Fund performance: European CLO funds lead the way
February was a positive month for many funds, as only one quarter failed to reach the black. This builds off a stellar start to the year: 96% of funds reached a positive return in January

Manager targets €300 million for structured credit fund with CLO/CSO mix
The fund will invest primarily in European CLO equity 

"The loan market is the septic tank for sub-single B LBO financing"
Portfolios of single name IG CDS are less complex and more liquid than CLOs

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

It's all relative: CLO spreads explore record tights as credit indices hit impasse
CLO spreads are grinding to ever tighter levels, despite a flattish week for credit in which corporate credit indices have ended up more or less unchanged

It's all relative: CLOs are lagging no more, as Carlyle deal drags market tighter
“CLOs are lagging” has been a much repeated refrain over the last nine months. But Carlyle Group has this week produced a US CLO that has dragged spreads to their tightest point in three years so that, rather than comparing CLOs to pre-covid levels, they should be assessed against early 2018

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

Palm Lane launches credit relative value fund with $200 million after PM hires
Palm Lane Capital has raised about $200 million for a global credit relative value hedge fund, which went live on 1 September

Former JP Morgan credit prop trader relaunches credit hedge fund
Palm Lane Partners is relaunching – two years after the credit hedge fund manager looked to spin out of JP Morgan Asset Management

Apollo CLO and CSO specialists earn promotion to partner
Apollo Global Management has promoted two members of its global structured credit team, according to market sources

Stockholm-based firm targets CLOs, CSOs and SRTs for new fund after stellar 2019
A fund manager, established in 2018, is said to be launching its second corporate structured credit fund, sources say, after generating 20% returns last year via its debut strategy. The new fund will invest across CLOs, CSOs, SRTs and index tranches 

Falling correlation reignites passion for index tranche trades
Dispersion in the global corporate credit market is rekindling interest in correlation trading, with dealer sources reporting that a late surge lifted 2019 index tranche volumes to $250 billion.

Oak Hill reshuffles leadership in Europe
Oak Hill Advisors has appointed three long-serving members of its investment and business development teams to lead the European office

Bespoke gains pull CLO buyers as market tipped to hit $100bn
Synthetic bespoke issuance could catch up with the more visible CLO market this year, say structured credit specialists

Market favours retrospective over forward-looking approach to Ibor benchmark fallbacks, says Isda
New benchmark fallbacks for derivatives contracts that reference interbank offered rates are likely to be based on the “compounded setting in arrears rate” and the “historical mean/median approach to the spread adjustment”, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has said

BlackRock becomes latest manager to explore interval fund structure for credit
Several managers have hit the market with the interval fund structure, as investors look to invest in illiquid strategies through an illiquid fund structure

Orchard hires former UBS credit index options and tranches global head
Orchard Global Asset Management has hired an ex-UBS senior correlation trader as a portfolio manager in London

Steep climb: dealers and investors cross-examine merits of five-year CSOs
The market for bespoke tranches of credit synthetic obligations (CSOs) looks set for further year-on-year growth, but this could depend on expanding activity to longer tenors

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

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?
 

Join the debate: most memorable moment in credit
At Creditflux we’ve now produced 200 monthly magazines since Fishknife first came up with the idea of tracking the global credit markets in 2001). We asked several key credit industry officials about their most memorable moment in credit

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