JP Morgan arranged the inaugural deal with Fort Washington, a Cincinnati-based investment management firm. Fort Washington’s parent company, Western & Southern Financial Group, committed $50 million to fund the equity tranche of CLO 2019-I and expects to make commitments of similar size to two subsequent transactions.
Fort Washington’s Leveraged Credit team has a 25-year track record managing leveraged credit assets realizing significantly below-market default rates. With $4 billion in leveraged credit assets as of September 30, 2019, the team has applied a higher quality philosophy with a focus on relative value, income generation, and principal protection since the strategy’s 1994 inception. This philosophy fits well with establishing a CLO platform given Fort Washington’s focus on credit selection, diversification, and loss avoidance.
The portfolio management team consists of Garrick Bauer, CFA, Bernard Casey, CFA, and Breen Murphy, CFA. Fort Washington’s CLO platform is supported by the Leveraged Credit team made up of 10 members who have an average of 16 years of experience.
About Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.
Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc., founded in May 1990, is the money management and primary investment arm of Western & Southern Financial Group with more than $62.3 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2019.* Fort Washington is a registered investment advisor with expertise in fixed income, public equity and private equity. Clients include institutions and high-net-worth individuals throughout the country.
* Includes assets under management as of 9/30/19 by Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc. of $58.6 billion and $3.7 billion in commitments managed by Fort Washington Capital Partners Group, a division.
About Western & Southern Financial Group
Founded in Cincinnati in 1888 as The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. (Western & Southern), a Fortune 500 company, is now the parent company of a group of diversified financial services businesses. Its assets owned ($57 billion) and managed ($26 billion) totaled $83 billion as of Sept. 30, 2019. Western & Southern is one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world. Its seven life insurance subsidiaries (The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, Columbus Life Insurance Company, Gerber Life Insurance Company, Integrity Life Insurance Company, The Lafayette Life Insurance Company, and National Integrity Life Insurance Company) maintain very strong financial ratings. Other member companies include Eagle Realty Group, LLC; Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.;1 IFS Financial Services, Inc.; Touchstone Advisors, Inc.;1 Touchstone Securities, Inc.;2 W&S Brokerage Services, Inc.;2 and W&S Financial Group Distributors, Inc. Western & Southern is the title sponsor of six major community events every year, including the Western & Southern Open, a premier event in the U.S. Open Series played each August by the world’s top-ranked professional male and female tennis players.
1 A registered investment advisor.
2 A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC.
Review our current financial ratings.
