CLO Equity has gained recognition as an institutional investment strategy in recent years. And with good reason. CLO Equity is relatively uncorrelated to other core asset classes and offers the potential for high cash flow and attractive total returns. The drivers of CLO Equity returns, however, are more complex than meets the eye.
Conventional wisdom is that the best times to issue CLOs is when the arbitrage (“arb”), or net interest margin, is historically wide. Yet, our analysis, detailed in a recently issued white paper authored by my colleague Stephanie Walsh, suggests this sentiment might be misleading. Despite high initial equity arbitrage being a strong predictor of new CLO creation, it has actually shown a negative correlation with ultimate CLO equity performance.
So what are the drivers of CLO Equity performance?
To answer this question, it’s essential to look beyond just the arb. We find there are other key influences on CLO performance, such as asset prices, refinancing transactions, and manager expertise, among others.
1) CLOs issued during market downturns, such as in 2020 and 2022, exhibited significant upside, despite poor initial arbitrage, due to subsequent market rallies.
2) Moreover, the ability for CLOs to refinance liabilities after non-call periods added flexibility and, in many cases, substantially lowered debt costs, as seen in the refinancing wave of 2021.
3) Manager expertise also plays a crucial role. We’re privileged to have a 23+ year track record of managing, structuring, trading, and investing in CLOs. Through that experience, we’ve come to understand that credit expertise, loss avoidance, and trading acumen are often key components of CLO portfolio returns.
As with many aspects of investing, there is more than meets the eye when assessing the CLO space in our view. We believe one cannot simply look at one or two metrics to determine whether a CLO will perform better or worse relative to history or other CLOs. The arb, and its weak correlation to ultimate CLO equity returns, is a prime example of this. Rather, there are a multitude of factors driving CLO equity returns, some market driven, and others influenced by manager performance and deal structuring. We believe it is important for investors to understand all of these factors when evaluating CLOs and CLO managers.
Explore our full thoughts: https://lnkd.in/e48bEvWN