CLOs

In his annual letter to CEOs in January, he stressed the need for companies to respond to racial injustice, economic inequality and environmental degradation -- all issues traditionally left to government.

Both agencies cited the increasingly sunny economic outlook driven by the reach of COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Demand is booming this year for securitized debt, as sales have not only recovered following last year’s Covid-induced dip, but are even eclipsing the pace of previous strong years.

Strong growth, continued low-cost borrowing and an oil rally are all contributing to a friendly backdrop for high-yield issuance.

Managers expect to be holding portfolios of loans priced to potentially different benchmarks, which could present a major challenge in trading assets and re-calculating note coupons currently tied to the outgoing reference rate.

STWD 2021-FL2 is pricing a $1.27 billion managed commercial real estate commercial loan obligation that allows the issuer to reinvest principal proceeds.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of April 9-16

Fewer obligors with troubled loans improved default exposure for managers of broadly syndicated CLOs, and provided deeper cushions for overcollateralization tests.

United follows in the footsteps of recent deals by Michaels Cos. and Triton Water Holdings Inc. that favored loans over bonds.

The new venue, which is being tested by both banks, will ultimately be a central place for trading desks to see data for structured credit and other underlying collateral markets, the companies said in a statement Monday. They’re planning to launch within a year and hope the effort will lead to more participation in the market.

CoreLogic, known in the real estate industry for its home-price indexes, plans to sell a $4 billion offering to help finance its buyout by Stone Point Capital and Insight Capital.

Many of the biggest whales in collateralized loan obligations are returning to the $900 billion market after spending much of last year on the sidelines, a shift that could make one of Wall Street’s biggest credit machines run even hotter.

Bankruptcy courts saw a greater-than-average number of filings in the first quarter, though a year-on-year decline highlights the impact of cheap cash flowing to troubled borrowers.

For investment firms that profit by buying the debt of troubled companies, it looked like the opportunity of a lifetime: a $1 trillion pile of distressed bonds and loans in the Americas alone as the pandemic sent markets into meltdown last March.

The leveraged loan market has long been the favored financing source for private equity firms looking to juice returns on corporate takeovers and to reward themselves with payouts before selling their acquisitions.

Kovensky, whose departure from the posts is effective April 1, will stay on as a board member at the $17 billion credit management division of Onex Corp. Co-CEO Jason New will become head of credit as part of the transition, while Peter Zaltz will become chief investment officer.

Yellen announced she has revived a hedge fund working group so agencies can “share data, identify risks and work to strengthen our financial system."

A white paper released Monday by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee outlined how issuers could (and perhaps should) model new floating-rate transactions using a compounded version of the interbank overnight rate instead of Libor.

Sales have risen following a difficult 2020 as issuers seek to tap higher demand to offload the securities cheaply and cut costs on existing deals through refinancing and so-called reset transactions.

The 2021 deal tally is split between $37 billion in new-issue transactions along with $68 billion in refis/resets, according to S&P Global Ratings.