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

US CLO league tables: new issue rankings go to wire as post-pricing upsizes pop up
The new issue US CLO rankings are tightly contested with JP Morgan leading Citi by just $641 million with one month left of the year. Even in December's typically slower weeks this is a closeable gap 

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

Mid market CLO league tables: late November surge revives mid-market
After a quiet start to the month the mid-market sprung to life on an eventful 20 November when three deals priced

LP round up: Arcmont, Ares and Sixth Street win European direct lending mandates
Investors have allocated around $2 billion to credit funds in recent weeks, according to board documentation seen by Creditflux. Among those to recieve allocations include ADM, Arcmont, Ares, Audax, Bain, Centerbridge, Clearlake, Goldman Sachs merchant banking,  Invesco, Monarch, Oaktree, Raven, Sixth Street and Sound Mark

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

Compression plays out as HY and European CLO double Bs outperform
Investment grade and high yield credit spreads have tightened in sync with each other this week, but CDS and CLOs alike underline that the big theme over the past month has been compression between investment grade and high yield

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

Correction: JP Morgan shifts bulk of CLO portfolio to held to maturity
JP Morgan has shifted two thirds of its CLO portfolio to the 'held to maturity' part of its balance sheet, posting $31.15 billion worth of CLO holdings on 30 September of which $20.95 billion were held to maturity

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

Onex targets high yield bonds after bumper year of US bond issuance
Onex Credit is fundraising for Onex High Yield Bond Fund, according to SEC filings seen by Creditflux

Single name shorters get improved entry point after conviction test
Returning market optimism has taken credit spreads back to ultra-tight levels. But for bears, this posits a better entry level for short trades, and the recent blow-out may have given strong pointers where to target them

US CLO league tables: JP Morgan nips ahead of Citi as debutants pour in
JP Morgan has surged to the top of new issuance rankings following a busy September and October in which the bank was lead arranger for 10 new CLOs totalling $3.9 billion

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

US CLO round-up: 23 managers wait in the wings after avoiding pre-election rush
CLO managers rushed to the primary market last week as they sought to lock in financing before the US presidential elections. This resulted in one of the busiest weeks in the primary market with 10 new issues

Gulf Stream employs 'additional issuance' option to complete novel CLO upsize
Gulf Stream Asset Management has upsized the entire capital stack in Gulf Stream Meridian 2 five months after the deal was closed, in what is thought to be first 2.0 CLO to opt for an upsize after closing date

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

US CLO round-up: New Mountain gives a peek at better times
CLO primary issuance has produced healthy volume over the last few weeks with new issue paper totalling $7.9 billion since 21 September.

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

MidCap brings CLO resets back with largest deal since sell-off
MidCap Financial, the direct lending arm of Apollo Global, has priced the first CLO reset since February, teaming up with Wells Fargo to repurpose its 2017 vintage CLO named Woodmont 2017-1 Trust. The transaction is the largest in the CLO market post-covid, coming in at a huge $651.8 million

CLO reset market set to reopen after eight months as ArrowMark plans deal
ArrowMark Partners is marketing the US CLO market's first reset since February, as the industry takes another step on the path back to normality

Apollo launches another hybrid debt-equity value fund
Apollo's hybrid value strategy has the ability to invest in both credit and equity, focusing on capital solutions, structured equity and non-control stressed and distressed investments.

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