Credit Suisse First Boston is shopping approximately $300 million in debt backing Stone Tower Capital's second CLO. Stone Tower is run by Mike Levitt, formerly a partner of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and has approximately $500 million in assets under management. A banker noted the deal is in progress.
The debut deal was completed last year and was highly unusual in that CSFB structured it as a static pool of primarily CSFB-led loans. This offered the advantage to CSFB of moving the loans off the balance sheet and supplied Stone Tower with a seasoned portfolio. It could not be determined if the second deal is similar. Stone Tower CLO II was set to price last Friday as LMW went to press. Officials at Stone Tower, based in New York, did not return calls by press time and a CSFB spokesman declined comment.