RRE 28 Loan Management CLO achieved a record tight AAA–BB pricing differential on 10 February. However, that record was quickly surpassed by Avoca CLO XXXV, which set a new benchmark in the 2.0 EU CLO market. With its AAA priced at 120 DM and BB at 445 DM — implying a record-tight 325 DM differential — and Mizuho acting as arranger, the timing could hardly have been better.
Managers may achieve a tight BB print where the new issue portfolio carries a tight WAS and is viewed as clean. More broadly, new issue BB tranche pricing can serve as a useful barometer of a manager’s debt performance, particularly when assessed against MVOC metrics.
OHA Credit Funding 17-R (Oak Hill Advisors, L.P.) sets new records in the US BSL CLO 2.0 market: BB at 425 bps (tightest on record), AAA at 114.7 bps, and an AAA–BB pricing differential of 310.3 bps — also a record low.
AAA tranches continue to lag the broader spread-compression trend. While top-tier BB tranches have tightened to around 430 DM, AAA levels, at 117 bps, remain wider than the 113 bps seen in February 2025. This has pushed the AAA–BB pricing differential to a new record tight of roughly 317 bps in the CLO 2.0 market.
How Much Tighter Can the AAA-BB Pricing Differential Get?
Since mid-July 2022, when 3M EURIBOR moved into positive territory and began its upward trajectory, the EU CLO primary and...
