Ares holds €6.97 billion first close on European direct lending fund
Ares Management Group has collected $12 billion in gross credit commitments over the third quarter of the year, according to the firm’s earnings presentation, including $8.2 billion for the first closing of its fifth European direct lending fund

LP round up: EIF backs four debt funds while Carlyle wins $1 billion
Institutional investors have allocated just over $4 billion to 27 credit managers in October board meetings

Ares prices third new US CLO since April
Ares Management printed its third US CLO post-covid yesterday, bringing its new issue volume amid the pandemic to $1.39 billion

Former Ares partners put ESG and tech at centre of new CLO business
Three former Ares Management partners have established a CLO business with plans to launch a first US CLO early next year

Euro CLO round-up: fluctuating spreads give mixed signals
Last week was one of the European CLO market’s busiest since the coronavirus crisis began, as four managers brought new deals to market – adding €1.35 billion

Global CLO b-wic round-up: CLO mezz tranches widen amid macro concerns
Last week was busy for the primary European CLO market but not for secondary, with €1.35 billion of new issue European CLOs priced across four transactions but just €190 million of European CLO paper listed in b-wics

CLO pipeline: three behemoths prepare for quick-turnaround new issues
CLO managers have printed at a frenetic pace since the start of the quarter with $3.36 billion of issuance across all CLO markets and pricing types

Credit fundraising: managers build homes for real estate credit funds
The “largest ever real estate credit fund” was one of the fundraising highlights last month as Blackstone’s Real Estate Debt Strategies IV fund reached $8 billion on its final close

Hayfin partner lands at Ares in London
Ares Management has appointed a former Hayfin official as managing director in the firm’s credit group, focused on alternative credit investments

Price talk emerges for Ares European CLO
Price talk for Ares' latest Eurpopean CLO has emerged with triple As guided around Euribor plus 110 basis points, in line with deals priced by Barings, CVC and Redding Ridge

Four US CLO refis highlight diverging manager strategies
Four US CLO managers - Ares Management, GSO Capital Partners, Marathon Asset Management and Voya Alternative Asset Management - have each refinanced fixed-rate CLO tranches, with the four deals totalling $69 million in paper. But new strategies are beginning to emerge

Ares markets first European CLO of 2020
Ares Management is set to price its first European CLO of 2020 later this month, after an 11-month hiatus from the market

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

LP round up: $5 billion flows to credit as private market allocations increase
Global institutional investors allocated nearly $5 billion to credit funds this week, according to documents seen by Creditflux

Fracking servicer FTS files for chapter 11 protection
Fracking servicer FTS International filed for chapter 11 protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston yesterday. The credit is not widely featured in CLOs with only nine managers holding $47.9 million of FTI’s term loans

Ares prices second tightest CLO post-covid with 180.5bp funding costs
Ares Management has priced its second US CLO amid the coronavirus pandemic, securing the second tightest funding costs for a three-year reinvestment deal since the March sell off

Ares pulls in at least €6 billion for European direct lending
Ares Management is well on track for raising its largest European direct lending fund

Ares adds to European direct lending team
Ares Management has hired a London-based vice president to its European direct lending team

LP round up: managers keep fundraising hopes high as GSO targets $7.5 billion for mezz offering
Institutional investors allocated $1.6 billion into credit this week, according to documents seen by Creditflux

Global CLO b-wic round-up: spreads widen in short week to end manic June
A shortened week brought an end to a manic month of secondary CLO activity. $343.5 million of US CLO and €309 million of European CLO paper was on sale last week, dropping $1.05 billion and €170 million from the previous week

Trading places: it can pay to bet on the little guy
It’s assumed investors know how good a CLO manager is by the rate at which they trade their way through a crisis. But this time fi ve small, nimble managers are outperforming the market

Loan slump brings managers closer
A 19% slide in new US loan volumes last year has left CLO managers with fewer options in the primary market, and portfolio overlap between US managers has increased to 35.3% on average

Loan slump brings managers closer

Four managers join forces on gigantic £1.9 billion unitranche
The supersized transaction to Ardonagh Group, led by Ares, is the largest ever unitranche facility