Refi deluge casts shadow on b-wics

Still plenty more fish in the triple C

The growing role of data in CLO management
The complexity of managing a CLO has made it as much an art as a science, but new technologies are sweeping into the market, according to speakers on a Virtus roundtable discussion.

An alternative way of looking at CLO overlap
Analysing CLO collateral to look for overlap is critical for any CLO investor, but it is normally done either within a portfolio of CLOs or by bilaterally comparing two managers. In one of its latest research pieces, Moody’s Analytics has taken a different approach

2020 CLOs find redemption is sweet
The believers have been vindicated with 2020 CLOs among the best-performing of all time by IRR. Even those that have been reset have been a success with par flushes making for huge equity distributions.

CLO wormhole opens as deal pricing blurs
The CLO prints you see today might have happened a month ago. No, we’re not travelling back in time. Instead, a trend toward locking in senior notes a month early is skewing market pricing

Coronavirus tiers up old ranking script
Forget everything you thought you knew about CLO manager tiers. Apollo and Blackstone are mainstays, but smaller, more nimble issuers are finding new ways to stand out from the crowd

Lighten up, these are due an upgrade
CLO triple C buckets were overflowing last year, but the average exposure is now 7.3%. That is still close to trigger levels, but CLO managers are relaxed, as further loan upgrades are on the horizon

Woah, we’re halfway there
Judging by the 2020 vintage, European CLO overlap is 50%. But varied approaches to holding bonds and the many loans managers turn down mean there are ways for issuers to outperform

CLOs come up smelling of roses
The coronavirus crisis could have cut back 10 years of CLO market progress, but investors’ foresight, trading chops and flexibility meant many saw their strategies blossom during 2020  

CLOs wheel and deal as overlap increases
2020 CLOs are a different breed to any other vintage. But this cohort features an overlap of almost 40% as CLO issuers have been forced to focus almost entirely on secondary market loans

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

Answering the “what if?” question
CLOs can be complex, and efficiently calculating trading scenarios even more complex. But new tools are available to help managers quickly model hypothetical scenarios

Waiting for afters
Day one arb remains important, but last year there were opportunities aplenty in the secondary market, which put the onus on printing CLOs and waiting for the day after non-call periods expired

At least 2020 wasn’t dreadful for CLOs
Last year’s downturn was another in which CLOs survived and in many cases thrived as active management and Libor floors helped managers deliver 13%-plus returns to equity

CLO issuers flex their bond muscles
Some panellists at Creditflux’s US CLO Investor Summit pointed to structural difficulties, but the consensus was that flexibility — particularly the ability to buy bonds — could improve performance

We were battered in 2020 — but we weren’t beaten
The CLO industry has survived a year blighted by covid-19. We talk to portfolio managers about the strengths of CLOs and preparations for what was expected to be a ‘cataclysmic’ recession

All’s well that ends well in 2020 OC tests
Swathes of CLOs failed over-collateralisation tests last year, but unlike the drawn-out recovery following the 2008 financial crisis, the return to compliance after the covid-19 crash was rapid 

Chin up – it’s been a pretty good effort
CLO managers did well to survive the covid-19 crash in loan valuations — but they failed to fully capitalise on the ensuing volatility, say participants in the Creditflux CLO Census 2020

Elements work against CLO managers in Q3
CLO equity distributions fell in Q3 largely due to factors, such as Libor mismatches, that CLO managers can’t control. But these headwinds could turn in favour of managers in the near future

Relative value plays swell secondary
The secondary CLO market has been revived this year as volumes shatter 2019 totals. Investors are finding that secondary values outweighs that in primary, with the added bonus of full portfolio disclosure

It’s been a while — how’s tricks?

New firms are rocking all over the world
Rockford Tower and other small global CLO issuers are showing that you don’t need decades of experience to be successful. It can be better to change the tune rather than repeat the classics

Managers weigh up matters of principal
CLO managers that were able to avoid OC traps made double-digit equity distributions in Q2, despite the headwinds. But these firms tended not to be among those that built the most par

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