What is a CLO in business?

Asked by: Abelardo Herzog  |  Last update: November 19, 2023
Score: 4.2/5 (39 votes)

Chief Learning Officer, also known as CLO, oversees the learning and development of a company's employees at an organizational level.

What is a CLO at a company?

The chief legal officer (CLO) is an expert and leader who helps the company minimize its legal risks by advising the company's other officers and board members on any major legal and regulatory issues the company confronts, such as litigation risks.

What is a CLO in simple terms?

A collateralized loan obligation (CLO) is a securitization product created to acquire and manage a pool of leveraged loans. CLOs issue multiple debt tranches along with equity and use the proceeds from the issuance to obtain a diverse pool of syndicated bank loans.

How does a CLO work?

CLOs derive principal and interest from an actively managed, diversified pool of non-investment grade, senior-secured corporate loans. CLOs use funds received from the issuance of debt and equity to investors to acquire a diverse portfolio of typically more than 200 loans.

Is a CLO a hedge fund?

Unlike hedge funds, CLOs can deliver a stable stream of management fees over several years because they are not subject to investor redemptions.

Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) Explained in One Minute: Mortgage-Backed Securities 2.0?

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How risky is CLO equity?

Higher Credit Risk: CLOs are exposed to credit risk associated with the underlying loans. These loans are typically made to non-investment grade borrowers, which means they are more likely to default. A sudden increase in loan defaults could cause significant losses for investors.

How does a CLO manager make money?

The CLO manager raises capital from investors. The investors choose a tranche that meets their risk and return expectations. The CLO manager uses the capital collected from investors to purchase loans. The interest generated from the loans is used to pay investors, starting at the top tranche.

What is the average leverage in a CLO?

The equity generally represents 10% of a CLO's capital structure. The underwriters will typically provide leverage on the amount the equity investors post between a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio. For example, if a manager deposits $10 million in the warehouse, they are allowed to buy $40 to $50 million in loans.

Are CLOs a good investment?

With CLOs, investors may benefit from the following: Attractive performance. Over the long term, CLO tranches have performed well relative to other corporate debt categories, including bank loans, high yield bonds, and investment grade bonds, and have significantly outperformed at lower rating tiers.

Is a CLO a leveraged loan?

Put simply, a CLO is a portfolio of predominantly leveraged loans that is securitized and managed as a fund. The assets are typically senior secured loans, which benefit from priority of payment over other claimants in the event of an insolvency.

How many loans are in a CLO?

These CLO pools are considerable, comprising typically 150 to 250 loans. Economically, holders of debt tranches are providing term-financing for the pools, whereas the equity investors own the managed pool – and therefore bear the upside but also the downside and default risk of the underlying loans.

What is the difference between a syndicated loan and a CLO?

A syndicated loan is offered by a group of lenders, or syndicate, whereas a CLO is a type of security where investors purchase an interest in a diversified portfolio of loans.

What is the structure of a CLO fund?

CLOs are generally structured as cash flow (arbitrage) transactions, whereby income generated by the underlying collateral (i.e., principal and interest on the bank loans) is used to pay debt service to the noteholders and equity investors.

How do you become a CLO?

18 years spent in the corporate world, in fields relevant to the industry (10 years at a minimum) Bachelor or master's degree in HR preferred, with other education management and training experience. Any kind of Corporate Officer position such as CIO, CEO, CMO, or CCO.

Who invests in CLO equity?

CLO equity investors include CLO managers and opportunistic credit investors. The potential returns to CLO equity are high, but are subject to first loss in case of any defaults in underlying loans.

Who invests in CLO's?

The CLO market is largely institutional, with banks, insurance companies and hedge funds often purchasing CLOs directly or through institutional separate accounts that may carry minimums of $50M or more.

What is the CLO default rate in 2023?

Average exposure in Fitch-surveilled BSL CLOs to issuers in default increased in May to 0.8%, from the 0.7% logged for the past two months. Fitch has raised its U.S. institutional leveraged loan default rate forecast for the full year to 4.0%-4.5% from 2.5%-3.0% set previously.

What is the average return on CLO equity?

The average IRR was 10.3% for CLOs issued between 1997 and 2016. As a point of reference, Harris, Jenkinson, and Kaplan (2014) find an average IRR of 10.1% for private equity buyout funds raised between 2000 and 2008, which is lower than the average IRR of 13.5% for CLOs issued during the same period.

How much leverage does Warren Buffett use?

Buffett applies a leverage of about 1.6-1, on average.

What is a healthy amount of leverage?

A financial leverage ratio of less than 1 is usually considered good by industry standards. A leverage ratio higher than 1 can cause a company to be considered a risky investment by lenders and potential investors, while a financial leverage ratio higher than 2 is cause for concern.

What is the yield to maturity of CLO?

BB CLO tranches are currently trading in a range of approximately +825 to +1500 discount margin. This equates to an all-in yield to maturity of 12-18%. Such yield levels represent a considerable rise from the approximately 8% all-in yield levels witnessed in the first quarter of 2022.

What is the difference between CLO and CMBS?

A CLO is a collateralized loan obligation. Collateralized loan obligations are single securities backed by a pool of debt. These are then pooled into a marketable security. CMBS is an acronym for commercial mortgage-backed security, and it is a debt asset much like a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund.

What is the difference between CLO equity and debt?

The portfolio consists predominantly of leveraged bank loans (assets) and the classes of CLO debt (liabilities), with the equity investors receiving any excess cash flows after the debt investors are paid in full.