Collateralised Loan Obligations, or CLOs, are bond instruments issued to fund a specific pool of loans, typically senior secured or ‘leveraged’ loans, to companies. The bonds are split into tranches that can carry different ratings (and yields) according to how senior they are in the CLO’s capital structure, normally from AAA notes at the top, to equity notes at the bottom. The way CLOs are structured means they are designed to withstand very tough conditions, as can be seen by the fact that default rates throughout the global financial crisis were amongst the lowest in fixed income.
Fast forward to today where we are in an environment that could see global recessions, the defensive characteristics of the asset class will come to the fore.
Volta Finance Ltd (LON:VTA) is a closed-ended limited liability company registered in Guernsey. Volta’s investment objectives are to seek to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its Shareholders through dividends that it expects to distribute on a quarterly basis.