Mid-November P2P Lending Platform News Round-up

Totals lent to date (14th November 2018)

*All data correct at the time this blog was compiled.

LOANS TO BUSINESSES

Assetz Capital - £658,800,000

Crowd2Fund - £25.200,000
Funding Circle - £4,200,000,000
FundingSecure - £288,360,909
Money & Co - £6 million approx
Rebuildingsociety - £13,000,000
ThinCats - £293,779,000
Invest and Fund - £3 million plus
LendingCrowd - £46,500,956
ArchOver - £83,293,750

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa - £3,800,000,000
RateSetter - £2,864,854,446

Lending Works - £138,964,822

…………..

LOANS TO BUSINESS

Assetz Capital

Lent to Date: £658,800,000 - £10.1 million growth (1.56%) in the past fortnight.

When this blog was compiled, there were 90 loans in the pipeline with 1 imminently due to be drawndown.

Highlighted Loan: Property Developers from the North East requested the initial >£524k tranche of their >£1.6 million development funding – which will replace a bridging loan – as they construct a housing development comprising of 10 bungalows. Over the last 6 years the borrower has successfully completed 4 other developments and the Gross Development Value of the current project is just over 63.1%. I invested for a return of 8% pa.

Managed Accounts: The following accounts automatically distribute funds on behalf of investors across different sections of the platform's portfolio and are covered by a discretionary Provision Fund (the target rates of return are in brackets):

Quick Access Account (4.1% pa)

30 Day Access Account (5.1% pa)

Property Secured Investment Account (5.5% pa)

Great British Business Account version 2 (6.25% pa)

Crowd2Fund

Lent to Date: £25.2 million – latest available figure.

In the past fortnight, I received 7 email notifications about new auctions launched on the site.

Highlighted Loan: Scrap metal exporters were looking to raise £126k to increase their trading volumes. Net assets were much less than half the amount being borrowed so investors were taking a gamble on whether buyers will be found for the additional stock being purchased. A return of 10% pa was offered and the loan was Director Guaranteed.

Funding Circle

Lent to Date: £4.2 million

Funding Circle are unique amongst the major P2P platforms that lend to SMEs in not allowing investors to choose who they lend to. Instead two managed accounts are offered which distribute funds across differing risk profiles of loans within their portfolio. These options are projected to offer returns in the ranges of 5% - 5.5% pa and 6% - 7% pa.

As an active rather than passive investor, I am no longer involved with Funding Circle however posters on forums who remain with this site express concerns over the apparent lack of due diligence that is undertaken.

FundingSecure

Lent to Date: £288,360,909 at end of October – monthly growth of £8,272,450 (2.95%).

There were 11 loans waiting to be filled when this blog was compiled – down from 13 a fortnight ago although I don't seem to have been getting as many notifications of new loans over the past few weeks.

Highlighted Loan: Last Friday, experienced Property Developers requested £42k to purchase a water tower for which they have had preliminary discussions with the local council over applying for planning permission to demolish the structure and replace with an apartment block. The exit strategy would be to refinance via development funding and FundingSecure have an offer in principle. A return of 12% pa was offered.

Defaults: The sale of a property in London that was backing one of my defaulted loans does not appear to be valuable enough to cover the first charge. As Funding Secure only had a second charge, their investors face a 100% loss. Not good. Am considering re-allocating funds from here to ArchOver – that is if payments ever come in from other loans!

Platform News: FundingSecure's founders have sold a controlling interest in the company to Raj Kumar who has 25 years of experience in Property Development. He plans to fund an expansion programme which will see more staff taken on to improve communication with investors and enable a wider range of products to be offered. Hopefully, the founders are not leaving just in the nick of time.

Money & Co

Lent to Date: £6 million approx. (latest available figure)

When this blog was compiled there were 0 auctions taking place although the 11th tranche of funding to German Property Developers who have been mentioned in previous blogs reached its capital requirements yesterday. At £425k, this was larger than most tranches of funding to this borrower and offered a return of 8% pa.

rebuildingsociety

Lent to Date: £13,000,000.

There were 0 auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Default: ReBS are pursuing insolvency proceedings against purveyors of a beauty product. They have been in trouble for some time and had been making interest only payments but even these were not kept up to date. When it was originally listed, I thought this sounded like a good business as they were already selling to some high profile outlets in the UK and looking to expand overseas. How wrong I was! My current exposure is £23.

ThinCats

Lent to Date: £293,779,000 – fortnightly increase of £3,371,000 – 1.16% growth.

There were 0 auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Invest & Fund

Lent to Date: Over £3 million

There was 1 auction taking place when this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: Property Developers returned for their eighth <£397k tranche of funding for a £5.6 million facility as they continue to develop 12 semi-detached properties which are currently nearing completion in the South East. The intention is to pay off the debt when the properties are sold. Investors were offered a return of 9% pa.

LendingCrowd

Lent to Date: £46,500,956 – fortnightly increase of £1,170,480 – 2.58% growth.

When this blog was compiled, 2 auctions were waiting to be funded on the site.

Highlighted Loan: A mini-mart in the North West of England was looking to raise £54.5k to refurbish their premises and create more sales space. Annual profits were only £12k and Net Assets were a third of that. Furthermore, the figures were 13 months out of date. I have had nasty experiences with these sort of loans in the past where the additional space doesn't generate the anticipated returns and the borrowers is unable to repay. At the time I reviewed this loan, investors had bid at an average return of 10.58% pa but I wasn't tempted to get involved.

Defaults: A printers were classified as defaulted just after the last blog went to press. The company had gone into liquidation and they were more than 120 days behind with their repayments. I only had £40 invested in this loan.

ArchOver

Lent to Date: £83,293,750 – fortnightly increase of £685,750 – 0.83% growth.

There were 4 auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: A Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing company that provides services to Property Developers in London's residential sector was looking to raise £150k last week. This is the third loan in a total facility of £800k and will take the total raised so far to £100k short of the overall target. The funding will refinance existing borrowing, provide capital to allow their business to grow and also enable plant to be purchased. Security was provided by a charge against future income and the loan was insured by Atradius. Investors were offered a return of 7% pa.

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa

Lent to Date:  £3.8 billion – an increase of £40 million over the past 2 weeks – 1.06% growth.

Returns: Zopa's 2 accounts offer returns of 4.5% and 5.2% pa with the latter allocating some funds to riskier loans that offer higher returns.

Zopa distribute investor's money mostly to unsecured consumer loans.

Ratesetter

Lent to Date: £2,864,854,446 – an increase of £27,402,096 over the past 2 weeks – 0.95% growth.

Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 2.5% pa to 5.7% pa depending on the length of the investment. These figures have decreased by 1.6% and 0.7% respectively over the past fortnight.

Capital is covered by a Provision Fund. Ratesetter proudly boast that no investor has lost a penny since they launched in 2010.

Platform News: RateSetter has announced the appointment of Mario Lupori as its first Chief Investments Officer. Mario's prime role will be to make the platform more attractive to retail customers by improving the products on offer.

Lending Works

Lent to Date: £138,964,822 – an increase of £2,457,752 over the past 2 weeks – 1.8% growth.

Returns: 5.0% pa and 6.5% pa via an IFISA or standard account for 3 and 5 year investments respectively. These rates have both increased by half a percent in the past fortnight.

As well as a Provision Fund to cover investor's risks, this site also insures borrowers against redundancy, fraud, illness and accidents making this a very fair site for all concerned.

****Disclaimer: This blog contains the views of the Secret Investor. Your capital is at risk when lending via all P2P Platforms. You're recommended to speak to a qualified Independent Financial Advisor.