Leveraged Loan, CLO Outlook 2025, US vs. Europe: Credit Crunch
Jan 15, 2025
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Desmond English, Head of European Leveraged Loans at Amundi, shares his expertise on the evolving landscape of leveraged loans and CLOs. He discusses the contrasting performance of U.S. and European markets, emphasizing trends in loan pricing and default rates. The conversation reveals the significant role CLOs play in driving loan supply and tackles the impact of monetary policy on market dynamics. English also addresses liquidity challenges and the future outlook for loans, highlighting expected growth and investment opportunities heading into 2025.
Leveraged loans have shown remarkable resilience in the fixed-income market, outpacing high yield bonds and maintaining stable positive returns even in downturns.
The disparity in credit quality between US and European leveraged loans highlights the stronger market structure in the US, offering investors higher-rated options and greater stability.
Deep dives
Performance of Leveraged Loans
Leveraged loans have consistently outperformed other credit asset classes, including high yield bonds, showcasing their robust returns. In 2022, despite a downturn in most fixed-income sectors, leveraged loans managed a slight positive return, highlighting their resilience during challenging times. This performance trend is attributed to their reliable carry dynamics, with loans outperforming investment grade debt significantly over the past years. The consistent total returns underscore that leveraged loans have effectively fulfilled their role as a carry product, making them an attractive option for investors.
Comparative Quality between US and European Loans
The comparative analysis of US and European leveraged loans reveals a marked difference in their credit quality profiles. US loans tend to offer a higher quality index, with a notable percentage classified as double B, compared to Europe where a significant portion is single B rated. This difference in ratings is largely influenced by the stronger market size and structure in the US, which boasts a deeper pool of investment-grade opportunities. The concentration of higher-rated loans in the US market provides investors with greater selection and potential stability.
Market Dynamics and Demand for CLOs
Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) play a crucial role in the leveraged loan market, accounting for a substantial percentage of net supply. The dynamics within the CLO market, including its recent performance amid changing spreads, have maintained stable investor interest even as market conditions fluctuated. The conversation highlights that while CLO arbitrage has tightened, investors are still willing to accept lower spreads to participate in a reliably performing asset class. This reflects the ongoing demand for leveraged loans, driven by their attractive risk-adjusted return profiles.
Default Rates and Market Perception
Current default rates for leveraged loans are significantly lower than the concerning headlines suggest, with figures sitting around 0.5% in Europe and 1.5% in the US. Despite fears of a looming default wave in the US, the actual data showcases a stable environment for loan performance, contradicting prevalent narratives. This perception challenge for leveraged loans stems from broader misunderstandings about their structure and documentation, which can impact recovery rates. As the market matures, improved communication on the asset class's fundamentals may help address these misconceptions and promote broader acceptance.
CLOs are driving loan supply and in this Credit Crunch podcast, host Mahesh Bhimalingam, Bloomberg Intelligence Chief European Credit Strategist and Desmond English, Head of European Leveraged Loans at Amundi, reflect on how both the US and European leveraged loan markets fared last year and the outlook for loans in 2025.
They discuss BI's leveraged loan outlook publication covering loan pricing, returns, supply and relative value vs. high yield bonds as well as loan growth relative to the bond market and private credit in detail and also address the outlook for CLO issuance, reinvestment risks and arbitrage evolution and implications for 2025.
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