Last post: Mar 3, 2015
The Secret Investor reviews the peer to peer lending market 3rd of March 2015
Totals lent to date (3rd March 2015)
Assetz Capital - £62 million plus
Funding Circle - £548,241.200
FundingKnight - £10,698,000
FundingSecure - £4,427,354
Lending Works - £5,950,245
Money & Co – £4,125,000
Rebuildingsociety - £5,362,130
ThinCats - £95,009,000
Zopa - £759,000,000
RateSetter £528,779,144
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Assetz Capital
Assetz Capital's investors have so far funded £62 million plus of loans.
The £2,000,000 of funding through Seedrs mentioned in our last market commentary was fully funded in a week. As a result, Assetz Capital decided to make available an additional £1 million for private investors. Institutional investors can invest a further £3 million. The monies are to assist the company with their expansion plans such as in staff recruitment and IT enhancements. Undoubtedly, this is an indication of the ever-growing confidence in the P2P lending sector.
With 13 loans available, there are plenty of opportunities for investors.
Funding Circle
To date, it has processed loans totalling £548,241,200 – an increase of 3.21% in 2 weeks.
Anther good couple of weeks with over £17 million lent to a variety of businesses.
The company are to partner with Victory Park Capital, a USA based asset management firm, that is to provide loans totalling up to $420 million over the next 3 years to small businesses located both in the UK and the USA. This is great news for the small business sector that continues to look for alternative sources of borrowing other than the high street banks.
FundingKnight
To date, it has processed loans totaling £10,698,000 – an increase of 0.66% in 2 weeks.
A quiet couple of weeks on the monetary amount of loans being drawn down (£70,000).
However, there have been some new lending opportunities in this period with a lift company seeking £70,000 to buy out a competitor, an engineering company require £52,000 to purchase equipment as well as to redesign a couple of websites and a scaffolding company requiring £100,000 to purchase additional stock to enable it to take on more work. It is pleasing to see that these companies are all involved in the industry sector. Is this an indication that the sector is improving in the UK?
FundingSecure
FundingSecure has administered advances totalling £4,427,354 – an increase of 4.31% in 2 weeks.
This company continues to attract new loan propositions. There are currently 3 loans available to invest in with one being for £270,000 to improve a pub in Bristol valued at £360,000. The landlord has a portfolio valued at £30 million in the restaurant and hotel business. Investors would earn 13% gross interest per annum that, we are sure you will agree, is a potentially excellent return.
Lending Works
Lending Works has arranged loans totalling £5,950,245 – an increase of 5.90% in 2 weeks.
Another great couple of weeks with over £300,000 lent again.
Money & Co
The amount lent so far is £4,125,000.
There are currently no new loans available to invest in but there are hopefully some in the pipeline being vetted by Money & Co.
rebuildingsociety
rebuildingsociety's loan book stands at £5,362,130 – an increase of 3.08% in 2 weeks.
There are 4 loans available.
One of those is from a financial services company seeking £100,000 with some of those monies being required to develop a software program to interview/advice employees of companies about working pensions using a combination of virtual meetings and Skype.
Another is from a finance and leasing company looking to borrow £40,000 towards buying the business premises that they are currently renting.
Again, these are further examples of businesses involved in the finance sector turning to peer to peer lending to meet there borrowing requirements rather than go down the more traditional route of raising funds from the high street banks.
ThinCats
The amount lent so far is £95,009,000 – an increase of 2.24% in the last 2 weeks.
A number of the loans mentioned in our previous market commentary have drawn down but there are still 4 loans available to invest in totaling £795,000 in a variety of businesses.
One of these is for an Asian jewellery business seeking £145,000 to improve their product range and for cash flow purposes. The target interest rate is an attractive 13% gross per annum that will likely appeal to many investors.
Another interesting loan of £250,000 is being sought by Organic Insurance Ltd that is a general insurance broker looking to develop and offer their own brand insurance products in building and contents, mobile phones and gadget loss, abuse and damage as well as warranty insurance policies for white/brown goods.
Zopa and RateSetter
Zopa
To date, Zopa has been involved in loans totalling £759 million – an increase of 1.471% in 2 weeks.
Zopa's loan book grows steadily.
RateSetter
To date, it has been involved in loans totalling £528,779,144 – an increase of 3.36% in 2 weeks.
The Liberum AltFi Returns Index (LARI) has been created by AltFi Data to monitor the returns investors in some of the major peer to peer lenders have achieved since March 2006. The lenders involved are Zopa, Ratesetter and Funding Circle. Whilst historic data should not be seen as what is going to happen in the future it should give potential investors an indication of possible returns. The typical return in the last year has been around 5.09% gross per annum and, since 2006, the returns have been between 4.5% and 6.2% gross per annum.
We trust that you have found the above to be of interest.
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