Assurant prices $454 million CLO; average trading prices rise for non-high-grade issues

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Feb. 7 – Assurant CLO Management, LLC priced $454 million of notes in a new CLO offering.

Pricing action is expected to pick up with several new issue deals in the works in the U.S. and European primary markets, sources report.

Barings LLC plans to price $505.7 million of notes in the manager’s first CLO deal of 2019, while a new €412.2 million CLO deal, Aqueduct European CLO 3-2019 DAC, is being offered from HPS Investment Partners CLO (UK), LLP.

Looking at the secondary market, trading volume climbed on Wednesday with $248.82 million of investment-grade CBO/CDO/CLO securities and $175.31 million of lower-rated issues traded, according to Trace data.

On Tuesday, secondary trading included $170.84 million of high-grade volume and $81.3 million of lower-rated volume.

Average prices on the high-grade securities declined to 98.2 from 98.8 in the prior session. Average trading prices on lower-rated issues improved Wednesday to 90.8 from a 77.7 average trading price on Tuesday.

Assurant brings CLO IV

Assurant CLO Management priced $454 million of notes due April 20, 2030 in the new Assurant CLO IV, Ltd. transaction, according to a market source.

The CLO sold $290 million of class A floating-rate notes at Libor plus 135 basis points at the top of the capital stack.

BofA Merrill Lynch was the placement agent.

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

Assurant CLO Management is a subsidiary of Assurant Investment Management, LLC.

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