Sector developments and company hires

BlackRock preps CLO ETF

In a recent filing with the US SEC, BlackRock has disclosed that it is prepping a CLO ETF, dubbed BlackRock AAA CLO ETF. The fund seeks to provide capital preservation and current income by investing in a portfolio of predominantly US dollar-denominated triple-A rated CLO securities.

Under normal circumstances, BlackRock AAA CLO ETF will invest at least 80% of its assets in US dollar-denominated CLOs that are, at the time of purchase, rated triple-A by at least one of the major rating agencies (or, if unrated, determined by the fund management team to be of similar quality). The fund may invest in CLOs of any maturity and may purchase CLOs in both the primary and secondary markets.

Additionally, it may invest up to 20% of its assets in US dollar-denominated CLO securities that are, at the time of purchase, rated double-A or single-A by at least one of the major rating agencies. It may also invest in floating- and fixed-rate CLO securities, but will not invest more than 10% of its net assets in fixed-rate CLOs.

Further, the fund will not invest more than 10% of its portfolio in any single CLO or more than 20% of its portfolio in CLOs managed by a single CLO manager.

In other news…

EMEA

Adams Street Partners has announced the launch of its European private credit platform as it works to expand its efforts in Europe. The firm has confirmed the launch with the hire of James Charalambides as partner and head of the European private credit team. Charalambides will both lead and manage the firm’s private credit efforts in Europe and all other supporting decision-making processes – including sourcing, structuring, reviewing, and negotiating new deal opportunities. In his new role, Charalambides will report to partner and head of private credit at Adams Street, Bill Sacher. Charalambides joins the firm from Sixth Street Partners where he operated as md in speciality lending.

Apex Group is set to further expand its ESG offering with the launch of its EU Taxonomy Solution which will work to ensure clients’ alignment ahead of rising disclosure requirements. Apex Group’s EU Taxonomy Solution will offer an efficient four-step process to clients, enabling in-scope investors to assess and work upon their alignment to the EU Taxonomy requirements. This will include an eligibility assessment, alignment data request, alignment data review, and alignment calculation and actions. This announcement follows the launch of the Apex Group’s Impact Positive Solution launch - which offers comprehensive impact assessment services to clients for the private markets, and forms another part of the firm’s ESG Impact Month initiative which works to boost accountability for ESG across the financial services sector.

Fitch has announced the appointment of David Fewtrell as a senior director within its business relationship management team. The former CLO portfolio manager will be responsible for managing relationships with private debt funds, direct lenders, law firms, and high yield investors. Fewtrell will report to md and EMEA head of banker and PE coverage, Sean Costello, and will be based in the firm’s London office. He joins Fitch from Investcorp in London, where he served as a portfolio manager and head of trading.

Funding Circle and Bayview Asset Management have announced the launch of a new lending partnership targeting the provision of £700m in funding to small businesses over an 18-month period. The partnership will leverage Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform to deploy the funding to thousands of small businesses in the UK. The partnership will offer Bayview an efficient and cost-effective method of deploying capital to the real economy with the use of Funding Circle’s instant decision lending technology which allows small businesses to apply for finance in an average of six minutes, with lending decisions made in as little as nine seconds. Bayview will mark just the latest to join a range of lending investors using Funding Circle’s platform, bringing the total committed by just four of their lending investors to support UK SMEs to £2.4bn.

North America

US financial empowerment non-profit Operation HOPE has appointed Eric Kaplan as evp and president of Financial Literacy for All (FL4A). Kaplan joins from the Milken Institute, where he led the think-tank's housing finance programme as director and senior advisor. He will continue in his capacity as a senior advisor to the Milken Institute Center for Financial Markets, as well as an independent board member of KBRA, a board member of the Cameron Kravitt Foundation and as chair of the Fixed Income Investor Network RMBS Task Force.