Freemium

Please refer to the table below for a list of CLO managers with global CLO collateral AUM of at least $2 billion, broken down by US BSL, US MM, and EU CLOs as of 30 June 2025.

The steady loan spread compression since early 2024 has been particularly negative to long-dated CLO equity, especially those issued in 2024 that remain in their non-call period. This feature benefits CLO debt investors, who are able to lock in wider spreads for longer, but comes at the expense of equity holders.

This week saw a list of seasoned EU CLO BBB bonds, all of which received covers well above par, with discount margins in a narrow range of 302–311 bps. This is despite their varying reinvestment end dates. Two bonds have passed their reinvestment period (RP) by over two years, one has just concluded its RP, and two have RPs ending in 2026.

Table 1 below provides the full list of 70 EU CLO managers overseeing a total of €268 billion (US$316 billion) in CLO collateral assets under management (as opposed to CLO liabilities) as of 30 June 2025, along with AUM trends since 31 December 2017. Since 31 December 2020, CVC Credit Partners, Palmer Square Capital Management, and RRAM have seen the most significant increases in collateral AUM notional among EU CLO managers. Only Blackstone and Carlyle have remained in the top five since 2017; the others have dropped out of the top five managers by collateral AUM.

AAA spreads in both the US and EU CLO markets remain wide relative to their year-to-date averages.

Both primary US BSL and EU CLO AAA tranches are currently pricing wide relative to year-to-date averages, which negatively affects new issue equity arbitrage. That said, the market is likely to self-correct over time, and as long as loan market conditions remain strong, there is no reason AAA spreads should not tighten further.

Selected takeaways from yesterday’s CLO panel discussions:

How do emerging CLO managers compare with their peers?

Please refer to the table below for a comprehensive list of CLO managers and their global CLO collateral AUM (in USD billions), rather than CLO liabilities, broken down by US BSL, US MM, and EU CLOs, as of 31 March 2025. Total global CLO collateral AUM stood at approximately USD 1.4 trillion as of 31 March 2025.

The table below lists the top 100 US CLO managers, along with their BSL and MM CLO assets under management (rather than CLO liabilities) as of 31 March 2025. The final two columns show the average annual growth in total and BSL CLO AUM (in billions). Notably, 33 managers have grown their BSL CLO AUM by more than $1 billion per year since pricing their first deal.

Please see the table below for the full list of 71 EU CLO managers and the trends in their EU CLO collateral assets under management (as opposed to CLO liabilities) since 31 December 2017. Several emerging managers have successfully expanded their EU CLO AUM to over €1 billion since pricing their first deal in 2023. As at 31 March 2025, notable examples include Arini Capital Management with over €2 billion in AUM, Sona Asset Management with €1.8 billion, Signal Capital with €1.7 billion, Canyon Capital with €1.4 billion, M&G Investment Management with €1.2 billion, and AllianceBernstein with €1.3 billion.

The table below lists the top 100 US BSL CLO managers, ranked by their US BSL CLO assets under management (as opposed to CLO liabilities) as at 31 March 2025.

The table below shows the list of US MM CLO managers, ranked by their US MM CLO assets under management (rather than CLO liabilities) as at 31 March 2025.

In contrast, there were no EU CLO deals with negative equity NAV as of 7 March, but by 14 April 2025, 22 deals—or 4.3% of the total sample—had moved into negative territory.

A more objective way to evaluate a manager’s capability is by examining the inception-to-date gross annualised collateral return of their deals, measured relative to the relevant loan indices and assessed on an unlevered basis. This provides a clearer measure of true alpha generation.