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What size ebitda are you looking at for businesses? I assume $25mm or less if you are talking about a $100mm financing. Where are you located and does your bank lead deals?

Ultimately the fact is that being left lead on a process is grueling even for small deals, especially if the sponsor can’t bring in “friends & family” relationship lenders or if the company has little in the way of marketing materials already prepared. Syndicating a transaction can be grueling no matter how you cut it. Being right side on institutional size deals or smaller pro rata deals is easier because you don’t have to do any of the market work…you just execute internally. I did mostly JLA underwrites for large BSL deals at my last bank and once you get credit approval you can basically just move on - that’s a whole lot easier than prepping LP, answering questions, coaching mgmt, negotiating credit agreement, and driving the terms etc 
 

Agree that private credit is decimating this space (and the middle market) - part of that is market driven as banks have gone risk off a bit and the BSL market was cooked post Russia invasion which cascaded down to other regulated areas of the loan market (pro rata did hold up better though last year vs BSL) - private credit volume remained solid as it was the only game in town  

If economic conditions firm / rate hikes subside and we see the BSL market take off I think the pro rata market will firm up too - the one caveat here is that it remains to be seen how bank lending is impacted by increased regulatory burden & scrutiny / increased FDIC cost / requirement for cross sell or deposits to offset higher capital costs…these could be a big drag on the pro rata market even if the BSL market takes off. 

In terms of LMM SYN being a volume game - in this environment you should be charging a premium for capital. I know our institution is asking for meaningful arranger fees on most pro rata deals, especially if there is an element of risk. We are also looking for deposits and cross sell. That said, I feel like whether you are doing right side institutional or leading deals - it’s always a volume game unless your shop has flat revenue expectations and isn’t that focused on growth. 
 

Long term for me I’m going to opportunistically look for a private credit role focused on MM/LMM. The good thing is that I think the skill set you develop doing MM/LMM syndications - assuming you also do all the credit work and your firm actually holds a piece of the debt - is virtually identical to the skill set required for PC/direct lending.