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.  

Deutsche Bank European CLO researcher joins Orchard as portfolio manager
Orchard Global Asset Management has hired from Deutsche Bank’s European ABS research team in a bid to grow its CLO investment business.

High yield fund sets pace with 22% return in January
Wasserstein Debt Opportunities Fund has set the early pace for credit hedge funds in 2021 after registering a 21.7% gain in January. This builds on the high yield fund’s success last year and takes 12-month returns to 40.44%. 

CLO pipeline: OFS to make comeback as 2020 absentees eye new issues
As liability spreads tighten day by day, the CLO pipeline is filling fast. 2020 absentees are joining the parade as four US managers and three European managers aim to return to the new issue market after taking a break of 12 months or longer

CLO funds top rankings, but still have ground to make up
CLOs may have taken a hammering in March but, for the fourth consecutive month, funds that invest in these assets dominate our ranking of the top performing credit funds

Don’t be a hero: managers opt to go market-neutral
There’s yet more volatility in store later this year — that’s the consensus according to credit portfolio managers that have spoken to Creditflux. What they are unsure about is the scale and direction of this movement, which is leading them to prune their portfolios with an emphasis on market-neutral tactics

Fund performance: Index tranche investors make it work from home
March brought a drastic drop in return figures as covid-19 swept across the globe, as Orchard tops the Creditflux performance tables

Correction: Orchard Liquid Credit Fund performance
In the May issue of the Creditflux magazine we incorrectly stated in our performance tables the year-to-date return for Orchard Liquid Credit Fund, which is up 10.66%

New Mexico pension allocates $235 million to credit
New Mexico Educational Retirement Board has allocated $235 million to three credit managers, a spokesperson for the pension has confirmed

Fund perfomance: Slowdown for some as pandemic takes hold

Global CLO b-wic round-up: equity, equity everywhere, but trading volumes sink
For the second week in a row, over $230 million of US CLO equity went on sale and multiple control equity positions were listed in the CLO secondary market

Orchard targets CLO investments in fruitful year of fundraising
Orchard Global Asset Management is in the process of fundraising for its first CLO focussed fund, according to market sources. The firm is targeting the global CLO market and looking across the capital stack.

Pension fund continues to pile into credit with $250 million mandates
Western US teachers' fund agrees to put $250 million into opportunistic credit strategies run by two of its existing investment managers