Fifth Street Asset Management announced the closing of Fifth Street Senior Loan Fund I, LLC ("FS SLF I"), a $309.5 million collateralized loan obligation ("CLO"). FS SLF I represents FSAM's initial CLO under management and its pricing was the first for a debut manager in 2015.

FS SLF I is primarily invested in middle market senior secured loans sourced and originated through the Fifth Street platform. The vehicle has a four-year reinvestment period. FSAM sold securities rated from Aaa through Ba3 and retained some of the equity interests and Class F notes. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC served as the Placement Agent. 

"The CLO product leverages the Fifth Street platform and provides another source of senior debt capital to invest in directly originated loans with attractive risk-adjusted returns to support our private equity clients," commented Ivelin M. Dimitrov, Chief Investment Officer of FSAM, adding, "We are pleased with the institutional interest that we received as a first-time issuer and believe it validates the strength of our direct origination platform and the opportunities available in the middle market. We were glad to once again partner with Wells Fargo, a long-time supporter of the Fifth Street platform, to structure and market our debut CLO offering."

"We are excited about closing our first CLO, which represents an important milestone in the continued growth of this complementary product offering. Successfully entering this business line demonstrates Fifth Street's ability to expand and diversify our middle market credit platform," stated Leonard M. Tannenbaum, Chief Executive Officer of FSAM, adding, "Closing the CLO during the first quarter of 2015 was one of our stated goals and we look forward to providing updates as we continue to deliver on our plan."

Fifth Street Asset Management Inc. is a growing credit-focused asset manager. The firm has over $6 billion of assets under management across two publicly-traded business development companies.