Looking for book recommendations that cover how direct lending/mezz businesses are structured/built. Bonus bananas for anything that pertains to building a mezz financing business for LMM companies.
I am NOT looking for books on how specific products are created/structured. I want something that explains how a mezzanine lending business is built and the considerations that go into it.
Sounds like what you are looking for is unlikely to be found in literature. Building a credit business involves finding a niche of demand that isn't being supplied and providing a solution to those in demand.
Most of the credit guys are ex-bankers and non-bank senior lenders that really understood capital structure and documentation and broadened their ability to finance (vs. being confined in a traditional institution).
Right now, mezz and unitranche is terribly competitive, so relationships and "looks" are important. IMO, the best portfolios have a mix of sponsor-backed and privately held credits, but that's difficult to do and the non-sponsor opportunities take years to build out.
There are some really quirky models that have supposedly provided good risk-weighted returns, such as CapX Partners (Chicago), Merit (Chicago), Main St (BDC), Callidus (Toronto), White Oak (SF), VPC, Medallion (MPLS), Convergent (MPLS), Lateral Investment Mgmt (SF)