CLOs

SCI In Focus: Green shoots emerge for European leveraged loans

Narrowing valuation gaps could unshackle stifled M&A and LBO activity

A burst in new money supply is expected to rebalance the European leveraged loan market following a meager summer, according to Sculptor Capital.

European leveraged lending has seen a constrained new money pipeline so far this year, which has created an unstable equilibrium as demand from CLO buyers continues to ratchet up, but market sentiment is that this .......
News Analysis 16 September 2026
Fair Oaks prioritises quality as it stays active in CLOs

Defensiveness over yield as Fair Oaks prioritises structure and collateral quality

Fair Oaks Capital is maintaining a defensive tilt while continuing to deploy capital, with a focus on stronger structures and higher-quality collateral, Miguel Ramos, partner at the firm tells SCI.

In its tranche funds, the manager has remained active despite tighter spreads, favouring protection over incremental yield. “We do not think defensiveness and putting capital to .......
News Analysis 16 September 2026
Double-Bs lead secondary-market turnover

Poh-Heng Tan from CLO Research gives a five-year US CLO BWIC review.

Based on SCI’s BWIC data, US CLO BWIC activity over the past five years has seen meaningful shifts in both trading patterns and liquidity. Double-B tranches stand out for their high secondary-market turnover relative to their share of outstanding balances. BWIC execution has recovered steadily from the 2023–24 low, while fewer but larger trades have characterised the market more .......
News Analysis 14 September 2026
CLO managers navigate warehousing headwinds

Par burn and arbitrage compression test CLO warehousing

With the European loan market increasingly defined by stark bifurcation and extremely tight spreads, the economics and decision-making behind deal formation are becoming trickier.

Loan spreads are near the lowest levels post-GFC which, paired with higher interest rates has squeezed deal economics and made warehousing and ramping CLOs in Europe a far more difficult proposition.

According to .......
News Analysis 14 September 2026
Man Group launches US$150m captive CLO equity programme

New captive equity programme comes as firm shifts focus towa...

Man Group has closed its first captive CLO equity programme, securing up to US$150m of capacity to support the expansion of its US broadly syndicated loan CLO platform.

The programme has been established with majority backing from a strategic institutional provider of CLO capital, with Man Group also committing capital alongside the partner. The firm declined to comment .......
News 14 September 2026
King Street appoints Sculptor CLO executive as capital formation head

Lin joins the firm after almost four years at Sculptor, wher...

Michael Lin has been appointed as head of CLO capital formation at King Street Capital, based in New York.

It comes as King Street’s md, head of North America capital formation, Thorne Gregory Jr left the firm in August after five months. He was previously md at Marathon Asset Management for three years.

Lin joins from Sculptor .......
Market Moves 11 September 2026
Demand outstrips supply across European structured finance markets

Issuance is surging across loans, CLOs and ABS, while new st...

European structured finance markets are gathering pace, with issuance accelerating across multiple asset classes and investor demand increasingly outstripping supply, according to S&P Global.

At the ratings agency’s 2026 European Structured Finance conference held in London today, S&P says the leveraged loan market, which proved more sensitive to volatility than some other credit markets, has already shrugged .......
News 10 September 2026
CLO BWIC volumes rise week-on-week as Europe leads activity

Triple-A supply dominates while US flows remain softer and more dispersed

Secondary CLO BWIC activity picked up in the week from 4–10 September, with SCI market secondary database showing a clear increase in volumes and a continued skew towards senior paper, particularly in Europe.

SCI’s price dataset shows just over €1.6bn of paper bid or traded over the period, marking a notable step-up from the prior week once lists that .......
News Analysis 10 September 2026
Investor reallocation supports CLO demand amid preference for floating-rate credit

Allocators are rotating from fixed income and private credit...

CLO's are seeing sustained investor demand, as allocators shift away from traditional fixed income and private credit towards liquid, floating-rate structured products.

Gregory Borenstein, portfolio manager at Ellington Credit Company (NYSE: EARN) and managing director and head of corporate credit at Ellington Management Group, the investment management firm behind .......
News Analysis 9 September 2026
Servicing becomes key to managing securitisation complexity

Regulatory pressures, complex portfolios and new technology...

Servicing is becoming an increasingly important consideration for European securitisation investors as deal structures grow more complex, regulatory requirements increase and investors place greater emphasis on the resilience of the infrastructure supporting transactions, according to market participants.

