CLO analyst roles?

Hi guys:

I was just wondering if someone could shed some light on what an CLO analyst for a fund would be doing please? It seems similar to high yield credit analyst role, with more names to monitor, and can be a bit less active, would this understanding be correct? Given the current regulatory environment, it seems that they are cutting down due to more restrictions?

Thank you!

7 Comments
 

Depends. You need to distinguish between investing in CLOs vs investing for a CLO.

Are they managing the structure? or are they buying CLO equity & mezz paper from other managers?

Assuming they are managing the structure - its basically credit Asset Management with 10-12x leverage. Its very similar to high yield, but managing lower yielding & safer paper.

CLO market is very active currently and a lot of people are hiring for these jobs. The regulatory overhang is pushing people to launch a lot of deals ASAP. Because CLOs are basically levered CEFs, they have permanent capital for about 8yrs and offer relatively good job security regardless of market inflows/outflows.

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Cries

Depends. You need to distinguish between investing in CLOs vs investing for a CLO.

Are they managing the structure? or are they buying CLO equity & mezz paper from other managers?

Assuming they are managing the structure - its basically credit Asset Management with 10-12x leverage. Its very similar to high yield, but managing lower yielding & safer paper.

CLO market is very active currently and a lot of people are hiring for these jobs. The regulatory overhang is pushing people to launch a lot of deals ASAP. Because CLOs are basically levered CEFs, they have permanent capital for about 8yrs and offer relatively good job security regardless of market inflows/outflows.

Second this. I'd also observe that most CLO managers either are, or have ambitions to be, diversified credit managers-many of the biggest CLO issuers are affiliated with PE/hedge funds like KKR/GSO or large Asset Management platforms like Babson, ING, Invesco etc. Also most of the smaller/independent managers have some other type of credit product-distressed funds, credit opportunity funds, etc.

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They have some deals under their belt, though performance isn't the best and would probably rate them as a middle tier manager. In my view the stronger euro CLO teams are the likes of Harvest/Investcorp, Carlyle Euro, GSO Euro, etc.

 

I don't really think of them as a meaningful player but I could be wrong (Euro not my strong suit). I think I just read that GLG was doing their first post-crisis CLO. They've also bought several credit managers with CLO platforms (Silvermine and one other I'm blanking on) but I don't recall either of them having European deals and I don't know how they are/will be integrated w overall Man/GLG.

One thing I would observe is that funds have a history of going on adventures in CLO management only to wind-down/exit the business. Lots of managers printed a few deals pre-crisis only to get bored/sell the business/etc when issuance slowed-remember that CLOs, unlike many types of funds, effectively can't be raised during times of crisis. Also, CLO management is a great compliment to a credit business and very scale-able but requires critical mass to support a lot of the compliance, reporting, volume of credit underwriting, etc needed.

For that reason I would tread lightly at the idea of joining a small CLO group at this point in the cycle unless it's integrated with a broader HY team.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

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