CLOs

Managers appear to be increasingly safeguarding portfolios from a potential downturn by dumping distressed assets.

The manager will have four years to actively buy and trade loan assets in THL Credit Lake Shore MM CLO II, compared to two in THL's debut deal from March.

The $435.5 million Crown Point CLO 8 is a broadly syndicated collateralized loan obligation that has a “significantly below average” WARF of 2678, indicating a portfolio with a greater share of safer leveraged loans than other CLOs.

Assured Guaranty will pay $160 million to buy out majority shareholder Affiliated Managers Group Inc. and the founders. The insurer will also invest an additional $590 million in the firm and its funds.

Newly promoted partner Timothy Milton is co-portfolio manager for the Vibrant CLO platform, while veteran portfolio manager Eduardo Cabral joins as managing director.

Moody’s said the Fed’s cuts – the first in a decade by the central bank – will boost real estate and consumer ABS collateral by helping lenders uphold underwriting standards and provide affordable debt options to borrowers.

The 14 deals priced the week of July 22 included 10-year deals that have bought 2019 volume to $73 billion, or just shy of the comparable $75 billion mark in 2018, which had record total volume of $129 billion.

CLO manager ZAIS Group acted as adviser on the transaction as part of its recent push into ESG and impact investing via the securitization markets.

The initial public offering of 1.2 million shares of Eagle Point Income Co. raised $23.1 million.

Peter Antoszyk and David Hillman, co-heads of Proskauer Rose LLP’s private credit restructuring group, think the dry powder that investors have access to will help ease restructurings.

The U.S collateralized loan obligation market largely bid farewell to its biggest buyer earlier this year. Now Japan’s Norinchukin Bank is back.

The global structured credit investment firm is pricing its first European deal since opening a London branch last year. It announced the hiring of its first UK-based analyst team Tuesday.

The concentration of loans and CLOs in a small number of banks "may result in pockets of vulnerability," the report stated.

The $354.9 million Battery Park CLO Ltd. is a broadly syndicated loan portfolio that is the first “CLO 2.0” deal sponsored by Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).

Revisions to S&P's CLO ratings methadology and Kroll's launch into rating European CLOs could challenge Moody's as the first choice for managers across the pond.

The move to an electronic platform may transform auctions to let investors offload holdings faster. The goal is to fix a part of the market that isn’t functioning as well as it could, says a Citi managing director.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says the agency is closely monitoring leveraged lending risks, but suggests further regulations on banks aren’t warranted.

Most regulators are careful to say a repeat of 2008 is unlikely because investors, rather than the banks they oversee, hold most of the debt.

A Moody's report highlights the regional CLO market differences becoming more crucial to global investors who analysts say want to better discern variances in each market's standards and performance.

The U.S. economy is on solid footing except for one potential trouble spot, according to Bank of America Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan: leveraged loans -- a business the bank has dominated for a decade.