Partnering with Semeris.com proved a strategic move for a major European CLO investor seeking to leverage the latest advancements for legal contract review in AI, natural language processing, and machine learning technologies. Looking to enhance their ability to “Read-Find-Compare” in both new issue and secondary CLO documents, here were their key takeaways:
- Customized checklists provide key doc details instantly: Investors have immediate access to any deal doc’s relevant details with the click of a mouse - on a customized investor checklist, with topics organized and tailored to their specific needs (“stips”). This investor used two customized checklists, one for AAA investments and one for mezz tranches.
- Quick Analysis and Reading with X-Ray: Going through their “checklists” of key questions, the investor extensively benefited from using Semeris' X-ray tools - by re-flowing dense paragraphs and colorizing key numbers and dates/logic right on the screen for faster and more straightforward interpretation of the meaning in language, and seeing precisely where on the page and in the paragraph the datapoint extractions were made. Seeing is believing.
- Smart Blacklining means you call the shots: Tracking changes or blacklining is not new, but getting a blackline as an investor involves getting someone to provide it – as deal docs come in PDF format. Smart Blacklines allowed the investor to run successive versions of a deal doc while in pre-marketing and to compare a doc on a BWIC with its predecessor from two doc generations ago – the bond on the doc they owned, and not the last one in the series. This is a very valuable analysis. They have been using it with their checklist to instantly see how language in the sections and items they care most about may have been updated and compare these changes to the market to validate them.
- Identify New or Rare Defined Terms and Language: Semeris’ Term Explorer enabled the investor to quickly recognize some newly defined terms entering the market in new issue docs and to examine rare terms in closed deal documents and which other managers deploy them. It’s proved useful for seeing if a term is “market” and commonplace or something to be on the lookout for. Research defined term usage and language across deals and the entire market at the click of a button.
- Easy Side-by-Side Comparison of Deals: Leveraging more of the Semeris superpowers, the investor used our shopping cart to compare their checklists on deals side-by-side, identifying any anomalies and consistencies and easily see which deal features are the same or are different. This proved particularly valuable in several BWIC scenarios where time is of the essence and in the new issue process for eyeballing how a manager’s recent issuances (and docs) have changed in response to market conditions and over time.
- Collaborating and Memorializing their findings: Our investor works in a team to review docs and investments and often collaborates on deal doc reviews. Using Semeris Notes, the investor now creates, shares, and stores their own internal notes right in the Semeris Docs platform. The investor cites how Semeris Notes fosters collaboration among investment, operations, and legal/compliance teams. It allows for capturing, retaining, and retrieving the key information gathered and interpretations made on documents in real-time, right where the notes belong, which can be pulled out later as old questions come up again. Our Notes feature also supports their workflow management with assigned tasks and accelerates their decision-making processes. We all call that a Win-Win.