The first half of 2024 kept us busy tracking volume in the newly energized BSL market. Remarkable, but not unexpected, was its ability with fresh capital to refinance higher-cost existing deals away from the direct lenders.

Left unexplained more fully was the driver of this activity. This special series explores how collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) are propelling both BSL and direct lending activity to record levels. To bring an expert’s perspective, we spoke with Kelli Marti, our head of CLO management.

We asked Kelli to give us a sense of the numbers. “Year-to-date volume of freshly minted CLO vehicles is almost $105 billion, according to PitchBook LCD,” Kelli told us. “That’s across 221 transactions – way ahead of last year’s $56 billion from 129 deals. Including resets and refinancings, a growing trend, that adds about $120 billion across 272 transactions.”