Equity performance remains one of the most closely watched measures of CLO manager performance, given its importance to a broad range of stakeholders. A manager that consistently delivers for equity investors may be better positioned to attract equity capital for future deals, which in turn can support continued issuance and the further growth of its CLO platform.
EU CLO exposure to Virgin Media term loans totals €1.71bn across 560 deals, averaging €3.06m per deal, or 0.76% of portfolio size.
US CLO new-issue volume reached $126.8bn across 271 deals in the first nine months of 2026, down 17.6% by volume and 15.0% by deal count compared with the same period in 2025. EU CLO issuance held up considerably better over the same period. New-issue volume remained broadly stable at €48.3bn across 114 deals, with volume down just 0.5% and deal count up 1.8% compared with the first nine months of 2025.
This study is based on a sample of 1,806 U.S. BSL CLO deals. Static deals are excluded from the analysis. Equity performance remains one of the most closely watched measures of CLO manager performance, given its importance to a broad range of stakeholders. A manager that consistently delivers for equity investors may be better positioned to attract equity capital for future deals, which in turn can support continued issuance and the further growth of its CLO platform.
We use the combined loan portfolios of five top-tier CLO deals* as a proxy for a new-issue CLO portfolio. The combined portfolio is rebalanced monthly, with loans priced below 92 excluded. On the liability side, the tightest deal-level par-weighted DM (WACC) among qualifying deals is identified each week, and the average of the three tightest weekly observations in each month is used as the monthly benchmark.
US CLO new-issue volume reached $126.8bn across 271 deals in the first nine months of 2026, down 17.6% by volume and 15.0% by deal count compared with the same period in 2025. EU CLO issuance held up considerably better over the same period. New-issue volume remained broadly stable at €48.3bn across 114 deals, with volume down just 0.5% and deal count up 1.8% compared with the first nine months of 2025.
