The blazing start to the year comes on the back of what was the busiest year on record for the CLO market, with $245bn of paper sold in 2017 across new issue, reset and refinancing deals.
In the year to date, 93 deals have been priced in the US, totalling $48.2bn — $26.1bn excluding refis and resets. That compares with the $46.2bn sold in the same period last year.
Volumes in Europe are also tracking ahead of last year’s record issuance. So far, €7.9bn of paper has been sold, compared with €5.5bn during the same period last year.
So far this week, just one issuer has priced a new deal in the US market. Bain Capital Credit sold a $611.3m CLO via Citi on Monday, with the triple-A notes priced at a margin of 96bp over Libor. The deal has a two year non call period and five year reinvestment period.
PGIM is marketing a new $612m Dryden 64 CLO, which was announced on Friday, through Morgan Stanley. PGIM is following the same two year non call , five year reinvestment period as Bain.
In addition to the two new issues, two “call to roll” transactions have been in the market this week.
Palmer Square Loan Funding sold a $505.7m 2018-2 deal on Tuesday, with a static pool of assets. The deal has a 1.5 year non call period. The issuer redeemed a 2016-3 transaction last Friday. The triple-A rated ‘A-1’ class of the new deal was sold at 65bp over Libor.
Meanwhile, TICP CLO Management is rolling assets from a deal originally sold in 2014 into a new $496.88m structure. The deal, TICP CLO II-2, is a new vehicle that will be backed substantially by the redemption of TICP CLO II, which was originally sold in July 2014. The deal is being arranged by Citi. The bulk of the debt is in an ‘A-1’ tranche, rated triple-A by Moody’s, that has guidance of 80bp over Libor.