Duke Street: a CDO success story

The European leveraged loan market is booming, and the pipeline of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) backed by those assets is swelling. CDO manager Duke Street Capital Debt Management is exploring new ways to leverage its position in this mushrooming European market.

Four years ago, Ian Hazelton launched London-based Duke Street Capital Debt Management’s collateralised debt obligation (CDO) of leveraged loans business to capitalise on the perception that the market would become less bank-dominated. The thought was that post-Basel II, banks would be penalised for holding onto large pieces of loans from leveraged buyouts, thus creating an opportunity for asset managers.

Duke Street was an early spotter of this idea, and Hazelton, who had been a managing