He will be responsible for building out non-investment grade assets under management, including expanding Macquarie’s current US high yield and loans long-only business. The remit could also include US CLOs, global HY and, in the longer run, even European high yield, European CLOs and distressed, said one source.

At AB, Bommi headed the firm’s European/UK fixed income, European income, Euro high yield, Euro credit, financial credit and global credit teams. He is understood to have left the firm in September. AB itself became a recent debut European CLO manager: when AB merged with CarVal, the firm geared up to launch European CLOs under the CarVal umbrella (led by Malin Hedman), pricing its debut deal last week.

Bommi is no stranger to managing CLOs. 

Before joining AB in 2021, he was head of European non-investment grade credit at Neuberger Berman, leading the teams managing European high yield, loans, CLOs and global high yield strategies. He launched the firm’s inaugural CLO and also helped raise the fund’s risk retention vehicle. Before that, he worked in leveraged finance at Carlyle Group and Bank of America.

Macquarie is also familiar with the CLO asset class. It invests in US loans and high yield and in CLO tranches. Macquarie also has previous when it comes to CLO management. 

Four Corners Capital Management, founded in 2001 as a non-investment grade debt and structured product asset management firm, was joint venture between Macquarie Bank (2/3) and management (1/3), and subsequently bought by Macquarie in 2008.

Adam Brown, managing director and senior portfolio manager, who runs Macquarie’s loan strategy, was a co-portfolio manager on several Four Corners CLOs. (Brown joined Macquarie AM in April 2011 as part of the firm’s integration of Macquarie Four Corners Capital Management, where he had worked since 2002. John McCarthy, managing director, is the other senior portfolio manager on Macquaries bank’s loan strategy.)

Macquarie/Four Corners, however, did not return to CLO management after the 2008 financial crisis. 

Macquarie has $179bn of fixed income assets under management, plus a further $2bn of fixed income assets managed for the multi-asset funds, as of 30 September.

Macquarie declined to comment.

US CLO manager base expands 

The US CLO manager base has expanded at a rapid pace this year with several firms debuting in in 2023. Other firms have added BSL CLOs to their middle-market CLO units. 

This includes Antares Capital and Blue Owl (previously mid-market CLO managers), Barrow Hanley Credit Management, Katayma Loan Management, MCCP Investment Partners, NorthWestern Mutual, Warwick Capital and Wellington Management.

9fin understands several other firms are gearing up to launch US CLOs. 

Marblegate Asset Management is understood to be looking to launch US CLOs, while Ellington Management is gearing up to launch ‘vanilla CLOs’ (having previously launched high triple-C deals that could allow up to 50% of the portfolio to be invested in triple-C rated debt).

Polus hired David Kim last year as its head of US leveraged credit to build out a US CLO platform, while Obra (formerly Vida Capital) hired former Sculptor US CLO head Peter Polanskyj as senior managing director and head of structured credit, and Polen Capital hired former Mizuho US CLO head Jim Stehli and later former Sound Point US CLO head Rick Richert.

Then this year, the former CBAM pairing of Don Young and Mike Damaso reunited to launch CLO firm Canal Road. Bloomberg reported in September last year that Eldridge founder Todd Boehly (who had sold CBAM to Carlyle) was contemplating another go at launching a CLO business.