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Univision Remains the Most Held Name in CLOs

A sharp pick up in the issuance of CLOs this year hasn't resulted in much reshuffling in the ranks of credits held by these deals. In fact, there was no movement in the top five names between the first and second quarters.

Univision Communications retained its status as the most widely held credit in U.S. cash flow CLOs in the second quarter, according to a ranking released by Standard & Poor's. The Spanish language television network accounted for 1.15% of the corporate debt held by U.S. cash flow CLOs in the April-June period, up slightly from 1.12% in the January-March period.

In the second quarter, 463 CLO transactions had exposure to debt issued by the Univision.

Also consistent with last quarter, the second most widely held name was First Data Corp., which accounted for 1.12% of the overall debt issuance and was held by 461 CLOs

Likewise, hospital operators HCA Holdings and Community Health Systems and electric utility Energy Future Holdings Corp. held on to their third, fourth and fifth place spots, respectively.

In fact, Sabre Holdings Corp. was the only obligor that did not make the top 10 in the second quarter after holding the tenth position in the previous quarter; the technology company fell to the thirteenth place.

Nielsen Holdings N.V., which grabbed Sabre's tenth slot in the second quarter, was held in 424 deals transactions and accounted for 0.73% of the total corporate collateral held by U.S. CLOs.

Community Health Systems is again the most widely held name when it comes to CLO count for the second quarter: 488 U.S. CLOs had exposure to debt issed by the hospital operator., although that is three fewer than the 491 CLOs that held it in the first quarter.

The second quarter brought one change from previously observed trends. The CLO indutry's colletive exposure to its top 250 corporate issuers decreased slightly from the first quarter instead of continuing to steadily rise, as seen in the previous few quarters.

Specifically, the top 250 names comprised 65.72% of the total corporate debt during the second quarter, versus 65.83% in the first quarter. However, the top 10 names accounted for 9.4% of the overall collateral, up from 9.34%.

Overall, 235 obligors that were in the top 250 obligors in the first quarter are in the top 250 obligors in the second quarter as well.

On average, the top five names are held in 454 CLO transactions and account for 5.4% of all of the corporate debt held by U.S. CLOs.

In terms of rating and credit concentrations, S&P upgraded U.S. discount retailer Dollar General Corp. to 'BBB-' from 'BB+' in the second quarter, citing the firm's continued EBITDA growth, healthy sales, as well as stable debt levels. Dollar General, which was ranked 32, joined International Lease Finance Corp., Royalty Pharma, and the Seminole Tribe of Florida as the investment-grade rated obligors in the list of top 250 names that have CLO-held issuances. Dollar General, which is held in 248 deals, comprises 0.46% of the total corporate collateral, S&P said.

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