CDOs/CLOs

Jeremy Ghose, a veteran London-based CLO manager, is unsure the launch of five new Euro-denominated collateralized loan obligations in March is a sign the market is staged for a surge in 2016 – even though one of the new issues was by his own firm.

With the pricing of five new deals since mid-March, the European collateralized loan obligation market has broken out from a slow start in 2016 to put itself on pace to match, or exceed, 2015 new-issue volume levels.

The Los Angeles-based manager, a unit of Canyon Capital Advisors, is issuing its first CLO in nearly a year through Canyon CLO 2016-1. The transaction is a follow-up to the $400 million Canyon Capital CLO 2015-1 issuance in April 2015.

3i Debt Management priced a €400 million European collateralized loan obligation, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Buyers of broadly syndicated corporate loans currently have an incentive to drag their feet closing trades; they will soon pay a hefty price if they don’t do their part. The reform should help lenders get assets off their books faster.

European CLO manager CVC Credit Partners is preparing its first broadly syndicated loan portfolio of 2016 that will issue €400 million (US$447.3 million) in euro-denominated bonds.

LCM Asset Management, American Capital and Telos Asset Management added three collateralized loan obligations totaling nearly $1 billion to the new issue pipeline Friday, according to rating agency reports.

Octagon Investment Partners’ new CLO is its first leveraged loan collateralization since September, as well as its debut portfolio being acquired last November by global insurance asset firm Conning.

Despite months of concerns over the credit standing for troubled Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the specialty pharmaceutical company remains the single-largest obligor in collateralized loan obligation holdings.

U.S. CLO issuance remained muted in February, with just five deals pricing totaling $2.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters LPC. However that was an increase from the $826 million from two deals posted in January.