A liquid market for emerging-market collateralized debt obligation tranches is yet to materialize because tight spreads are stunting the number of deals being printed. "There is not the appetite for CDOs because compared to high-yield and crossover, spreads are too tight," said one London-based structurer. The price of protection on the CDX EM diversified, which comprises 40 equally-weighted sovereigns and corporates, is around 88 basis points, compared to 292 bps for the CDX North American High Yield index.
One European emerging-market fund manager said he uses the implied correlation of the index to track the performance of his investments, but has held off using the tranches to hedge. "The correlation between the index and our portfolio is not very high," he explained. "It's not putting our cash to good use."
