CLO Managers in Europe Root Out Risky Loans on ‘Cockroach’ Fears

After Jamie Dimon’s cockroach warning, Europe’s CLO managers have been furiously cleaning house.

October saw the investment vehicles’ highest monthly volume of deeply discounted asset sales since records began, capping the most active quarter yet, as managers sought to offload riskier loans amid the credit market jitters triggered by the rapid unraveling of First Brands and Tricolor.

Managers of collateralized loan obligations, which repackage mostly leveraged loans into bonds of varying risk and reward, typically sell weaker holdings toward year-end to crystallize losses and lock in returns. But the scale of this year’s activity is unprecedented.

Sales of euro- ...