Hayfin's CLO sale talks mark the reset wave's exit trade

Hayfin is in talks to sell its US CLO unit. The London credit platform is weighing a full sale of the American arm or just the CLO assets, and the timing is no accident. The CLO reset wave, private credit's funding valve, has reached the point where a CLO platform is worth more to a buyer than to the parent that built it. Carlyle's new European liquid credit head warns that the same wave is drawing in more managers, which will compress arbitrage further. Both developments are the exit trade.

This week, nearly $2 billion of US CLO resets came from Onex, KKR, Ares and Kennedy Lewis, according to PWD's tracking. Neuberger Berman priced a $508 million CLO. The liabilities cleared at 120 basis points. New York Life and Invesco moved about $970 million of paper at the tighter end. Kohlberg printed a $448 million private credit CLO, its second in 2026. Sona Asset Management launched a €400 million European CLO, packing middle-market loans into a broadly syndicated wrapper. CarVal priced a $505 million US CLO with Deutsche Bank.