Secret Investor: Assetz capital in equity raise and Funding Secure's secondary market shows good liquidity

Totals lent to date (1st November 2017)

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

LOANS TO BUSINESSES

Assetz Capital - £361,852,744

Crowd2Fund - £4,000,000
Funding Circle - £2,800,000,000
FundingKnight - £31,485,000
FundingSecure - £174,200,758
Money & Co - £6 million approx
Rebuildingsociety - £12,000,000
ThinCats - £257,475,000
Invest and Fund - £3 million plus
LendingCrowd - £21,192,336
ArchOver - £50,549,000

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa - £2,750,000,000
RateSetter - £2,149,920,460

Lending Works - £75,756,828

…………..

LOANS TO BUSINESS

Assetz Capital

Lent to Date: £361,852,744 – fortnightly increase of £5,245,767 – 1.47% growth.

When this blog was compiled there were 62 loans in the pipeline with 1 imminently due to be drawndown.

Highlighted Loan: Property Developer in the South East was looking to raise £1.84 million to convert a former commercial property into 12 apartments. The initial LTV is high at 78% although this is forecast to reduce to 60% when the development is completed. Other security is offered including Personal Guarantees up to the value of £460k and a company debenture. Investors were offered a return of 7% pa which I felt was a little on the low side given the high LTV but I may invest later in the 15 month term if the work remains on schedule.

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 (3.75% pa)

30 Day Access Account (4.25% pa)

Property Secured Investment Account (5.5% pa)

Great British Business Account (7% pa)

Green Energy Income Account (7% pa)

Platform News: AssetzCapital are trying to raise £1 million of investment capital for their enterprise via the Seedrs platform. The will fund a number of short-term capital expenditure projects which are expected by the Directors to help the company continue its substantial growth.

The ongoing expansion of AssetzCapital has already seen the company move its Head Office to larger premises close to Manchester Airport this week.

Crowd2Fund

Lent to Date: £4 million – latest figure available.

There were 3 auctions added to the site in the past fortnight. As loans are listed for 30 days, only recent additions are noted in this blog.

Highlighted Loan: Free range egg producers were looking for £50k to consolidate existing debt and also launch a new product. The business has been making losses but for 2017 the management team introduced a new strategy which reduced volume but increased profitability. Those believing these changes will prove successful were offered a return of 12% pa.

Funding Circle

Lent to Date: £2,800,000,000 – figure not updated.

When this blog was compiled, there were no loan requests listed but as funds are automatically allocated, all requests for capital are rapidly met.

Highlighted Loan:

I have not caught any loan requests going through the system but as I am exiting this platform, I've not been checking all that often.

Defaulted Loans Update: Last week an insolvent cleaning business was defaulted. I had £30 of capital outstanding. Due to switching the blog to a Wednesday, there was only 1 "Default Thursday" in this period.

FundingKnight

Lent to Date: £31,485,000 – no change.

There were 0 auctions ongoing when this blog was compiled – only 1 loan has appeared on this site in 2017. The platform is planning a relaunch in 2018.

FundingSecure

Lent to Date: £ 174,200,758 at the end of September – most recent figure.

Today 0 auctions were ongoing.

Highlighted Loan: A borrower was looking to raise £113k to put towards the development of 2 new properties which have a combined GDV of £900k. The loan was secured via a second charge over another property that is owned by the borrower. When combined, the first and second charges provide an LTV well under 50%. With a return of 12% pa, FundingSecure expected this loan to be very popular and put a £500 limit per investor in place for the first 24 hours.

Early Exit: Earlier in the year I transferred an existing Cash ISA into a FundingSecure IFISA but I struggled to distribute the capital across as many loans as I would have wished due to a lack of throughput. At one point I felt I acted rashly by investing £5k into one property backed loan. As the end of the 6 month term came into range I became nervous, especially as a few of the valuations on this platform have been wide of the mark when defaults have occurred, so I put all £5k of my holdings in this loan up for sale on the Secondary Market and, to my relief, it was all sold.

