Zable returns to CLOs at Guggenheim, citing its experience and brand

It’s been a 12-month-long hiatus from finance since Zable left Blackstone, where he led the USD 110bn liquid credit business that included the industry’s largest CLO manager by assets under management. The interim has been spent with family and friends, fishing and cycling, as well as travelling.

“Even though I had an amazing year of enjoying myself and doing non-CLO things, I really did miss the market, and mostly I miss the market participants,” Zable told Creditflux.

Zable couldn’t truly keep away. He cycled the Loire Valley with a CLO banker, and Girona in Spain with a CLO investor. He also watched the Tour de France in Paris with a former CLO colleague and another investor.

Zable chose Guggenheim for the firm’s experience in structured credit, its brand recognition and global presence. The ability to tap into an existing infrastructure and operations technology was also important, as well as the prospect of growing CLO management alongside Guggenheim’s private credit and CLO investing businesses.

“It’s in their DNA,” said Zable. “Plugging into all of that, to me, was a recipe for success.”

The move to Guggenheim is a drastic shift. From the largest CLO presence at Blackstone, Zable is helming the 56th CLO manager by size, according to Creditflux data.

The first set of tasks is meeting with CLO investors, as well as making new hires for the CLO team. On deals, Zable is looking towards the end of the first quarter of next year to issue a CLO. “In terms of how many per year, we’re going to be disciplined. If the market looks interesting, we’ll be more active. Obviously, if it’s less interesting, we won’t,” said Zable.

Zable is joining a shop whose owner, TWG Global, has recently inked a collaboration with artificial intelligence (AI) titan Palantir Technologies to drive AI adoption in financial services.

On technology, including AI, Zable believes there are many applications in CLOs. It can help analysts be more aware of what’s happening in their sectors, and help them make better and faster decisions. It can also help optimise portfolios, which has been underway for a while.

“Given how the market is set up, you need to be forward thinking and nimble. So if you can use technology to help you make faster decisions, that’s important,” said Zable.

The flipside is the question of what AI means in CLO portfolios. “You have to have real insight... to make sure you’re Investing in companies that are resilient to that or benefiting from that,” he said.