Washington D.C.-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group announced the close of its tenth U.S. loan fund, Carlyle High Yield Partners X, Ltd, a $400 million CLO. Carlyle's U.S. leveraged finance group has closed three CLOs with a total of $1.2 billion of assets, over the last year. Its newest fund utilizes a traditional CLO structure including triple-A through double-B rated
liabilities. JPMorgan Securities arranged the transaction.
Carlyle now manages $9.5 billion in leverage finance assets. Its U.S. leveraged finance team manages seven CLOs and one credit opportunity fund, while its leveraged finance team in Europe manages four CLOs and one credit opportunity fund.
Charlotte, N.C.-based investment management firm Babson Capital Management also closed a new CLO last week. The firm's $750 million CLO, Babson CLO Ltd. 2007-I, is made up of at least 95% of broadly syndicated senior secured bank loans.
The weighted average cost of the debt for the transaction was Libor plus 39 basis points, with the triple-B and double-B tranches priced at Libor plus 125 basis points and Libor plus 325 basis points, respectively.
Babson CLO Ltd. 2007-I is the sixth CLO that the firm has closed in the last two years. All were more than $500 million. The fund is backed by a pool of non-investment-grade corporate loans.
Citigroup arranged the transaction and buyers consisted of a wide range of U.S. and non-U.S. institutional investors, the company said in a release. Babson Capital's U.S. bank loan team currently has over $10 billion in loan assets under management.
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