Credit fundraising: Audax scores big in lighter month
Fundraising markedly dropped in May, but credit funds still amassed $12.8 billion and 10 credit funds reached final closes across a variety of different strategies

Credit funds at a glance (June 2021)
A round up of fundraising and people moves in credit

Euro CLO triple Bs widen to 375bp as manager prices second new issue in four months
Euro new issue CLO triple Bs have widened since the start of the year, averaging 344bp in March, up from 320.3bp in February and 306.6bp in January, according to Creditflux data  

Global CLO b-wic round-up: record level of CLO paper stalls rally
Record levels of primary and secondary CLO supply has left investors spoilt for choice and led to the CLO rally stalling

Past returns: Highland sells European CLOs at second attempt
In Creditflux 10 years ago, we reported that Highland Capital Management was offloading its European CLOs, with Alcentra and Barings among the frontrunner

CLO pipeline: US adds deals at frenetic pace as Europe catches breath after record start
US CLO investors have numerous deals to consider with 13 new issues and 15 repricings being prepared to flood the market in the coming days

At least 2020 wasn’t dreadful for CLOs
Last year’s downturn was another in which CLOs survived and in many cases thrived as active management and Libor floors helped managers deliver 13%-plus returns to equity

OC health check: 41 CLOs heal their breaches
147 CLOs breached an over-collateralisation test in October, down from 183 in September. 41 CLOs that breached an OC test in September passed all OC tests in October, most of which had October payment dates

Elements work against CLO managers in Q3
CLO equity distributions fell in Q3 largely due to factors, such as Libor mismatches, that CLO managers can’t control. But these headwinds could turn in favour of managers in the near future

Six European CLO managers switch to Ireland after Dutch tax hike
European CLO managers have been rapidly shifting their Netherlands-domiciled SPVs to Irish DAC vehicles, according to sources, including PGIM, Barings and Cairn

European CLO managers switch legacy deals to originators ahead of Brexit deadline
A few European CLO managers are undertaking house keeping ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period in January, by switching the method by which their legacy CLOs comply with risk retention from sponsor to originator

Credit fundraising: Dubai manager gets in on the act as direct lending takes off
Shuaa launches credit fund in the Gulf as Ares, Contingency, HPS and Perceptive are among those to close billion-plus funds

Credit Rendezvous: sometimes you have to dive deep to find value
Some parts of the credit market are fraught with danger, but that does not mean portfolio managers are avoiding them entirely, according to the Credit Rendezvous, Creditflux's 10-page quarterly report eaturing comments from 15 credit experts

Barings promotes PM to lead European CLO unit
Barings has promoted two members of its European CLO management team, one of which becomes the new head of its European CLO management business

Credit fundraising: managers build homes for real estate credit funds
The “largest ever real estate credit fund” was one of the fundraising highlights last month as Blackstone’s Real Estate Debt Strategies IV fund reached $8 billion on its final close

Global CLO round-up: fresh start for five year deals as market reopens
The CLO market is still producing deals at a good pace, with $2.6 billion of global issuance last week. Four new issue deals priced in the US with Intermediate Capital Group and NYL Investors pricing their first transactions of the year while CVC Credit Partners made it two and Barings three in 2020

Barings prints largest post-covid European CLO via Natixis
Barings priced the largest European post-covid CLO on Friday in a €452.8 million transaction named Barings Euro CLO 2020-1

LP round up: $5 billion flows to credit as private market allocations increase
Global institutional investors allocated nearly $5 billion to credit funds this week, according to documents seen by Creditflux

Barings and PGIM win loan and structured credit mandates as pension puts £2.7bn in credit
The firms will manage global syndicated loans, securitised credit, emerging market debt and global high yield credit for Border to Coast Pension Partnership's £2.7 billion ($3.43 billion) multi-asset credit fund 

CLO pipeline: managers prepare to end quarter with a bang
CLO issuance is showing no signs of slowing down as spreads continue to grind tighter and election day draws ever closer

OC health check: August reports slow torrent of fresh breaches to a trickle
198 CLOs reported an over-collateralisation (OC) breach in August, only three of which were completely new breaches. This is a slowdown from July, when 230 deals suffered some kind of OC breach, according to the latest reports from CLO-i  

Managers weigh up matters of principal
CLO managers that were able to avoid OC traps made double-digit equity distributions in Q2, despite the headwinds. But these firms tended not to be among those that built the most par

OC health check: breaches start to take toll on July payment dates
37 CLOs reported an over-collateralisation test failure last week, but this was a falling percentage of those publishing trustee reports and none were fresh breaches

Credit Rendezvous: record fiscal stimulus provides pick-me-up
Credit markets had a mini bounce-back in the second quarter as central banks poured cash into the economy. But there is great uncertainty about the effects of a second wave of coronavirus. As part of our quarterly report on credit - the Credit Rendezvous - Creditflux spoke to experts across 12 segments of the credit market

Beneath the triple C: downgrades hold steady as Travelport loses its luggage
For the second month in a row downgrades to triple C steadied, with just under $9 billion of CLO loans falling to this rating across 34 corporate borrowers