Wachovia Securities has put together a ranking of collateralized debt obligation managers based on collateral deterioration over time that places a number of leveraged loan managers near the top of the pile. Stone Tower Debt Advisors, GoldenTree Asset Management, Guggenheim Investment Management, Mountain Capital, Black Diamond Capital Management and Fidelity Investments all are near the summit reflecting the fact that loan deals have outperformed other asset classes. However, the very top performer is a bond deal from Bear Stearns Asset Management.
"The very definition of what constitutes a good CDO manager and how to quantify this concept is debatable," admits Arturo Cifuentes, managing director and CDO analyst at Wachovia, who designed the rankings. "To make matters more complex, certain managers are very good for the equity, but not for the mezzanine piece and some are good for the senior tranches," he added, stressing that Wachovia is not attempting to give a conclusive answer.
Wachovia does subscribe to the theory though that a good manager should love all tranches equally and this is a parameter that could be used with other factors. Even if certain things are difficult to measure, the more information the better, Cifuentes adds.
The approach taken is based on Moody's Investors Service's adjusted average annual overcollateralization loss or gain and has been termed the Z factor (as in Zorro, as in "CDO managers: Rank Them All And Let Zorro Sort Them Out!," which is the title of Cifuentes' report). The OC is the notional amount of the collateral pool divided by the notional amount of the corresponding liabilities. The collateral deterioration is found by computing the ratio between initial OC minus current OC, divided by initial OC. "What we did was rank using data from Moody's database. The more negative the Z factor reflects OC improvement. If someone is not there, then we are not changing it," Cifuentes said. For the full ranking of the managers based on the criteria, click here.
Ranking Of The Top Managers Based On The Z Factor | ||||
Note: Managers are listed starting with the most negative Z factor first. A negative Z factor is good, while a positive number is bad. Average vintage is simply the average year of close. Bold letters are used for managers with “adopted” deals. | ||||
No. of | Average | |||
Collateral Manager | Deals | Vintage | Z Factor | |
HY Cash Flow CBO | Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. | 1 | 1999 | -13.914 |
Cash Flow CLO | Stone Tower Debt Advisors LLC | 1 | 2003 | -3.553 |
European Cash Flow CBO | Invesco, Inc. | 1 | 2002 | -3.227 |
European RES | AXA Investment Managers Paris | 1 | 2002 | -2.323 |
Cash Flow CLO | GoldenTree Asset Management LP | 2 | 2002.5 | -2.175 |
Cash Flow CLO | Guggenheim Investment Management, LLC | 1 | 2002 | -2.031 |
HY Cash Flow CBO | T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc | 1 | 2000 | -1.975 |
Cash Flow CLO | GSCP (NJ) L.P. | 1 | 2003 | -1.96 |
Cash Flow CLO | Fuji Bank, Ltd. New York Branch | 2 | 1999.5 | -1.913 |
CDO of ABS/CDO | Delaware Investment Advisors | 1 | 2003 | -1.63 |
Cash Flow CLO | Ballyrock Investment Advisors LLC | 2 | 2002.5 | -1.558 |
CDO of ABS/CDO | Credit Based Asset Servicing & Sec. LLC | 2 | 2003 | -1.525 |
Cash Flow CLO | ING Capital Advisors, Inc. (Adopted) | 2 | 1998.5 | -1.506 |
Cash Flow CLO | Black Diamond Capital Management | 2 | 1999.5 | -1.393 |