The best credit opportunity lies in middle-market collateralized loan obligation equity, according to Carlyle. “It is a newer market and not everyone’s investing and chasing that asset class,” said Lauren Basmadjian, the firm’s global head of liquid credit. “We’re seeing mid-to-high teens IRRs,” Basmadjian tells Bloomberg News’ James Crombie and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Mike Campellone in the latest Credit Edge podcast. That compares to 12%-13% internal rates of return from CLOs backed by broadly syndicated loans, she adds. Basmadjian and Campellone also discuss growing risk from liability management exercises, private/public debt convergence, default rates, M&A and European leveraged loan market opportunities.

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