August 2021 | Issue 237
Event Creditflux manager awards

A landmark for credit

Sam Robinson
Head of research
The Creditflux awards will be returning to their usual home this year — the awards dinner will be held at the Landmark Hotel, London, on 8 September, following the Creditflux CLO Symposium
The 2020 manager of the year award went to Rockford Tower. Portfolio manager Young Choi accepted the trophy
Following a tumultuous year across credit, CLO managers, credit fund and direct lending managers will be returning to Creditflux’s annual awards evening to recognise those who have weathered tough conditions and come out on top. This year, more CLO managers than ever are competing for the top honours, with 87 entering over 1,100 CLOs for consideration — a record.
As always, CLOs will be judged entirely on objective and measurable performance metrics, including par build, portfolio quality, and historical distributions to equity investors. The awards reward those with a track record of delivering high returns while minimising risk and prioritising collateral quality.
In the US, Brigade Capital Management and Axa Investment Managers are amongst the small managers who have secured a best manager nomination. They feature alongside CLO giants Credit Suisse Asset Management, and last year’s manager of the year, Rockford Tower Capital Management.
In Europe, old favourites return to the nomination list for best European manager alongside new entrants, such as Napier Park Global Capital and CIFC Asset Management in the new CLO and boutique manager categories.
Old favourites and new faces
The mid market awards see perennial favourites Golub Capital Partners and Cerberus Capital Management picking up multiple nominations, along with appearances from new entrants, such as BlackRock and Blue Owl.
As investors flocked last year to the CLO market, awards are being given for established open-ended and closed-end funds, as well as new CLO funds raised in the past year. Contenders in this category include newcomers and familiar faces — Hildene, ISP, Napier Park and Orchard.
Dataset
  • Eligible CLOs are those that went effective before 31 March 2021, and were still within their reinvestment period at that date
  • New CLOs are defined as those that went effective after 31 March 2020
  • Best CLO manager categories are calculated using the average final ranks of all a managers’ CLOs of that CLO type
  • US boutique manager is defined as a manager with four or fewer active US BSL CLOs under management
  • European boutique manager is defined as a manager with three or fewer active European CLOs under management
  • Non-traditional CLOs include bond-flex CLOs and triple-C flex CLOs
  • Best CLO redeemed includes all CLOs with a redemption date between 1 January 2020 and 31 March 2021
  • Best CLO fund includes open-ended CLO funds listed on Creditflux’s hedge fund website that launched before 31 March 2021
  • Best new CLO fund includes open-ended CLO funds that launched before 2021 but after 31 March 2020
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Global credit funds & CLO's
August 2021 | Issue 237
Published in London & New York.
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