As an aside, I felt as though the dressed down nature of the event gave a glimpse into the people behind the CLO contracts (and yes, the people are much more important to the running of a CLO than the institution). What titles can I make out on those bookshelves? Isn’t that a spacious garden? And, is that a chaise longues I see in the background?

Appearances were different but our rigorous data-driven process to decide the award winners remained the same (as Baker Street’s most famous resident Sherlock Holmes said: “You know my methods, Watson”). The CLO market is abound with statistics, if you can tell your warf from your OCs. So the best in the business should always be decided based on performance, rather than the votes and judging panels that have become so prominent in financial media.

For the last two years, smaller CLO issuers have triumphed at out awards. In 2019, London’s Spire Partners won the award for manager of the year and this year it was Rockford Tower Capital Management that took the top honours. Both these firms are part of a new generation of manager having launched CLO platforms in 2015 and 2017. Again, the beauty of this business is that there is no hiding from performance - with three or four deals under their belt, a new manager has a track record and performance history to point toward.

That’s not to say that larger CLO managers should be written off. They will always have the advantage of being able to secure better allocations in the primary loan market.