CDOs

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.

The Securities and Exchange Commissioner took to the podium in the convention center of the Aria Resort & Casino to express to attendees his admiration for the economic benefits of securitization – and his disagreement with the risk-retention regulatory regime that has enveloped it.

The sharp selloff in leveraged loans has created opportunity for some CLO managers, particularly those with deep pockets. Managers that can quickly acquire loans at a discount in the secondary market can still make money bundling them into collateral for bonds.

Moody’s Investors Service’s ranking of the top 10 managers of collateralized loan obligations at year-end 2015 was largely unchanged from mid-year, both in terms of deal count or AUM. But the biggest players collectively lost some market share to their mid-sized brethren.

Well, something has to. For proponents of modernization and greater efficiency in the syndicated loan, bond, swaps, and private placement markets, it’s well past time to put investors, banks, brokers and borrowers on the same technological page.

Crestline Denali Capital is preparing its first collateralized loan obligation offering since it was formed by the merger of two long-time CLO managers last fall.

The second European collateralized loan obligation of the year is the first ever by U.S. money manager BlackRock.

A last-ditch lawsuit to shield collateralized loan obligations from risk retention reaches oral argument phase on Friday.

CLO manager CreekSource has priced its latest offering at wider-than-average spreads as it targets primarily first-lien senior secured loans with better-than-average speculative-grade ratings quality.

Issuance of U.S. collateralized loan obligtions is off to a slow start, with just two deals pricing in January; a single European deal priced.

Add Southcross Energy Partners, Seventy Seven Energy, Verso Corp., and Paragon Offshore to the list of credits held by collateralized loan obligation that appear to be headed for default.

As investors continue to unload loans to risky companies, pushing prices into distressed territory, those still holding these investments are increasingly looking the other way.

Babson Capital is the first CLO manager to brave market volatility at the start of the year with a new deal.

CLO managers are increasingly looking to non-traditional loan facilities to finance the economic interest in the credit risk that they must hold in their deals under the impending U.S. risk retention rules.

Raising capital has been tough for community banks ever since the financial crisis, especially the smallest ones. But a few investment firms have developed structured products that offer community banks a chance to band together to raise needed Tier 1 capital at relatively low cost.

From refinancing the wall of maturing CMBS to getting CLO manager skin the game, these articles held your interest the longest.

Much of the industry’s efforts in 2015 were focused on avoiding compliance with the regulation, which takes effect in December 2016.