Zero Yield Environment

• Central banks globally have lowered interest rates to zero which has caused institutional investors to take on risk in search of  yield. 
• The Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) Market has shown a recent resurgance; the new issuance volume in February 2012 was the largest since the financial crisis of 2008 and market participants are estimating that 2012 may see $20 to $25 million of new CLOs. 
• A more active CLO Market creates more demand for syndicated bank loans which allows companies to refinance maturing debt. 
• Most of the asset classes that offer yield in this environment also expose capital to considerable amounts of volatility.  HCM believes that the perfect Yield Solution in this environment is a portfolio constructed of select syndicated bank loans, bonds trading yield-to-call, and short maturity, BB-rated bonds.       

 CLO Issuance Predicted To Double