Private Credit/Direct Lending and Syndicated Loan convergence

I work in Europe and can't help but think that the convergence between the direct lending space and the liquid loans market is happening quite quickly, at least here. Big DL deals are now "club" deals with 5/10 even 15+ lenders getting involved. Additionally, a lot of banks are now skipping the launch to general syndication and allocate the debt privately to a small group of lenders.

All that seems to be happening is that big direct lending shops are subbing in from retreating banks into arranging roles (KKR already does this for BSLs), and thus become the ones bending over for sponsors. Most liquid credit shops also have direct lending platforms and often the credit research teams overlap, so really the only ones standing to lose here are the banks and too much is being made of the growth of private credit.

What do we think?

P.S.: i personally think a lot of DL deals are groslly mispriced but that is a discrepancy common in similar private markets and will even out eventually.