Based on data from Lincoln International Private Markets database, larger companies have $100 million or higher in EBITDA have experienced 7x greater LTM EBITDA growth and a default rate at an 80% lower rate than the company’s measured at $50 million of EBITDA or less, what we would refer to as the true middle market direct lending. This is why we remain steadfast in our belief that larger scale businesses handle the adversity of economic cycles better. Now, turn to Slide 10. We can see that BXSL portfolio company fundamentals compared to the private credit market as measured by Lincoln. Compared to the private credit market BXSL average LTM EBITDA on the portfolio is nearly 2x larger and has over 2x higher growth and generates over 20% greater profitability.
And that leads to the importance of interest coverage. We dove deep into this discussion on the last call. And it’s our goal to continue to provide this level of portfolio transparency, so let’s dive into it. According to Lincoln today, nearly 20% of the private credit market has an interest coverage ratio below 1 at 5.5% forward base rates of that 20% over 70% are companies with $50 million in EBITDA or less. As the pressure of higher rates builds, we believe, we will see dispersion in the market as not all private credit is created equal. For BXSL, the LTM average interest coverage ratio was 1.8x versus the private credit market average of 1.5x and we will run interest rates forward at 5.5%, that brings BXSL average ICR to 1.6x versus the private credit market at 1.4x.
And, we attribute this stability to our focus on larger, more profitable higher growth businesses. And when we assess the tails, our BXSL portfolio on a LTM basis 3% of the portfolio has an ICR below 1x and on a forward basis at 5.5% rates, we can see that we would have 10% of our portfolio with an ICR below one compared to the broader market of 20% mentioned earlier about double BXSL exposure. And of that 10% with a onetime ICR at 5.5% base rates about half of that is associated with transactions originally structured as higher growth investments with lower ICR namely ARR facilities that exhibit still year-over-year growth. Averages will not tell the story of performance in our view, details will and we seek to limit our tail risk to our focus on choosing what we believe to be better, larger businesses and historically lower default sectors, discipline underwriting and proactive portfolio management we continue to see favorable results in the portfolio.
We’re also focused on protections in the agreements governing our loans, with over 85% of BXSL’s loans measured by fair value documented to provide at least one financial covenant. In addition to leverage and liquidity covenants. We also focus on key protections not commonly seen in syndicated loans. Blackstone credit maintained an in-house team focused on legal documentations, who review and aim to ensure the quality of our private loan documentation. And as a result 100% of the deals held on BXSL or Blackstone credit with a lead lender have protections against asset stripping and collateral lease. And turning to amendments, we had 44 amendments in the third quarter approximately 95% of the amendments. There were technical audit extensions add-ons, and another 5% were related to refinancing as a repricing and there were no amendments during the quarter related to covenant relief, or immediately take relief due to inability to pay interest of principle.
As I jump to Slide 11, BXSL is now delivering an increased dividend distribution of $0.77 per share, a 10% increase quarter-over-quarter and a 45% increase since our IPO two years ago. Our increased dividend is covered at a ratio of 123% by earnings. And as you can see, we’ve continued to focus on delivering high-quality yield to our shareholders building a level of confidence through continuing to raise our base dividends while also steadily building NAV per share. We believe that speaks to the funds ability to deliver for our shareholders despite macroeconomic headwinds. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Carlos.