Servicing activities for securitisations are playing an increasingly important role, and it is no surprise that there has been a gradual .......
News Analysis 8 September 2026
Middle market CLOs absorb private credit shocks

Private credit CLO market cools in 2026 as collateral cracks emerge

After a record year in 2025, the private credit CLO market has cooled with the primary market slowing down as it navigated a turbulent start to the year – although signs indicate H2 could see a relative uptick in issuance.

Last year, the US private credit CLO market set a new high-water mark, reaching US$40bn in new .......
News Analysis 7 September 2026
Mezzanine tranches punch above their weight

Poh-Heng Tan from CLO Research provides a five-year European CLO BWIC review.

Over the past five years, €76.1bn of European CLO paper was shown on BWICs, of which €47.7bn traded (source: SCI’s BWIC data), implying an overall hit rate of 62.7%. While AAAs accounted for the largest share of traded volume, they changed hands far less frequently relative to their weight in a typical CLO. Mezzanine tranches punched well above their .......
News Analysis 7 September 2026
Job swaps weekly: Alantra's SRT hire and Millennium's ABF push

People moves and key promotions in structured credit

This week's roundup of securitisation job swaps sees a Deutsche Bank veteran move to Alantra to lead the firm's SRT arranging activities, US hedge fund Millennium expand its ABF capabilities, and a flurry of reshuffling and promotions across the legal and ratings space.

In the legal space, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has appointed Mandeep Lotay as head of European structured .......
Market Moves 4 September 2026
CIFC targets consistent CLO pipeline despite equity demand slowing execution

Pipeline in place, but issuance increasingly dependent on ex...

CIFC Asset Management is maintaining a pipeline of European CLO transactions, consistent with a two-to-three deal new issue annual CLO target. However, deal execution is taking longer than in recent years due to equity investor caution and more challenging arbitrage conditions, according to the firm.

“Our business plan in Europe is to manage two or three new issue CLOs a year. .......
News Analysis 3 September 2026
Summer slowdown cools European structured credit

A quiet month for primary issuance, but active CLO and auto...

Amid the seasonal dip in securitisation market activity, today’s monthly fixings from the SCI Composite Index reveal a tightening – but increasingly bifurcated – market.

The European structured credit markets slowed over August, marked by a complete halt in primary issuance for RMBS and Consumer ABS, as well as reduced activity in the Auto ABS segment.

CLOs, being .......
News Analysis 1 September 2026
Job swaps weekly: NatWest and Moody's lead structured finance reshuffle

People moves and key promotions in structured credit

This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees NatWest reshaping its SRT business, with three staff understood to be leaving while the bank appoints a new head of its Securitised Products and Alternatives Syndicate team. Elsewhere, Moody’s and Fitch have made several senior structured finance appointments, while BBVA, ARC Ratings and DWS have strengthened their structured finance teams.

Market Moves 28 August 2026
Sona Aclai CLO underscores convergence of European BSL and private credit markets

Hybrid deal combines BSL and private credit collateral, alon...

The recent Sona Aclai CLO I issuance highlights the growing convergence between the European broadly syndicated loan (BSL) and private credit markets, while introducing a number of structural features that could point to further innovation in the European CLO market.

KBRA and S&P assigned ratings to six classes of notes issued by Sona Aclai CLO .......
News 28 August 2026

Yen volatility tests Japanese CLO appetite

Continued weakness in the Yen could interrupt domestic inves...

Volatility in the Japanese Yen could cause a short term decline in domestic allocation to triple-A CLOs, according to analysts, but long-term demand is expected to remain strong as floating rate products see renewed demand amid rate hikes.

The depreciation in the Yen, driven largely by the country’s prolonged low rates, has created a significant interest rate differential .......
News Analysis 27 August 2026
The next phase of European back leverage

Mark Drury, partner at Reed Smith on private credit CLOs, re...

Q: Are there any emerging trends or transaction structures that European CLO managers should be paying close attention to?

A: This remains the emergence of private credit CLOs (PCLOs).

Since late 2024, a number of European middle-market PCLOs have been launched and are now warehousing. However, unlike the more mature US middle market CLOs, the European PCLO market .......
The Structured Credit Interview 26 August 2026
Serta ruling holds valuable takeaways for CLO managers

New decision forces managers to account for pro-rata breach risks in future LMEs.

The latest ruling on the litigation over Serta Simmons’ bankruptcy proceedings has revealed a number of key takeaways for CLO managers navigating a new world of liability management exercise (LME) transactions, experts report.

Last month, the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a remand opinion ruling in the favour of the non-participating first lien lenders (NPLs) primed .......
News Analysis 25 August 2026

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