ACA Capital has closed its first collateralized loan obligation, a $300 million deal, and is planning to ramp up a second one. John Haltmaier, managing director and head of credit research at ACA, projects closing a second deal in nine-to-10 months, depending on the market. "The CLO that we just closed is $300 million; we would like the second one to be that size and might consider making it larger depending on market conditions," he said.
ACA's first CLO, ACA CLO 2005-1, Limited, comprises senior secured bank loans. The triple-A liabilities are priced at LIBOR plus 26 basis points. ACA Management is the asset manager for the CLO and Bear Stearns is the arranger.
"Bear Stearns is one of the best, we feel, in the CLO space," said Vincent Ingato, managing director and portfolio manager. Haltmaier said Bear Stearns "gave the best proposal and executed on it."
ACA hired Ingato, formerly co-head of leveraged finance at The Mizuho Corporate Bank, in the spring of 2004. At Mizuho, he was credited with establishing the firm's leveraged loan asset management business, Mountain Capital. ACA Management currently has over $9 billion of assets under management.