Manager selection stakes are heightening as CLO pain points intensify: Barclays
CLOs’ slump in market value and piling of distressed assets have made differentiation between managers much more acute on key metrics, regionally and by vintage, according to Barclays credit strategists

CSAM does the CLO awards double
Winning the Creditflux Manager of the Year award is a feat in itself. Winning it back-to-back in such different markets is an outstanding achievement — and CSAM can take great pride in it

Bespoke bond baskets on the rise as investors seek targeted portfolio trades
High yield index replication and accessing illiquid exposure are two factors building momentum for a new investment approach that bundles bonds into a single risk piece

Pantheon exceeds $500 million target for second private debt secondaries fund
Pantheon has held a final close of its second private debt secondaries fund, Pantheon Senior Debt II, at $834 million

US CLO manager moves into Europe with Jefferies picking up arranger mandate
A US CLO manager is plotting to expand across to Europe, adding to the region's growing CLO manager base. The firm will assign its US CLO portfolio managers with global duties, while a partner in London becomes a regional PM 

Arb work pays off
With day-one arbitrage alone delivering projected CLO cash-on-cash returns of 20-25%, 2021 may have been the best year ever for equity investors — at least until CLO spreads began to widen  

"Faltering oil supply is lamentable at a time of strategic and moral shortfall"
We need to accept the pain and cut dependence on Russian oil today

"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

LP round up: Oak Hill wins $3bn mandate as credit allocations near $10bn in March
Institutional investors revealed over $9.5 billion of allocations to credit funds in March. Oak Hill Advisors walked away with the largest mandate, as US heavyweight pension Calpers allocated a whopping $3 billion across several of its funds

Credit rally extends as investors welcome hawkish but clearer Fed message
Credit markets have carried their rally over to another day, fuelled in part by what investors have interpreted as a hawkish but clear message from the US Federal Reserve on policy tightening

CBAM: star power, friends in insurance, and doing things 'my way'
"And now the end is here, and so I face that final curtain... I've lived a life that's full, I traveled each and every highway, And more, much more
I did it, I did it my way". Sinatra could easily have been thinking of CBAM when he penned these lyrics. We look back at how a group of experienced CLO officials came together to launch a mega player in the CLO business in no time at all 

Crestline collects $3.6 billion across three private credit fund closes
The Fort Worth, Texas-based manager has closed its fourth opportunistic credit fund, third direct lending fund and second portfolio financing fund

US managers eye growth potential in European CLOs
The legion of European CLO managers is set to grow this year, with US issuers harbouring ambitions to become global players in the CLO business.

Credit fund rout extends as storm winds buffet from all sides
Another choppy week for financial markets has extended the run of fund outflows, with investors fleeing from all parts of credit and even equity suffering a drop, with government bonds gaining traction

European panic over Ukraine pushes market to new wides
European underperformance of US credit has resumed at the start of the week, with the market waking up on Monday morning to another sharp sell off. But the lengthening downturn has some believing spreads have overshot, while others insist worse is to follow

Credit and equity fund flows diverge ahead of Fed emergency meeting
Outflows from credit have extended into another week, even as stocks returned to inflows, as speculation mounted the US Federal Reserve could opt for a 50bp hike in March or even an earlier than anticipated hike at an emergency meeting next week

Global CLO trading lab: Payments season prompts equity to surge but short-dated bonds trade low
Over the last two weeks, $2.8 billion of US CLOs and €640 million of European CLO paper have appeared on b-wics, with equity making up 33% and 40% of the respective markets

CLO pipeline: US manager base poised to hit 119 and Europe 57
The CLO market is open to newcomers as both the US and European are set to welcome first time CLO issuers – BlueBay Asset Management in the US and Acer Tree Investment Management in Europe

I’ll see your 2020 and raise you 2021
Discounted loans, Libor floors and bond flexibility helped make 2021 an even better year for CLO returns than 2020, as US CLOs distributed 15.54% and European CLOs paid 13.93% annualised

Pennsylvania pension reveals $500 million in commitments to three private credit funds
Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement has revealed three private credit commitments as part of $1.1 billion in allocations to its alternatives bucket

ESG template fires up hopes of CSO issuance
2021 may not have been a year of big volume in the synthetic bespoke market, but primary business is back, and decisive inroads into environmental, social and governance (ESG)-focused issuance bode well for 2022

BlueBay adds CLO specialist and structured credit PM
BlueBay Asset Management has made two senior hires to its structured credit team in New York

Ares rounds out bumper year for direct lending with $14 billion US fund
Ares Management is ending 2021 with yet another massive direct lending fund-raise

WhiteStar to absorb MacKay Shields' European CLO platform
WhiteStar Asset Management has swooped for MacKay Shields’ European CLO business, ending weeks of speculation over the latter’s CLO ambitions and confirming WhiteStar's status as a rising star