Why Invest in CLO Equity Before A Recession?

CLO Equity is often is often perceived as a bull market product. When the world is awash with liquidity, the ability of corporates to refinance their loans is easier and the subsequent cashflows can cascade down the waterfall to the CLO equity holders. But if your base case is a recession - tighter credit markets - why would you invest in CLO equity?

There are many reasons to consider CLO Equity ahead of a recession. In fact, those that did before the global financial crisis and the COVID pandemic earned approximately 400 basis points excess return above the long term average across CLO Equity vintages going back to 2002.

The trick is to find active CLO managers that can re-invest cashflows into higher yielding loans as prices fall, with strong covenants and limited default risk. Sounds simple, but it is not. It's about finding right active CLO manager, especially ahead of a recession. Investment Manager selectors that do the research, will work out who these managers are. And that is what they are doing inside RFPnetworks.