Ares flush with cash after raising €15 billion for European direct lending
Ares Management has raised one of the largest European direct lending funds on record and, with leverage, the fund expects to have a whopping €15 billion to deploy

CLO pipeline: go long! new issues and resets push refis aside
The CLO market is ready to go beyond refinancings - after this year's opening blitz of those deals - into the longer tenored territory of resets and new issues

Credit funds at a glance (April 2021)
A round-up of fundraising and people moves

Ares brings CLO's leverage down to less than five turns in $1 billion-plus reset
Ares Management has upsized its second largest CLO in a reset, bringing the deal to a par value of $1.19 billion - the seventh biggest CLO backed by broadly syndicated loans in the market

Four managers win lucrative $700 million credit mandate
A $39 billion pension has selected four managers for an opportunistic credit mandate and identified a further four ‘bench’ managers 

Ares shaves 20bp off triple As with European CLO partial refi
Ares Management has refinanced the triple A notes on its 2014 vintage European CLO, Ares European CLO VII

Ares affiliate re-emerges in mid market with first primary CLO for three years
Ivy Hill Asset Management, the direct lending affiliate of Ares Management, has priced its first CLO primary market transaction in almost three years, completing a $499.3 million new issue backed by loans to middle market companies

Allstate CLO takes on ESG guidelines following reset
Fair Oaks Capital has laid claim to the first instance of converting a US CLO into an ESG-compliant transaction courtesy of a reset following the reworking of Aimco 2017-A this week

Refis price on top of new issues as four managers print US CLOs
Four US CLO refinancings priced yesterday, giving the impression that CLO pricing is fitful and the term curve flat

Ares pledges charitable donations based on success of new $3.7 billion fund
Ares Management Corporation has held a final close on Ares Pathfinder Fund at its $3.7 billion hard cap - and portfolio managers will commit at least 10% of the fund’s caried interest profits to global health and education charities

CLO pipeline: busy year, so let's take time to reset
The US CLO market this year has been dominated by new issues and refinancings, but now is the time of the reset judging by this week’s pipeline

Ares joins group of tight US issuers with sixth tightest 2021 CLO
Ares Management became the eighth CLO manager of the year to issue a five-year deal with funding costs below 150bp on Tuesday by teaming up with Natixis on its latest issue named Ares LIX

Credit fundraising: ESG centre stage as capital pours into new strategies
Sustainability was the watchword for fundraising in February, amid a flurry of fund launches as well as first closes for impact funds and sustainable bond funds

European CLO repricings top €8 billion in 2021 as Ares and PGIM rework deals
Ares and PGIM printed two repricings of European CLOs  on Wednesday, taking year-to-date volume to €8.29 billion

Ares, Brigade and Redding Ridge issue CLO resets totalling $1.61 billion
$1.61 billion in CLO resets issued on Wednesday as new deals emerged from Ares Management, Brigade Capital Management and Redding Ridge Asset Management

Ares holds first close of junior direct lending fund as it eyes 'dozens more' $1 billion-plus funds
Ares outlined several credit fundraising initiatives in its fourth quarter earnings call - among which were a first close of its latest junior direct lending fund, upping the target for its credit special situations fund by over $1 billion, as well as new product launches including an evergreen alternative credit fund

LP round up: Dutch pensions put €1.3 billion into infra debt
Institutional investors allocated over $2 billion to credit funds in January. Opportunistic credit funds were a favourite but the biggest moves came in infrastructure debt

Goldman Sachs collects $4 billion for large cap direct lending
Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division has raised at least $4 billion for its fourth large cap-scale direct lending fund, Broad Street Loan Partners IV

LP round up: pensions plan private credit pacing as strategic credit takes on "midfield" role
US pensions have allocated $1.4 billion across 22 credit funds including those managed by Angelo Gordon, Ares and GoldenTree, according to recent board documents seen by Creditflux. Meanwhile a pension fund draws parallels between strategic credit and Jordan Henderson

HPS managing director joins Ares direct lending team in New York
Ares Management has added to its direct lending team in New York

Ares/Crestline CLO overlap jumps to 60% following Ares takeover, Fitch says
CLO acquirers have been busy converting purchased portfolios to their house-style, according to research by Fitch

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

OC health check: 41 CLOs heal their breaches
147 CLOs breached an over-collateralisation test in October, down from 183 in September. 41 CLOs that breached an OC test in September passed all OC tests in October, most of which had October payment dates

Ares rides vaccine rally to price tightest three-year US CLO
CLO primary spreads have tightened dramatically after Ares Management priced its first US new issue post-election, with weighted funding costs of just 167.38 basis points over Libor

CLO pipeline: New issuance pause ends as managers look to gain from rallying spreads
It is two and a half weeks since the last US CLO new issue priced, but that is set to change and Bridgepoint’s debut European transaction on Friday brought an end to Europe’s own two-and-a-half-week primary break