CDOs

In the past week, five new-issue collateralized loan obligations have been launched and/or priced by U.S. managers, after just one deal was arranged in the first two weeks of the year. The latest deals were placed by THL Credit Advisors, Sound Point Capital Partners, CIFC Management, Apex Credit Partners and Octagon Credit Investors.

Intermediate Capital Managers broke the ice on new CLO deals in Europe this week as it priced a new €400 million portfolio of broadly syndicated loans and high-yield bonds.

The U.S. CLO market is experiencing another rash of refinancings, defying expectations for a slow start to the year.

Blackstone/GSO is refinancing a European CLO originally issued in 2014, the €400 million Phoenix Park CLO D.A.C., according to Fitch Ratings.

A combination of loosened covenants, minimal call protections and aggressive, U.S.-style “dry powder” leveraging strategies have produced the most sponsor-friendly market for European leveraged loans since the financial crisis, according to a new report from U.S.-based Covenant Review.

Marble Point Credit Management of Greenwich, Conn. has acquired the CLO platform of American Capital Credit Management.

Institutional refinancing in the fourth quarter, and continued high investor demand, drove a 12% surge in year-over-year U.S. leveraged lending in 2016 to $875 billion.

Issuance of U.S. collateralized loan obligations is likely to get off to a slow start in 2017.

Moody’s Investors Service has confirmed or downgraded the structured finance ratings on 16 “combo” note CLO tranches this month.

Last week the European arm of Pinebridge Investments refinanced the Euro-Galaxy III CLO, a collateralized loan obligation originally issued in 2013, to reprice the entire transaction, according to Standard & Poor's.

LCM is almost completely overhauling its $465.5 million LCM XIII portfolio in ways beyond just extending its reinvestment period so as to preserve an exemption from forthcoming U.S. risk-retention rules.

A whopping 15 U.S. CLO deals priced in the first week of December, pushing issuance levels above 2015 activity as managers push to complete collateralized loan transactions before the onset of risk-retention requirements.

Many CLO managers would welcome a repeal of the soon-to-be enforced risk-retention requirement on deals. But while he sees 5% as slight "overkill," Crestline Denali Capital executive John Thacker sees merit in having skin in the game with investors.

MidCap Financial Services is marketing $251.7 million securitization of loans to life sciences and real estate companies.

Much like President-elect Donald Trump himself, expected Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin represents something of a question mark for the financial services industry when it comes to his agenda

The November rush of new and refinanced collateralized loan obligations deals has quickly closed the gap on this year’s lagging levels of transaction volume compared to 2015.

Warning signs are growing in structured finance for 2017.

Banking industry lobbyists and representatives are practically salivating over the election results, convinced that Republican control of the White House and Congress will finally give them the opportunity to roll back key parts of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Donald Trump’s victory drew inevitable comparisons to Britain’s vote to exit the European Union in June, but so far the election results have failed to produce the kind of volatility seen in June – much less the extreme moves in financial markets experienced in January

Structured credit firm ZAIS Group has hired two new executives to spearhead its collateralized loans obligation and other asset-backed businesses out of London.