CLOs

An article in The Atlantic warning that collateralized loan obligations will be banks’ next downfall overestimates the risk of these securities.

Restricted from taking on distressed debt or debtor-in-possession loans, CLO managers are being left out of opportunities in coronavirus-related debt restructurings. "It's frustrating," says one manager. "We are supposed to be the bully, not the one being pushed around.”

Longstanding CLO manager Western Asset Management just priced its first deal of 2020, and despite the transaction's much more conservative structure, spreads doubled from its deal a year earlier.

The breakdown, described by people with knowledge of the relationship, is among the many scuffles emerging on Wall Street as the coronavirus pandemic pits distressed companies and their owners against lenders.

Four transactions from three managers, Alcentra, Barings and Bardin Hill, showed a breach of one or more of their so-called over-collateralization tests based on May filings.

Bain joins firms like Blackstone Group Inc., Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Carlyle Group Inc. in looking to capitalize on potential opportunities created by the coronavirus pandemic that has hammered businesses.

Leveraged loans and collateralized loan obligations do not represent an "existential" threat to the global economy or to the U.S. banking system, as some recent highly charged reports have suggested.

There are any number of reasons to fret about America’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis. A repeat financial collapse at the hands of a structured product with a similar sounding acronym isn’t one of them.

The subprime mortgage meltdown turned Pacific Investment Management Co. off the CLO business for a decade. Now the coronavirus crisis is luring it back.

The firm will offload parts of its business including its business development company, Garrison Capital Inc., and other credit vehicles.

Fitch Ratings is evaluating all 59 middle-market collateralized loan obligations it rates for potential downgrades, over concerns of the ability of small-business borrowers to support loan payments under COVID-19 stresses.

Credit deterioration is slowing in broadly syndicated CLOs – but a large percentage of deals are still failing certain performance tests under the weight of underlying asset downgrades and lower payment flows from obligors.

“Since April, the decline in corporate credit has resulted in a significant number of downgrades among the assets underlying some CLOs,” a Moody’s press release stated on Wednesday.

Shut out from many coronavirus relief programs, private equity companies have found a back door at HHS, where they have borrowed at least $1.5 billion.

Business development companies (BDCs) were trending ever healthier prior to the pandemic, but if the economy remains in the deep doldrums it may ultimately be their affiliated asset-management companies that investors should look to for assurance.

A New York judge last week dismissed a claim that a leveraged loan JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other Wall Street banks sold in 2014 could be considered a security and, as such, be subject to the same disclosure requirements as stock and bond offerings.

In a report issued Tuesday, the ratings agency notes that 1,287 companies as of April 28 faced prospects of potential debt and issuer downgrades, impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and a virtual shutdown of the global economy this spring.

4L Holdings Corp. is seeking a cash infusion that would help it outlast the economic pain the coronavirus outbreak has had on its business. That’s sparking the ire of CLO managers who could see their stakes in the firm wiped away.

Unlike public equities and even high-yield bonds, funds focused on CLO equity show little evidence of rebounding anytime soon from steep losses in total value.

Business development companies, the most visible pocket of the $800 billion private credit market, face more dividend cuts and possibly even restructurings later this year after the Covid-19 pandemic has bruised their portfolios.