Leveraged loans

Money managers bargained away legal rights in exchange for higher returns in an ultra-low interest rate environment. Now they find themselves with precious little protection for their investments just as the pandemic is causing a wave of corporate bankruptcies across the country.

Money managers bargained away legal rights in exchange for higher returns in an ultra-low interest rate environment. Now they find themselves with precious little protection for their investments just as the pandemic is causing a wave of corporate bankruptcies across the country.

The ratings agency reported that the average percentage share of triple-C rated loans in CLO portfolios fell below 10% for the first time since March.

The quarterly numbers were boosted by $11.3 billion in new deals last month, the most active month for CLOs since April 2019.

Credit research analysts cite a "significant" drop in defaults since the 2Q and improving macroeconomic indicators.

Spreads and investor demand make conditions ripe for a surge in CLO deals before the election, but a strain on loan supply may complicate the picture.

Brigade Capital Management, Blackstone Group Inc., CIFC Asset Management and Bardin Hill Investment Partners are among the firms looking to change the terms of the CLOs they oversee to put them on better footing when companies they’ve lent to can’t meet their obligations. Collateral managers are often handcuffed in distressed situations due to strict checks on the risks they can take.

“The Fed has made it clear that they don’t want a liquidity problem in the Treasury market or the higher-grade corporate market,” Fuss said. “They cannot, unfortunately, underwrite lending in the private markets.”

Private equity firms are hitting the U.S. leveraged loan market at the fastest pace in years to fund shareholder payouts with about $8.6 billion of dividend recapitalization deals launched this month.

The prospective payout is so alluring to investors that they’ve placed three times as many orders as bonds and loans available for sale. That allowed Delta to boost the size of the deal from an original $6.5 billion, enough for the company to rule out the need for any federal aid.