Hayfin Capital Management announces a particularly strong period of performance for its European High-Yield & Syndicated Loans business. During the period, the firm successfully scaled its Collateralised Loan Obligation (CLO) business to c.€3bn assets under management, recorded top-quartile performance across its High Yield business and won the High Yield Fund award in this year’s AltCredit European Performance and Services Awards.
Over the past 12 months, Hayfin successfully concluded seven European CLO transactions, despite the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This included four new issuances as well as a significant upsizing of three existing European CLOs. In addition to this, the HYSL Fund (unhedged) generated 13.0% gross return versus a blended benchmark of 8.6% in the last 12 months to 31st August 2021 as compared to equivalent metrics of 10.3% versus 2.8% for 2020. The Fund has demonstrated consistent outperformance since its inception in June 2016, returning an annualized rate of return of 8%, cumulatively standing at 48.9%.
The strength of its flexible mandate was evident in last year’s market dislocation, during which the business was able to achieve down-market outperformance across its platform of CLOs and SMAs. Further capital has been raised from new and existing investors to support its CLO roll-out, a testament to robust market confidence in the platform as a top quartile performer relative to the market.
Underpinning this successful growth is an experienced team led by Gina Germano, Head of the European High-Yield & Syndicated Loans investment team. Over the past 12 months, Hayfin has continued to invest in its people, making four new hires to the European High-Yield & Syndicated Loans investment team including Asha Narayan, who joined the firm in September as a Portfolio Manager, European CLOs. Asha brings a broad skillset following four years at PGIM where she worked as a CLO portfolio manager, and 14 years at Deutsche Bank where she was largely focussed on sales. The strength and expertise of the team will enable the platform to continue to focus on continuing to attract investor demand whilst maintaining portfolio standards and prudent risk management.
Gina Germano, Portfolio Manager and Head of the European High-Yield & Syndicated Loans team at Hayfin, said: “In many ways, the challenges brought by the pandemic have enabled our team to demonstrate just what we can do. Over the last 12 months, our team’s shrewd credit selection and rigorous portfolio management has sustained investor demand for Hayfin’s CLO products and fuelled a two-fold increase in the size of the platform over the past 12 months. In addition, we’re delighted with the performance of our High Yield business which has been very strong and attracted significant investor interest.”
She added: “The notable success of our platform over the past year is testament to the strength and expertise of our team who I thank for their commitment and contribution. It’s a really exciting time for our business and I’m thrilled to welcome Asha to our growing team.”