CLO funds make best of a bad situation
It can’t get any worse can it? Well, it did in 2022, when credit spreads kept moving wider. Still, CLO funds were able to withstand the pressure, and they outperformed other credit strategies

Credit Rendezvous: Make yourself comfortable, there’s a storm coming
In our Q1 outlook, we speak to Edwin Wilches, PGIM (US CLOs), Mikkel Sckerl and Flemming Dose, Capital Four (European CLOs),  Jim Fitzpatrick, CQS (US loans), Loic Prevot, Polus (European loans), Madelaine Jones, Oaktree (global high yield), Art Penn, Pennant Park (US direct lending), Mattis Poetter, Arcmont (European direct lending), Keerthi Raghavan, Waterfall (structured credit), Ray Costa, Benefit Street (distressed), Grant Webster, Ninety One (Emerging markets), Oumar Diallo, Aeon (real assets) for their views for the upcoming quarter. 

Fund performance: Wake us up when September ends
After a resurgent August, credit markets hit a rough patch in September, with every Creditflux index posting negative returns, and only 12.9% of funds in our listings showing a positive return.

Credit faces blind spot as borrowers enter higher default cycle: BNP Paribas
With short term rates outstripping nominal GDP growth, the credit cycle is entering its next and final stage – one in which corporate defaults will pick up but high quality borrowers should outperform

Credit PM pair seek galaxy of opportunities with long/short fund manager launch
Two experienced portfolio managers have set up a new venture to take advantage of volatile markets

Moving fast pays off for hedge funds
2020 was an up and down year in credit, and credit hedge fund managers had to move quickly to capture opportunities from the dislocations that inevitably opened up

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%. 

Compression trades grind into gear as spreads narrow
Compression between high yield and investment grade credit looks to be finally gaining traction in February, having been identified by some strategists at the start of the year as a key 2021 theme

Credit traders' kickstand: rolling with the pain, as relative value trades come unstuck
What a difference a month - and a pandemic - make. This time in February, no-one could have imagined a global financial crisis would be unfolding, that credit performance would be a battle between a virus and some of the biggest government and central bank interventions on record, that today's iTraxx Europe and CDX index rolls would traverse unprecedented ranges, that option expiry strikes would be blown beyond recognition, or that cash and CDS differentials would be whipsawing with such violence

GSO co-founder plans new credit business
GSO Capital Partners co-founder Tripp Smith is launching his own credit management firm, according to a report by Bloomberg

Kirkland brings in Bain lawyer as partner
Global law firm Kirkland & Ellis has added Bain Capital's in-house counsel Ranesh Ramanathan as corporate partner

Join the debate: most memorable moment in credit
At Creditflux we’ve now produced 200 monthly magazines since Fishknife first came up with the idea of tracking the global credit markets in 2001). We asked several key credit industry officials about their most memorable moment in credit

Carlyle poaches credit specialist from HPS in New York
Carlyle Group is continuing to pump resources into credit with the firm announcing that it has hired a head of credit opportunities based in New York

Senior distressed specialist leaves GSO after fund closure
Shortly after shutting down its distressed debt fund, GSO Capital Partners is understood to have parted company with a senior managing director and key figure in its distressed business