Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Broadly syndicated loans comprise 90% of the CLO market

Shiloh Bates · Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379) · Apr 11, 2024 · at 30:57

Shiloh Bates, CIO at Flat Rock Global, explains the breakdown of the CLO market between broadly syndicated loans and middle-market loans.

0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 9.8s

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“The 90% of the CLO market is broadly syndicated CLOs. So if you look in there, you're going to find companies who borrow a billion dollars and up basically.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Broadly syndicated CLOs make up 90% of the CLO market, generally financing companies borrowing 1 billion dollars or more.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim consists of two core assertions regarding the broadly syndicated loan (BSL) Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) market around 2024: (1) BSL CLOs constitute approximately 90% of the overall CLO market, and (2) BSL CLOs generally finance large corporate borrowers taking out debt facilities of $1 billion or more. Both legs are corroborated by market data from 2024. According to Moody's Ratings (August 2024 data) and industry estimates from LSEG LPC and Cherry Bekaert, BSL CLOs accounted for 87% to 91.1% of active CLO par value and total assets under management (AUM). Furthermore, PitchBook LCD and Morningstar LSTA data from 2024 confirm that the average facility size in the broadly syndicated loan market exceeded $1.0 billion (averaging $1.3 billion per borrower), in contrast to the middle-market/private credit segment.

Moody's Ratings (August 2024 data) reported BSL CLOs held $626 billion versus $61 billion for middle-market/private credit CLOs in active reinvestment, representing a 91.1% market share.
LSEG LPC and Cherry Bekaert estimated total cumulative US BSL CLO AUM at 87% to 90% ($1+ trillion) of the total CLO universe.
PitchBook LCD reported in November 2024 that the average loan size in the BSL market exceeded $1.0 billion, with the Morningstar LSTA Leveraged Loan Index averaging $1.3 billion in debt facilities per borrower.
Federal Reserve Board FEDS Notes (August 2024) confirmed that debt facilities of $1 billion or more are predominantly the domain of broadly syndicated loan markets.

Checked against

[1] moodys.com [2] lseg.com [3] cbh.com [4] ionanalytics.com [5] octus.com [6] pitchbook.com [7] firsteagle.com [8] federalreserve.gov

"broadly syndicated" "1 billion" CLO borrower OR facility OR EBITDA BSL CLO typical borrower loan size facility size 1 billion BSL CLO market share middle market percentage 2023 2024 LSTA LCD broadly syndicated CLO percentage of CLO market middle market CLO PitchBook LCD "average loan size" "1 billion" broadly syndicated

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

broadly syndicated CLOs CLO market

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Assertion Supported

CLO equity returns reached the high 20s during the Global Financial Crisis

“And then if you were in contrast, an investor in CLO equity through the financial crisis on a buy and hold basis, a lot of the equity in those deals return high, 20% returns and the debt in the CLOs defaults rarely as well.”

Shiloh Bates Apr 11, 2024 ▶ 6:32 Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)

Assertion Supported

30-year default rate on BB-rated CLO debt tranches is 20 basis points

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Shiloh Bates Apr 11, 2024 ▶ 12:14 Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)

Assertion Supported

BB-rated CLO debt currently yields over 12% with minimal defaults

“Today, because CLO BBs are floating rate, and because the Fed has hiked so much, we're getting yields in the 12% plus area, and defaults have been really, really minimal.”

Shiloh Bates Apr 11, 2024 ▶ 12:41 Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)

Assertion Not checkable as stated

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Shiloh Bates Apr 11, 2024 ▶ 20:10 Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)

What-if

AAA CLOs would have buffered banks during the 2023 banking crisis

“If you look at the banking crisis of the spring of last year, look, if banks would have owned AAA rated CLOs instead of some of the bonds that might be in the Bloomberg aggregate bond index, CLO AAAs might've traded to 97 cents on the dollar or something like …”

Shiloh Bates Apr 11, 2024 ▶ 7:09 Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)

Assertion Supported

Only about 6% of CLOs have historically generated a negative IRR

“So by our math, it's about six percent of CLOs that have had negative IRR.”

Shiloh Bates Apr 11, 2024 ▶ 23:10 Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)

Broadly syndicated loans comprise 90% of the CLO market

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