AlbaCore expands with senior research hires
London-based AlbaCore Capital Group announced the expansion of its investment team last week, with the addition of a new Head of Research

Manager looks to cut HY exposures in CLO-heavy credit interval fund
A credit fund manager has provided a performance update on is multi-strategy closed-end credit fund through regulatory filings, revealing it has beat its benchmark from 1 April to 30 September despite losing 13.66%

Credit Rendezvous: the upside of inflation
It is clear, inflation is not transitory and central banks are acting with several interest rate hikes likely in store for the US this year. That makes loans and CLO debt tranches attractive, but there could be opportunities beyond these floating rate assets

CLO PM set to leave PGIM ahead of move to London-based manager
A London-based mid-sized CLO manager has hired an official from PGIM 

LP round up: Monroe and Angelo Gordon beat 25 for direct lending mandate, as private credit plans brew
US public pension funds have disclosed $1.2 billion in commitments to credit focused strategies

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

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

LP round up: horseshoe does the trick for Pimco and other distressed managers
Institutional investors poured $2.7 billion into credit this week through 14 managers, according to board documentation seen by Creditflux

Beneath the triple C: downgrade rate slows as $8 billion of CLO loans tumble
May offered some respite to CLO portfolios as corporate downgrades to triple C were reduced heavily - affecting just $6.67 billion of US CLO paper and €1.09 billion of European CLO portfolios

Beneath the triple C: $31.6 billion of CLO credits feel downgrade pain
March madness took a toll on CLOs as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded 4.25% of the portfolios in the US and 1.84% in Europe to triple C or below in just one month (some of these were already triple C rated, only to fall further).

Mizuho appoints US and European credit trading heads in leadership shake-up
The hires include a newly created CLO role, head of credit trading, and head of special situations and illiquid trading 

Blackstone builds on multi-asset approach with fifth fund
The new vehicle will invest directly into Blackstone deals across its alternatives platform

Mediobanca hires experienced credit trader to build out loan franchise
Mediobanca has appointed an ex-Deutsche Bank senior credit trader as head of loan trading

Neuberger's Dyal acquires minority stake in HPS
Dyal Partners, a division of Neuberger Berman, has acquired a minority equity stake in global credit manager HPS Investment Partners

Managers predict skill will win out
We asked managers to predict the year ahead across a range of credit strategies. Overall, they had a positive outlook. By Grace Jennings-Edquist

Founder looks to take structured credit manager Zais private
Founder Christian Zugel has bid to take Zais Group private, ending its two year stint as a public company

Leading fund: Lupus Alpha CLO Opportunity Notes I
Single-B CLO trades boost Lupus Alpha asset Management

Things aren’t always what they seem
Buy CLO triple As but don’t be fooled by diversity scores; take a look at credit index futures if you need liquidity; and watch out for quasi-mid market loans appearing in CLOs

Investing ethically is worth it
Managers could see less volatile returns as a result of their increasing adoption of ESG-friendly portfolios; meanwhile direct lending is spreading across Europe

Move up the stack to avoid implosion
Pundit warns investors to be concerned about return of their principal – but senior loans may be a safe haven as credit yields are squeezed and high yield becomes crowded