La Caixa prices €2.53 billion SME CLO; Ares places $408.5 million deal; CVC in pipeline

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Nov. 30 – CLO issuance remains light, but a few deals are getting done before the year closes, including a new European SME CLO that priced over the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Spanish banking group la Caixa brought a €2.53 billion two-part CLO.

Also in primary activity, details emerged on Ares Management LLC’s $408.5 million CLO offering.

Looking ahead, CVC Credit Partners, LLC intends to price a $499.8 million CLO, its fourth new CLO deal of the year.

CLOs returned 1.4% to 6.4% across the capital structure in the first half of the year, but performance has weakened in the second half of the year, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC analysts said in a note.

“Performance took a turn for the worse in 15H2 as broader volatility and risk-off impacted CLO returns, which are -0.1% to -5.7%,” the analysts said.

Meanwhile the level of distressed-priced credit is at its highest point since mid-2012, according to the note.

“Within CLOs, the percent of loans trading below $90 is at 10.6%,” the analysts said.

la Caixa prints two tranches

La Caixa priced a €2.53 billion two-part CLO backed by small- and medium-sized enterprise loans, according to a market source.

FonCaixa Pymes 7, FT sold €2,150,500,000 of class A floating-rate notes at Euribor plus 125 basis points and €379.5 million of class B floating-rate notes at Euribor plus 150 bps in the deal.

CaixaBank is the underwriter.

La Caixa is a banking and financial services group based in Barcelona, Spain.

Ares prints $408.5 million

Ares Management priced $408.5 million of notes due Jan. 20, 2027 in the Ares XXXVIII CLO, Ltd./Ares XXXVIII CLO, LLC deal, according to a market source.

The CLO sold $247.5 million of class A senior floating-rate notes (Aaa/AAA/) at Libor plus 148 bps in the senior tranche.

BofA Merrill Lynch was the placement agent.

Ares CLO Management II LLC will manage the CLO.

The transaction is backed primarily by broadly syndicated first-lien senior secured corporate loans and eligible investments.

Ares Management has priced five new CLO deals and refinanced one vintage CLO transaction year to date.

The Los Angeles-based alternative asset management firm placed three CLO offerings in 2014.

CVC offers $499.8 million

Coming up, CVC Credit Partners is in the deal pipeline with a $499,875,000 offering of notes due 2027 in the Apidos CLO XXIII/Apidos CLO XXIII LLC deal, a market source said.

The offering includes $310 million of class A-1 senior secured floating-rate notes (Aaa/AAA); $45.16 million of class A-2A senior secured floating-rate notes (Aa2); $21.84 million of class A-2B senior secured fixed-rate notes (Aa2); $28.9 million of class B mezzanine deferrable floating-rate notes (A2); $31.3 million of class C mezzanine deferrable floating-rate notes (Baa3); $6.11 million of class D-1 mezzanine deferrable floating-rate notes (Ba3); $16.69 million of class D-2 mezzanine deferrable floating-rate notes (Ba3) and $39,875,000 million of subordinated notes.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is the placement agent.

The deal is backed primarily by broadly syndicated first-lien senior secured corporate loans.

CVC Credit Partners has priced three new CLOs and brought one CLO refinancing deal year to date.

The New York City-based subsidiary of London-based CVC Capital Partners Ltd. printed three CLOs in 2014.

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