Commercial lending

Already contending with stressed retail, hotel and restaurant loans, bankers are beginning to view office lending — historically a safe bet — as increasingly risky as companies of all types rethink their space needs.

Ares Management is among five issuers to have sponsored CRE CLO transactions so far in 2021; Starwood REIT's collateral advisor has also launched a CDO for project finance and corporate infrastructure loans.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Feb. 19-25

Shared national credit balances rose 5% last year, and the percentage of at-risk loans nearly doubled. Regulators point out that banks have stashed away extra capital, but a lot will depend on the speed of the economic recovery and the performance of nonbank loans.

Companies most impacted by the economic crisis have seen their borrowings, including leveraged loans, considered “non-pass,” rise to 29.5% in last year’s third quarter from 13.5% in the same period a year earlier.

Just over 12 billion euros ($14.6 billion) of new issue, refi and reset paper has priced so far this year, surpassing a previous high of 7.3 billion euros in the first two months of 2018.

New York-based Briarcliffe will provide fundraising services to existing asset managers looking to raise as much as $1.5 billion

Firms are moving money into loans and notes that offer floating interest rates. Unlike the fixed payments on most conventional bonds, those on floating-rate debt go up as benchmark rates do, helping preserve their value.

Citigroup unexpectedly lost a legal battle to recover half a billion dollars it sent Revlon lenders, after the embarrassing blunder forced it to answer to regulators and tighten its internal controls.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Feb. 5-11