2017 has been the year for debut managers in the CLO space. Despite the initial fears surrounding the impact of risk retention, we are not only seeing previously inactive managers re-emerge but new players entering the market. These new entrants range from insurance companies to hedge funds who are bringing fresh strategies and impetus to the product. We were delighted to bring King Street Capital Management's Rockford Tower platform to market earlier this year and then to have Rockford Tower 2017-2 price so well just four months after their debut deal.
There is one debutant in particular who has been turning heads this year with CBAM entering the market in June then pricing two US$1 billion+ deals within 53 days of each other. As if more evidence was needed as to how important a player CBAM was going to be, CBAM 2017-3 priced on Friday 8 September being worth over US$1.3 billion meaning CBAM has priced deals with a value of over US$4billion within a little more than three months - many congratulations to the CBAM team!
All signs continue to point to a bumper year for our CLO managers and we expect that 2017 will welcome a few more debutants before year end.
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