So what now? I still have a large amount of capital idle in the IFISA. Should I look to invest large chunks of it and aim to sell the loans on before they mature? The Secondary Market seems to be fluid at the moment but I would be relying on it remaining so a few months from now.

Defaults: FundingSecure have written-off the loan secured against internet domain names as, although a couple of them have been sold for much less than the valuation, they do not expect to sell the remainder in the near future. Nonetheless, the platform has made an ex-gratia payment to investors covering all of their capital.

Money & Co

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

When this blog was compiled there was 0 auctions taking place.

rebuildingsociety

Lent to Date: £12,000,000 – fortnightly increase of £200,000 – 1.69% growth.

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

Highlighted Loan: An IT company that provides Cloud Services are currently looking to raise £90.1k to undertake an infrastructure upgrade. This is the second time they have raised funds via ReBS and they also have an outstanding Funding Circle loan which has a much lower rate. Clearly the business was not in position to add to the cheaper FC borrowing as the only tangible asset is a Personal Guarantee from a third party. It did seem a stable business however so I invested £30 that had been repaid by other borrowers at the maximum available rate of 17% pa.

ThinCats

Lent to Date: £257,475,000 – fortnightly increase of £445,000 – 0.17% growth.

There were 2 active auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: Engineering business in the East Midlands was looking to raise £1 million to complete a management buy-out. The borrowing was split with £400k being loaned on an interest only basis with a bullet repayment at the end of the 3 year term from cash reserves or refinancing. The company was profitable with a EBITDA of £539k for the year up to June '17. Investors were offered a return of 8.5% pa.

Invest & Fund

Lent to Date: Over £3 million

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

Highlighted Loan: Property Developers in Cambridgeshire raised the first <£120k tranche of a £575k facility to convert commercial premises into 6 flats. They had already repaid a couple of Invest & Fund loans that funded similar projects. Investors were offered a return of 9% pa. The Loan to Gross Development Value was just below 60% while, aside from the first charge over the site, further security was provided by an all assets debenture, a Guarantor's Pledge and a cost overrun guarantee limited to £200k.

Platform News: Invest & Fund plan to expand the scope of their credit rating process to include Property Developers who are regarded as lower risk due to their experience and expertise. Investors can expect returns of 7.75% pa from loans of this nature. Invest & Fund aim to offer safer investments rather than chasing high returns.

LendingCrowd

Lent to Date: £21,192,336 – fortnightly increase of £1,141,610 – 5.69% growth.

There were 2 active auctions taking place when this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: LendingCrowd listed a number of loans last week which initially seemed appealing but most had a negative Net Assets figure. One of these was to a pub landlord in Scotland who was looking raise >£54k to purchase their trading premises. It seemed to make good business sense as ownership would see him retain more profits however Net Assets were in the red to the tune of almost half the amount being borrowed. Although the loan was secured against the pub, there was no indication of its value and it may be difficult to sell if the business became unviable. Other investors had submitted bids yielding an average return of 12.45% pa when I carried out my assessment.

ArchOver

Lent to Date: £50,549,000 – fortnightly increase of £1,899,000 – 3.9% growth.

ArchOver have passed the £50 million total lent milestone.

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

Highlighted Loan: Manufacturers of embedded technology were looking to raise £500k to replace existing lending and provide the working capital to develop new products. The company has an impressive roster of Blue Chip customers. Security was provided by charges over all assets and the accounts receivable. The loan was also insured. Investors were offered a return of 7% pa.

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa

Lent to Date:  £2.75 billion – fortnightly increase of £50 million – 1.85% growth.

Returns: Zopa's 2 accounts offer returns of 3.7% and 4.5% 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: £2,149,920,460 – fortnightly increase of £21,174,616 – 0.99% growth.

Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 4.8% pa to 6.1% pa depending on the length of the investment. The lower rate has increased by 0.5% while the higher figure is unchanged.

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

Lending Works

Lent to Date: £75,756,828 – fortnightly increase of £1,478,885 – 1.99% growth.

Returns: 4.0% pa and 5.5% pa via an IFISA or standard account for 3 and 5 year investments respectively. These are unchanged from 2 weeks ago.

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.