Meridian Credit Partners Strictly Private & Confidential
Section 06
The Competing
Field
Everyone else is fishing upmarket. That is exactly why the terms are better in our band.
$5–25M
EBITDA band
S+575
Weighted spread
~90%
First lien
Under-competed
Better protected
The Field

Everyone else is fishing upmarket.

Lender typeTarget sizeSpreadDocs / controlIn our band?
Large-cap direct / public BDCs$50M+ EBITDATighterCovenant-liteRarely
Bank cash-flow lendingAny, low leverageLowBank termsExited
Regional banks / SBICSmall, localMixedRelationshipConstrained
Meridian Credit Partners$5–25M EBITDAS+575Lender-friendly, covenantedThis is the lane
The crowded money is chasing $50M-plus deals with weaker documents for less spread. We are one of few disciplined lenders in the $5–25M band, which is exactly why the terms are better here.
Under-competed
Fewer lenders per deal
Meridian Credit Partners · Fund II02 / 05
Positioning Map

Lower in the market, stronger on control.

Weak lender control ⟶ Strong lender control
Large-cap / public BDCs
Bank cash-flow lending
Regional banks / SBIC
Meridian
Upper market ⟶ Lower middle market
Meridian. Lower-middle-market borrowers, first-lien, covenanted docs. Strong control where competition is thin.
The crowd. Large-cap and bank lenders cluster upmarket, where more capital chases each deal and documents loosen.
The wash. The top-right quadrant is where lender terms are best. It is where Meridian sits, and where few others do.
Meridian Credit Partners · Fund II03 / 05
Why It Is Under-Competed

Fewer lenders per deal means better terms.

01 · Banks gone
The natural lender left
Post-crisis capital rules and consolidation pulled banks out of sub-$25M EBITDA lending. The businesses are still here; the cheap lender is not.
02 · Upper market crowded
The big money fishes elsewhere
Large-cap direct lenders and public BDCs compete hard for $50M-plus deals, bidding spreads down and giving away covenants to win.
03 · Our band, thin field
Wider spreads, tighter docs
With fewer disciplined lenders in the $5–25M band, we hold covenants, call protection, and information rights, and get paid a wider spread for it.
The same loan is priced better and documented tighter in our band than one tier up, for one reason: fewer people are willing to do the work to lend here.
Under-competed
Better spreads, docs, control
Meridian Credit Partners · Fund II04 / 05
The Moat

Why the loans we want come to us.

Sourcing network. Three live channels, direct owners, sponsor coverage, and intermediaries, built over 18 to 20 year careers. We see deals banks pass on.
Underwriting discipline. Roughly 540 opportunities screened a year, a ~4% close rate, and a unanimous Investment Committee. Selectivity is the product.
A real workout desk. A 20-year restructuring partner owns any position that drifts. We do not learn workouts on the way down.
Certainty of close. Owners and sponsors bring us the loans they cannot afford to see fall through. A reputation for closing earns the next deal.
Fund I proof
$210M deployed across 24 loans, a full rate cycle, and zero realized losses. The moat is not a thesis, it has a record.
Why it compounds
Each closed loan feeds the next referral, and every avoided loss protects the reputation that sources the pipeline. The edge widens the longer we lend in this band.
Meridian Credit Partners · Fund II05 / 05