Apollo Sees Collateralized Loan Obligations as High Quality: Q&A

When UK pension funds dumped collateralized loan obligations to meet margin calls, Apollo bought $1.1 billion of the securities. The credit behemoth views structured credit as offering benefits over individual corporate bonds, according to Bret Leas, head of global corporate structured credit & ABS.

Leas spoke with Bloomberg’s Lisa Lee in a series of interviews ended November 8. Comments have been edited and condensed:

Apollo was the biggest buyer of CLOs when UK pension funds began offloading them. Why?

Forced selling started in some of the highest quality assets, among them senior CLO tranches. As we ...