Sean Hendelman

Equity Distributions with High Cash Flow CLO Equity is having another stellar year. Reported IRRs for CLO Equity: ~15% YTD for many of the top CLO managers. CLOs start with a warehouse line allowing CLO managers to accumulate/ramp their BSL portfolio of performing & highly diversified loans (~200 BSLs when CLO is priced). The most favorable CLO warehouse lines have non-marked-to-market facilities with roughly 4x leverage. Bank facilities provided with favorable terms are about SOFR 125 to 150bp range. During the warehouse ramp, equity seeks to earn 20-30% IRR, but this can vary widely, however it’s for a short period (~3 – 6 months), so the MOIC is low as it’s just a component that drives the overall CLO equity return. The BSL market is performing well. I expect the credit markets to perform well in this environment with default rates for BSL declining in the coming year, which should prove positive for CLOs debt and equity. AAA CLO tranches represent about 60% of the CLO cap stack and AAA’s have tightened to ~ 130 from its wide earlier this year of S 150. The CLO equity arb is driven by the difference between the rate earned on the BSL portfolio vs. the liability costs (and admin costs). Holding all things constant, tighter liability costs are accretive for CLO equity investors. Credit selection and asset management is critical to performance as the best CLO managers employ dedicated teams of investment professional’s expert in loan underwriting, building, and managing highly diversified CLO portfolios. Strong credit profile is key to maintain low default rates, and its best to avoid CCCs, as mitigating risk is critical to performance. CLO equity also benefits from reinvestment during the investment period, active management that can add alpha via relative value, and repricing/extensions of CLO liabilities later in the CLO life span. CLO equity holders earn strong current cash distributions for well performing deals, with the potential to earn mid-teens IRRs, strong DPI and MOICs. The added kick is when the CLO manager shares a portion (10-20%) of its management fees they earn from managing the CLO (~40 bps) with the CLO equity investors. This fee sharing arrangement was first introduced post-GFC when CLO managers raised CLO equity funds required under risk-retention requirements as The Volcker Rule was introduced. Since the Volker rule no longer applies to U.S. CLOs, fee sharing arrangements are less prevalent today, but available from select managers. For these reasons and more, I am a proponent of CLO Equity and believe there is a place within in broader portfolio to hold these high yielding assets. Big shout out to Marathon Asset Management's CLO team who just closed Bryant Park 2024-24, a $405M CLO yesterday, bringing Marathon’s CLO capital market transactions to $2.4B YTD.

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