Laila Kollmorgen, Global Head of CLO Tranche Investing at MetLife Investment Management, joins The CLO Investor podcast to discuss her investment approach across the CLO capital structure and the products her team manages. Laila shares why she currently sees compelling opportunities in CLO equity, junior BBBs, and AAAs, while offering insights on software credit risk, AI disruption, private credit, and the evolving outlook for leveraged loans and CLOs.

#36, Laila Kollmorgen, Global Head of CLO Tranche Investing, MetLife Investment Management

The CLO Investor Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The CLO Investor Podcast

## Transcript

Hi, I'm Shiloh Bates and welcome to the The CLO Investor Podcast. CLO stands for collateralized loan obligations, which are securities backed by pools of leveraged loans. In this podcast, we discuss current news in the CLO industry and I get to interview key market players.

The content here is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of Flat Rock Global or its affiliates.

Today I'm speaking with Laila Kollmorgen, Global Head of CLO Tranche Investing at MetLife Investment Management. We discuss her approach to CLO investing and the multiple products her firm manages. You'll hear that Laila thinks CLO equity is cheap and that she also sees good value in junior triple B's and triple A's.

Some housekeeping items. I'm always looking for interesting guests to have on the podcast. Email us at info at flatrockglobal.com if you'd like to come on. I recently put out a YouTube video and white paper on why private credit CLOs, but you'll hear during the podcast that Laila prefers broadly syndicated CLOs. If you're enjoying the podcast, please remember to share, like, and follow. And now my conversation with Laila Kohlmorgen.

Laila, thanks for coming on the podcast. Thank you very much. So how did you end up in the CLO business? Yeah, that's always a fun and exciting one. For me, it's the culmination of well over 30 years of being in fixed income, really. I spent time on the buy side, on the sell side, been in the U.S. and in Europe, structure products.

I started off actually in emerging markets. So nobody would say, I was starting off in emerging markets, you're going to end up in CLOs. So it was a little bit of a path. But I went to Merrill Lynch after getting an MBA. So I was in New York City and started doing structure products there, a lot of securitization. I ran the mortgage options trading desk there and then moved over to Europe.

I worked for BNP in London. And there I started taking a look a lot more at CLOs and running their U.S. and European CLO desk. So over time, I've had a lot of experience with U.S. and European structure products and CLOs since 2003, actually. Oh, wow. Yeah, I feel very old at times. My running joke is that if it has a cash flow and it's got collateral, I can figure out a way to analyze it.

Well, I started in the CLO business working as a credit analyst in 2000. It's been a long go. Exactly. What's like one or two interesting things about CLOs that's kept you engaged or focused on this asset class? There's always something slightly different. I guess for me, when it comes down to the bells and whistles of taking a look at a structured product, there's always fun things you can tweak.

Traditional types of securitizations, you're going to t...

#36, Laila Kollmorgen, Global Head of CLO Tranche Investing, MetLife Investment Management

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

#36, Laila Kollmorgen, Global Head of CLO Tranche Investing, MetLife Investment Management

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.