"In some ways, CLOs resemble a quirky, cottage industry more than a trillion-dollar market"
CLO volumes outstanding have passed $1 trillion, but index omission and private placements are holding us back

Loan investors reap windfall from meme stock craze
The so called “meme stock” craze is having a tangible positive impact on certain companies’ loan prices

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.  

US loan managers capture secondary opportunities as new issues struggle
US loan managers switched gears by sourcing loans in the secondary market in the second quarter. This came as pricing in the primary market became less attractive in the early part of Q2 and with new loan issuance slowing in May and June

BofA and Citi unveil multi-dealer platform for CLOs and loans
Bank of America and Citi have joined forces with plans for a multi-dealer CLO and loan platform which will cover trading, data and analytics

Loan technical and supply glut keeps CLOs in check
CLO asset and liability spreads moved wider in March owing to unprec-edented volumes of issuance, despite investors rotating into floating-rate products amid rising treasury rates

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

The cost — a few basis points — is modest compared to the potency of bond buckets
If CLOs had bond buckets when Delta Air Lines issued debt, a manager could have bought the bond then rotated into the loan

[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

Questions will need answering about where a manager's fiduciary responsibility lies
A university lecturer gives Welshcake a shock with a CLO presentation that points to shady trading games

Academic highlights 1.0 CLO inflationary and cross-trading practices
CLO managers during and after the 2008 financial crisis used discretion in reporting the fair value of defaulted assets or loans downgraded to triple C, and may have inflated these fair values, according to a research presentation at Creditflux’s CLO Symposium in September

Methodology tweaks could prove a boost for CLO warfs
Moody’s proposed CLO methodology changes could impact 8% of US and European CLO tranches positively, the rating agency says

CLOs face trading restrictions as bankruptcies mount
CLO managers could be handcuffed in impending bankruptcies if tranche downgrades continue and restricted trading periods kick in

A different kind of crisis
Panellists on Creditflux’s US CLO webinar were positive about the robustness of CLO structures and the role of cure contributions. But they warned about zombie defaults and gaming tests

Beneath the triple C: April showers send buckets overboard
Downgrade waves rocked the CLO market in April as Moody's and Standard & Poor's downgraded 135 corporate borrowers to triple C or below, from ratings above that level. The downgrades put CLOs in rough waters as $41.6 billion of such loans are prevalent in US CLOs while €5.64 are moored in European CLO portfolios – affecting 5.92% of the US market and 4.37% of the European market

Who’s got the moves US: oil and gas leads renaissance for US CLO managers
The US leveraged loan market has held steady over the last two weeks. After rising to just below 87 of par in mid-April, the S&P LSTA US Leveraged Loan index closed at 85.75 to start this week

CLO market braces for another wave of loan downgrades
A wave of negative rating actions swept the leveraged loan and CLO market in April. “Companies will look to secure incremental capital which will lead to further rating pressure,” says Philip Raciti, portfolio manager and head of US performing credit at Bardin Hill Investment Partners

Who's got the moves US: Carlyle leads as $3.7 billion of CLO loans recover
CLOs were exposed to $833.4 million worth of paper in the 10 term loans that suffered the largest price falls last week. But CLOs also had exposure to $3.67 billion of loans that recovered the most over the seven days.

Loan market slump feeds into CLO pricing
The loan market opened this week 2-4 percentage points lower than last week, pushing it toward 90—a threshold it has not crossed since February 2016. CLOs have reacted to this rapid drop

CLO managers don’t always prioritise profits

CBOs aren’t fixated on interest rate moves

CLOs take advantage of valuations to cash out of Refinitiv
Refinitiv US Holdings was the most sold US issuer in July immediately following the announcement that the London Stock Exchange Group was to buy the firm.

CLO managers look to move away from ‘spiky’ triple Cs
CLO managers are in the process of de-risking their portfolios by rotating out of triple Cs into less risky credits following a volatile month in markets, according to multiple sources. Creditflux analysis shows that, for the past couple of years, managers have become emboldened with triple C and B3/B- loans making up 25% of the portfolios of 50 US CLO managers.

Rival manager’s warehouse contributes to new CIFC US CLO
CIFC Asset Management has had a productive year after pricing four new issue US CLOs but sources say that the manager’s latest deal, CIFC Funding 2019-IV, owes a lot to another CLO manager.

Doing CLOs is hard work as recovery lags
There’s scrutiny on staffing, structures and, of course, ‘the challenging arb’. But Q4 volatility created opportunity, which led speakers at the Creditflux CLO Symposium to ask for more