Blackstone prices €323.5 million CLO; Assured Investment prints; dollar spreads tighten

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Dec. 7 – The CLO primary market continues to pump out new issuance in December with additional supply expected to print before the year closes.

Blackstone Ireland Ltd. priced a €323.5 million CLO offering in the manager’s fourth broadly syndicated CLO offering of 2020.

In the dollar-denominated space, details emerged on a $402.44 million CLO brought to the primary market from Assured Investment Management LLC, previously known as BlueMountain Capital Management LLC. The deal is the manager’s second broadly syndicated CLO offering year to date.

A handful of dollar- and euro-denominated CLOs are in the pipeline, sources said.

More than $78 billion of dollar-denominated broadly syndicated CLOs and over €20 billion of European CLOs have priced year to date.

In the secondary market, dollar-denominated CLO spreads firmed across the capital structure for the week ended Friday, while euro-denominated spreads were flat in the senior tranches to 5 basis points to 10 bps tighter lower down the stack, according to BofA Securities, Inc. global research notes on Monday.

Dollar-denominated spreads firmed “for the week across the board with AAA-A tightening by 5 bps, BBBs by 10 bps, BB by 25 bps and single Bs by 50 bps driven by an overall reluctance to sell as the market continues to absorb the positive supply,” according to the note.

CLO A-rated tranches ended the week 5 bps better at Libor plus 125 bps.

BBB tranches came in 10 bps to a Libor plus 390 bps average, while BB notes tightened 25 bps to Libor plus 925 bps – 100 bps tighter from a month ago.

Overall BWIC volume increased to $679 million, up from $452 million of volume in the prior week, according to the report.

Euro CLO AAA-A tranches were flat over the past week with AAAs at Euribor plus 130 bps, while BBB spreads tightened 5 bps to Euribor plus 380 bps and BB-B tranches firmed 10 bps to the Euribor plus 670 bps and Euribor plus 890 bps averages, the BofA analysts said.

Euro-denominated BWIC volume for the previous week was estimated at €250 million to €300 million.

Blackstone brings euro CLO

Blackstone Ireland priced €323.5 million of notes due Jan. 16, 2034 in the CLO offering, according to market sources.

Marino Park CLO DAC sold €201.5 million of the class A-1 senior secured floating-rate notes at Euribor plus 107 bps.

BofA Securities, Inc. was the placement agent.

The broadly syndicated CLO is backed primarily by euro-denominated senior secured obligations.

Blackstone has priced four euro-denominated CLOs year to date.

The Dublin-based CLO manager is part of the Blackstone Group Inc.

BlueMountain CLO prices

Assured Investment Management priced $402.44 million of notes due Jan. 15, 2033 in the manager’s second broadly syndicated CLO offering of 2020, according to market sources.

BlueMountain CLO XXX Ltd./BlueMountain CLO XXX LLC sold $240 million of class A floating-rate notes at Libor plus 139 bps in the AAA-rated tranche.

RBC Capital Markets, LLC was the placement agent.

The offering is collateralized mostly by broadly syndicated senior secured loans, cash and eligible investments.

BlueMountain was acquired by Assured Guaranty Ltd. in 2019 and was rebranded in September.

Assured Investment Management is the New York-based institutional asset management business of Assured Guaranty.

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