Basic Premium

2025 is on course to be another record-breaking year. This article explores some of the key ingredients behind strong primary issuance.

AIMCO 1 was priced with a closing date of April 8, 2021, and a reinvestment end date of April 20, 2026. Its original AAA tranche priced at 125.161 bps over SOFR (equivalent to 99 bps over LIBOR). With this reset, the WAL of the original AAA would be reduced to 4.5 years, compared with the originally modeled WAL of about 6.4 years.

While the headline levels may appear tight, the tranche offers strong value to AAA investors...

Last week, Palmer Square European Loan Funding 2025-3, a static deal, priced its AAA tranche at 93 DM with a WAL of around 1.9 years. On Monday, a relatively broad list of seasoned AAA tranches changed hands; a selected set of benchmark levels, albeit in small notionals, is shown in the table below. CARPK 2021-1X A1 could likely have cleared at a slightly wider DM had it been a par or above-par bond.

A sample of 1,661 US BSL CLO deals (vintage 2013–2024) is included in this study. Deals with a collateral pool factor below 55% are excluded.

Below are tables presenting the MVOC (AAA-B) and EQ NAV of US BSL CLO deals by vintage, based on asset prices as of 12 September 2025.

A number of AA tranches traded via BWIC last week, with covered DMs ranging from 155 bps to as wide as 191 bps. As shown in the table below, to enable a like-for-like comparison...

The reset of OCPE CLO 2023-7 for Onex Credit Partners, priced by Citi, came through impressively with its AAA tranche at 130 bps. This reset was accretive, extending the deal’s reinvestment end date from April 2028 to October 2030 and lowering its cost of funding from 218.7 bps to 195.5 bps.

As of 11 September 2025, the latest arbitrage metric for non-short-dated US CLOs stood at approximately 204 bps — a marginal improvement from the sub-200 levels observed in late July and early August.

The reset of Sycamore Tree CLO 2023-4 saw its AAA tranche priced at 133 bps, a competitive level relative to...

On 9 September 2025, the secondary market saw a relatively long list of US BSL CLO BB tranches on BWIC, spanning a wide range of MVOCs and reinvestment end-dates.

Notably, it is the only 2020-vintage deal with a BB MVOC below par, or a clean BB NAV of around 80%, which helps explain why the BB tranche cleared at such a deep discount.

Yesterday saw a fairly long list of EU CLO single-B tranches on BWIC, providing useful colour on the single-B secondary market, albeit largely in odd-lot sizes. Single-B tranches are also regarded as alternatives to CLO equity, given their expected low-teen returns and potentially lower risk profile owing to their second-loss position.

Below are tables presenting the MVOC (AAA-B) and EQ NAV of EU CLO deals by vintage, based on asset prices as of 5 September 2025.

A sample of 532 EU CLO deals (vintage 2013–2024) is included in this study. Deals with a collateral pool factor below 60% are excluded.