Beneath the triple C: 13 CLO loans take a dive but defaults subside to a ripple
22 corporate debt issuers were downgraded to triple C or below in November and December by Moody’s or S&P, out of which 13 can be found in CLO portfolios  – hurting $4.55 billion of US CLO loans, €1.87 billion of European CLO portfolios and almost $80 million of middle market CLOs loans, according to CLO-i

Global 2020 CLO league tables
Global 2020 CLO league tables 

Vaccine boosts credit as PE firms open up to bridge loans
The leveraged loan and CLO markets ended 2020 on a long-awaited high after multiple vaccines for covid-19 were rubber-stamped by regulators

It's all relative: Euro CLO mezz rallies to follow month-long IG/HY compression
European credit suffered this week with Brexit talks between the UK and the EU dragging on and both sides conceding that a trade deal is unlikely to be reached by Sunday’s deadline. But European CLO tranches have held up reasonably well with mezzanine spreads tightening by almost 13% in December

Global CLO league tables - November 2020 YTD
Global CLO league tables - November 2020 YTD

Europe leads corporate credit rally, but US outperforms in CLOs
iTraxx Crossover has been the CDS market's outperformer this week, tightening over 30 basis points, or 11.4%, to trade at 235bp today. But in the CLO market, US deals have come out on top thanks to a BlackRock CLO that priced its double Bs at some of the tightest levels this year

CLO pipeline: LCM switches arranger to complete deal and join issuance surge
Over $3.5 billion of global CLO issuance priced last week and managers in all three CLO markets are taking advantage of tightening spreads across the capital structure after three major covid-19 vaccine breakthroughs and increased confidence since the US presidential election

Beneath the triple C: cinemas get clipped but default picture improves
14 corporate debt issuers were downgraded to triple C or below in October by Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s – hurting $3.15 billion of US CLO loans, €761.73 million of European CLO portfolios and $37.95 million of middle market CLOs loans, according to CLO-i. Cinema chains were among those to suffer last month

Global CLO league tables - October 2020 YTD
Global CLO league tables - October 2020 YTD

Credit Suisse registers €1 billion euro CLO issuance in October as Partners prices
October European CLO issuance stands at just over €2.7 billion, the largest monthly volume since the March sell-off

Sculptor returns to European CLO market after 14-month absence
Sculptor has priced its first European CLO of the year via Barclays. The deal brings CLO issuance in October so far to a strong €2.4 billion and year-to-date issuance to just over €17 billion

OC health check: CLOs wake up when September ends
September showed a slight but clear improvement in CLOs’ over-collateralisation test results as 182 CLOs breached an OC test during the reporting period, compared to 198 in August.

[update] Beneath the triple C: theme parks take portfolios on downward ride
Seven corporate debt issuers were downgraded to triple C or below in September by Moody’s or Standard and Poor’s – hurting $2.16 billion of US CLO loans and €1.16 billion of European CLO portfolio. The pace of CLO loan downgrades to triple C has slowed steadily since the peak in April

Napier Park completes second euro CLO post-covid
Napier Park Global has priced its second European CLO post-covid, teaming up with BNP Paribas to issue the €353 million Henley CLO III on Wednesday

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

CLOs hold €250 million of defaulted French events organiser Comexposium
CLOs hold €246.1 million of French events organiser Comexposium, which entered safeguard protection in the Commercial Court of Nanterre on Wednesday

Napier Park plans second European CLO in four months
Napier Park Global is set to price its third European CLO, Henley CLO III, with the transaction anticipated to price next week

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  

Global CLO b-wic round-up: dealers get involved amid rally, but dispersion persists
The CLO secondary markets returned to form last week with $716.2 million of US CLO bonds and a further €306.5 million of European CLO paper listed. Although for both markets over half of the total volume listed came from Thursday’s scheduled b-wics

Beneath the triple C: slowest downgrade pace puts market in recovery mode
The CLO market recovery is starting to benefit from borrower downgrades falling to their slowest rate since the coronavirus crisis began in March

Global CLO league tables - August 2020 YTD
Global CLO league tables - August 2020 YTD

CLOs at a glance: CLO managers are quite partial to a refi
There was a wave of CLO partial refinancing in August as equity investors capitalised on lower interest rates to cut the coupon on fixed rate tranches

European CLO portfolio overlap increases by 3%: S&P
European CLO portfolio overlap for new issue deals since mid-March has increased to 37.73%, according to a recent report by S&P, around 3% higher than the average of 36% for all European CLOs rated by S&P

OC health check: CLOs pay $1.3 billion on senior tranches as payment dates come due
Senior debt holders received $1.3 billion of principal from CLOs that breached an overcollateralisation test in July, a month in which the majority of scheduled payment dates fell. Of those deals suffering an OC breach, 190 were due to make a payment to noteholders and 57% were within reinvestment. 

Beneath the triple C: CLOs get their sneakers on as retailers run into bankruptcy
July added further relief to CLO portfolios with the slowest rate of downgrades to triple C since March. US CLO portfolios faced downgrades of $2.18 billion to triple C while European portfolios faced just €59.13 million of such downgrades