CLOs prove resistant to omicron in boost for new issue market
The CLO market has withstood the impact of the omicron coronavirus variant with barely a dent on CLO liability pricing

They said it: "The tone may have been too positive"
CLO market participants have been guilty of being overly bullish

Relative value traders seize on fleeting mismatches
The volatility that hit credit markets from mid-November has produced rare opportunities for relative value traders after a dearth for 12 months

CLO extremes will do well in '22 but mezz needs caution: BNP Paribas
The extreme parts of CLOs' capital structures will offer best value in 2022, but investors should be cautious on mezzanine tranches and consider hedges, say BNP Paribas strategists

Lev loan index rule change proposed to meet Sofr switch
Leveraged loan index stakeholders are being asked for feedback on a proposal that would allow the inclusion of loans linked to Sofr and scrap a minimum spread rule

CLO lower cap stack will outperform with $175bn new issuance in 2022: JP Morgan
Equity and lower rated tranche investors will do best as $175 billion of global new CLO issuance arrives in 2022, predict JP Morgan strategists in their annual outlook, taking market size to $1.2 trillion

It's All Relative: CQS, Capital Four and Tikehau look for CLO breakthrough as debutant premiums drop
The number of US CLO issuers in 2021 could be about to reach 106 with Capital Four, CQS and Tikehau looking to price debut deals, with price talk set at ambitious levels

CLO issuance set for big slump as managers relax on Sofr: JP Morgan
CLO new issue supply will likely decline sharply from this month to next, with the rush to complete deals ahead of the transition to Sofr base rates having added to November's historical heavy weighting over December, say JP Morgan structured credit strategists

"Growth in credit products lets investors express sector-specific views as dispersion ticks higher"
Investors can use ETFs, volatility dispersion swaps or even bond baskets to trade dispersion

CLOs at a glance (November 2021)
A listing of CLOs that have priced in the last month

They said it: "Remove call option from CLO assets and liabilities"
A CLO investor, commenting in Creditflux’s CLO Census, comes up with a drastic way of making CLO cashflows a whole lot easier to model

Zais and BNP Paribas strike ESG breakthrough with climate change CSO
The growing theme of environmental, social and governance standards helping to revitalise the market for collateralised synthetic obligations appears to have taken a big step forward, with Zais Group and BNP Paribas partnering on a first-of-its-kind deal that could lay a template for future transactions

Global CLO trading lab: bank sells $834 million triple As in quarterly reallocation as hedge fund trades CLO equity
Thursday’s secondary CLO market was the busiest of 2021, with over $1 billion of US CLOs on offer. This featured an enormous b-wic worth $834.3 million, where sources have told Creditflux of the bank behind the aucton. While a large credit hedge fund is said to have sold out of control CLO equity 

CLO Census latest: voting crosses 200 as range of dealers lead in CLO origination
CLO market participants are placing value on the specialist service that dealers are providing, according to Creditflux’s CLO Census, with three different banks leading the way for US CLO execution, structuring and syndication. A silimar trend is in play in Europe

Everyone’s ramping

"Never have the choices for issuers been more varied, nor the market dynamics more complex"
Direct lending deal terms are becoming more attractive in Europe

"There are concerns about volatile sectors in high yield, but IG may be vulnerable to macro changes"
High yield has heavier exposure to energy and travel credits, but IG has more rate duration

"It’s not unusual for investors to toggle between the US and Europe depending on pricing and terms"
The accents may be different, but US and European direct lending markets have a lot in common

Broadening SRT market defies spread compression
Credit spreads are close to all time tights — high yield, courtesy of CDX HY, recently hit its tightest level since January 2007 — but the significant risk transfer (SRT) market is one of the few pockets of credit where pricing is wide of pre-covid levels

China teaches tough lessons to foreign investors
China’s regulatory crackdown on some of its fastest-growing industries created shockwaves that have reverberated widely, dragging on US and European credit at the end of July.

Coronavirus delta dilemma puts reflation trades into reverse
Concern over the covid-19 delta variant dented investor optimism in July and looks set to hold back credit spread improvement in August, as focus turns to rising cases in the US and Germany

CLO pipeline: Birch Grove and Fort Washington dish out first 2021 deals as Carlyle goes for sevenths
CLO investors can feast on a range of deals in the new issue market over the next month. 

It's all relative: IG index drifts wide of 50bp as European CLO triple Bs outperform
US investment grade credit has been an underperformer in the last few weeks with CDX IG trading north of 50 basis points again. But European CLO triple Bs are looking strong while there is a stronger bid for two- to three-year paper in the US

Credit Rendezvous: And breathe...
The unanimous verdict is that credit spreads will be moving wider – they have to. But the difficulty credit fund managers face is predicting when the next sell-off comes and how sharp it will be. In the Q3 instalment of Creditflux’s Credit Rendezvous, the over-riding message from portfolio managers is that there’s little point in taking on too much risk. The report features the views of prominent credit figures including Paul Horvath (Orchard), Himani Trivedi (Nuveen), Ronnie Jaber (Onex), Graham Rainbow (Alcentra) and Michelle Russell-Dowe (Schroders). The report looks at 14 segments of the market including CLOs, direct lending, leveraged loans, distressed debt and credit derivatives.  

It's all relative: CDX HY touches record tights but junior US CLO tranches leak wider
Credit spreads are marching tighter, but someone forgot to tell the CLO market. European and US CDS spreads have moved in step with each other for the most part with investment grade and high yield tightening 4-6% in the last week, whereas CLOs have been losing ground