Leveraged Finance & CLO Essentials
Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) have performed well since their inception nearly 30 years ago and are a core asset class within Structured Finance, connecting investors around the globe with companies in the leveraged finance and private credit markets.
Private Credit & Middle Market CLOs
Private Credit And Middle-Market CLO Quarterly: Unknown Unknowns (Q2 2025)
With the tariff announcements on April 2, the second quarter began with heightened volatility and the steepest decline in equity markets since the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a significant widening of credit spreads. We expect the tariffs to have a limited primary impact on the credit-estimated companies in our rated middle-market collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) given the portfolio’s concentration in service-oriented sectors like software, healthcare, and professional services. However, second-order effects could pose challenges in coming quarters with weaker consumer spending, lower corporate investments, recessionary headwinds, and broader market volatility weighing on borrower performance.
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U.S. CLO & Leverage Finance
U.S. Leveraged Finance And BSL CLO Quarterly: Shifting Credit Sentiments (Q2 2025)
The U.S. economy has been weakened by seismic and abrupt shifts in U.S. trade policies (and other administrative initiatives) and heightened economic and policy uncertainty. Tariff-driven cost pressures, slowing domestic demand, economic and policy uncertainties, and persistent inflation are expected to drag real GDP growth to just 0.9% by the final quarter of 2025--well below our prior 1.6% forecast for that quarter. Core inflation is now likely to reaccelerate, with core CPI rising to 4.0% and core PCE to 3.6% by year-end.
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Credit Metrics
U.S. CLO Insights Dashboard
The CLO Insights Index averages key credit metrics across a broad sample of U.S. BSL CLOs rated by S&P Global Ratings that have been reinvesting for at least 12 months. The metrics in the index provide insight into the performance of BSL CLO transactions and the underlying leveraged finance corporate loan issuers.
Log in to Ratings360 ® to access the dashboard.
Europe CLOs & Leverage Finance
CLO Pulse Q2 2024: Movers And Shakers In The Top 50 Obligors In European CLOs' Portfolios
European collateral loan obligations (CLOs) typically benefit from portfolio diversification, from both an issuer and a sector perspective.
In this publication, we examine the aggregate asset quality held by European CLOs, observed through key credit metrics and consolidated by S&P Global Ratings' CLO industry sectors. Specifically, this edition of sector average metrics for European CLO assets focuses on loans issued by 634 corporate issuers, which represents over 95% of the assets under management (AUM) held in reinvesting European CLOs rated by S&P Global Ratings as reported up to March 31, 2024, in the second quarter of 2024.