Aegon Asset Management launches European CLO UCITS funds

The portfolio management team on both published fund pages is led by Frank Meijer, head of alternative fixed income and ABS, with senior portfolio managers including Egbert Bronsema, Jim Marinus, Ewout van der Meer and Balint Vagvolgyi. Meijer, quoted by Bluerating, said the risk/return profile of European CLOs is very attractive and that the funds answer client demand for tailored access across the CLO capital structure.

Bluerating, citing Aegon AM, puts the firm’s global ABS and CLO assets at about €23bn, including more than €4.5bn in European CLOs, run by a team of more than 20; the firm says it has invested in European CLOs since 2005 and in US CLOs since 1996, and reports zero defaults across its managed CLO and ABS strategies.

Meijer trailed the range in June, telling HedgeNordic that Aegon AM planned dedicated high-grade, investment-grade and opportunistic CLO strategies, citing indicative levels of Euribor plus 106 basis points or somewhat higher for the AAA strategy and saying a BBB CLO tranche can typically withstand around half the underlying portfolio defaulting before impairment. He tied the demand to regulatory capital: ’If ABS doesn’t provide more return within a Solvency II environment than corporate credit, investors simply move elsewhere.’

The German coverage cites a European CLO market of roughly €300bn. Neither the fund pages nor the press reports give fund sizes, fees or inception dates.

Sources: aegonam.com · aegonam.com · bluerating.com · ad-hoc-news.de · hedgenordic.com