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CLO manager AUM rankings Q2 24 — Managers use resets to combat AUM attrition
Sam Robinson
•3 min read
Increasing amortisation rates and a growing number of redemptions threatened CLO manager AUM in Q2, but they fought back with new issuance, and attempted to safeguard against future attrition by resetting deals and extending reinvestment.
In the US, 37.6% of deals priced in Q2 were resets, compared to 27.4% in Q1. In Europe resets made up 21.6% of Q2 volumes, up from 15.2% in the previous quarter.
Source: 9fin data, Moody’s Analytics *AUM excludes deal with closing date after 30 June 2024
Blackstone Credit and Carlyle Group remain the two largest CLO managers by a considerable distance, and the margin between the two is now razor thin, with only $237.8m separating the two managers.
Blackstone closed two European and two US new issues in the quarter, while Carlyle favoured the US, closing three new US CLOs in Q2, and just one in Europe.
UBS AM (formerly CSAM) celebrated its name change with a move into third place. The CLO manager closed three deals in the quarter, all in the US.
PGIM now sits in fourth place, having closed one deal in the US in Q2. In Europe the manager has not priced a new issue CLO since Dryden 103 Euro CLO back in November 2022.
The US CLO market is far larger than its European counterpart so it is no surprise that Blackstone’s and Carlyle’s CLO businesses are weighted towards the US.
But CVC has a slightly different model with a more balanced breakdown of CLO AUM and it became the largest European CLO manager last quarter. Its issuance has been boosted having raised a global CLO equity fund raised last year.
This trend looks to set to continue — 9fin reported in May that the firm was in the market with its fourth CLO equity fund with a $700m target.
Attrition
As mentioned, amortisations and redemptions have had an impact on CLO AUM. Overall though, net issuance remained slightly positive in Q2. The US BSL CLO market grew from $918.5bn to $923.2bn, the middle-market CLO market went from $123bn to $124.7bn, and European CLOs grew from €229bn to €237bn.
9fin reported on 43 CLOs globally being liquidated via BWIC in Q2, a big pick up from the (already considerable) 29 lists in Q1. July payments are set to trigger another wave of CLO liquidations with 25 CLOs recording a July redemption date, according to data from 9fin and Moody’s Analytics.
Amortisation have significantly picked up in July. Recent research from Nomura notes that US CLO amortization rates have averaged 8% in July based on the 30% of deals that have reported, “driven by a large volume of deals post-RP and faster loan repayment rates,” with a shortage of investable assets also a contributing factor.
Deals that have just left reinvestment ended up reinvesting only a third of principal proceeds from loan paydowns, says Nomura, compared to a historical average of 60%.
This trend is expected to continue into October, with Nomura forecasting a slight dip in the amortisation rate to 7.5%.
