out a vibrant loan market means CLO issuers are spoiled for choice

Déjà vu as CLO strategies again top hedge fund tables
Seven out of the top 10 funds in our hedge fund tables belong to the CLO category as the asset class outperformed again in July

Fund performance: CLOs dominate again as CIFC and Hildene score hat-tricks
CLO funds once again take over the top 10 as seven of those listed with Creditflux invest predominantly in the asset class. So far in 2021, CLO funds have held a majority of the spots in the top 10 on four occasions