Secret Investor: Money & Co raise money for property speculation and RateSetter pass 5,000 IFISA applications

Totals lent to date (21st March 2018)

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

LOANS TO BUSINESSES

Assetz Capital - £453,700,000

Crowd2Fund - £4,000,000
Funding Circle - £3,300,000,000
FundingKnight - £31,485,000
FundingSecure - £227,789,959
Money & Co - £6 million approx
Rebuildingsociety - £12,300,000
ThinCats - £274,579,000
Invest and Fund - £3 million plus
LendingCrowd - £28,701,196
ArchOver - £62,464,000

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa - £3,130,000,000
RateSetter - £2,388,087,246

Lending Works - £97,162,468

…………..

LOANS TO BUSINESS

Assetz Capital

Lent to Date: £453,700,000 - £15.1 million growth (3.44%) in the past fortnight

There has been a definite increase in activity at Assetz Capital. When this blog was compiled there were 81 loans in the pipeline with 2 of these imminently due to be drawndown.

Highlighted Loan: I invested in the first £1.5 million tranche of a >£3.3 million loan to a property developer in Northern Ireland who is constructing 8 properties in an affluent area of Belfast and needed to refinance funding from a High Street Bank. Finding the postcode on the map revealed the location is not far from the city's airport which was a concern but I couldn't find any recent issues with noise pollution when searching on Google so I decided to a commit a small amount for a return of 7.5% pa. Security included a First Charge over the site and a Personal Guarantee.

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 version 2 (6.25% pa)

Green Energy Income Account (7% pa) – New capital coming into this account have been paused due to the lack of available loans meeting the investment criteria.

Platform News: Assetz Capital have offered investors a Spring Bonus with a boosted return of 1% pa on any new investments made up until 4th April. The additional return will accrue until 30th June.

Crowd2Fund

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

Over the past 2 weeks, 9 auctions have appeared.

Highlighted Loan: IT experts specialising in marketing apps required £160k of expansion capital – although how the company was planning to grow wasn't explained. The sum being borrowed was almost exactly the same as 2017 profits (co-incidence?) while net assets were double that amount. More information on their expansion strategy might have tempted me to contribute. Investors were offered a return of 10% pa.

Funding Circle

Lent to Date: £3,300,000,000

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 return 4.8% pa and 7.2% pa.

Disenchanted by being unable to choose who I lend to since September and experiencing increasing numbers of defaults, I sold my final set of loans this week. My only funds outstanding are allocated to borrowers who have defaulted.

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 during 2017. The platform is planning a relaunch at some point in 2018.

FundingSecure

Lent to Date: £227,789,959 at the end of February.

Today 4 auctions were launched on the site.

Auctions have been reasonably slow to fill on the site this week. Many were renewals on developments for which investors have doubts as to whether they will ever reach completion. This seems to have had a knock on effect for the Secondary Market as my loans have been slow to sell.

Highlighted Loan: Borrower was looking to raise £138k this week with security provided by a semi-detached house in the North West of England. LTV was just over 65% and data from recent house sales in the area supported the valuation. The plan is to refinance via a Buy to Let Mortgage.

Defaults: Two defaults occurred just after the last blog went to press, both secured against properties in London – hopefully the valuations on both will prove to be accurate if and when sales take place. A further default against a property in Cumbria occurred last week.

On a positive(ish) note, one of the items of railway memorabilia has been sold as has one of the six yachts albeit, in the case of the latter, the price obtained was well below the valuation and the funds are yet to arrive in my account.

Money & Co

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

When this blog was compiled there was 1 auction taking place.

Highlighted Loans: Wheeler dealers in the housing market were looking to raise £1 million to buy further stock. The company regularly raises funds via Money & Co. As assets are being purchased, this seems a fairly safe bet at first glance however the business buys properties at 80% of market value with the aim of selling them quickly at 95% MV which suggest this is higher risk than other sites which have a maximum LTV of 70% when property is offered as security. This makes a return of 8% pa appear rather low.

The 9th £50k tranche of funding to purchase a Financial Services company, a loan we have been following over the past few blogs, has finally been fully funded despite the balance sheet only being presented as a series of percentages.

rebuildingsociety

Lent to Date: £12,300,000 – no change.

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

Highlighted Loan: The bar that requested >£90k in January to consolidate existing borrowing following the expansion of their venue but then cancelled the loan before it was drawndown returned to the site last week with a much lower requirement of >£35k to be used solely for marketing. As I contributed to the original loan, I was happy to invest again. As I thought it was likely to be popular, I bid at slightly lower than the 16% pa maximum but such caution may not have been necessary as the capital is currently only 79% funded.

ThinCats

Lent to Date: £274,579,000 – no change.

There were 2 auctions taking place when this blog was compiled although both were to the same borrower.

Highlighted Loan: TV Production company returned to the platform last week for their sixteenth loan, valued at £2.1 million. As usual this was to be used to fund the production of programmes which are then paid for on delivery by the broadcasters. The loan was secured against the assets of the business and a Personal Guarantee from the CEO. A return of 8% pa was offered.

Invest & Fund

Lent to Date: Over £3 million

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

Highlighted Loan: The fifth >£59k tranche of funding out of a total facility of £3.1 million was listed this week. The loan is to a Property Developer in the Midlands who is constructing the third and fourth houses of what will eventually be a small estate of seven. Progress has been made despite the bad weather. Investors were offered a return of 9.5% pa.

LendingCrowd

Lent to Date: £28,701,196 – fortnightly increase of £874,900 – 3.14% growth.

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

Highlighted Loan: Forklift truck dealers were looking for >£27k to take advantage of an opportunity to purchase stock at a discounted rate. The financials looked good with both profits and net assets exceeding the cost of the loan. This offering was very popular with investors and was 60% overfunded shortly before the auction was due to close. My bid of 8.3% pa was accepted.

Default: Training company with payments in arrears due to cash flow problems have had their loan defaulted with £69 of my original £80 investment outstanding. This is my second default on this site in no time, hope a trend is not developing. My return is now just below 6% pa which is the targeted return of the managed accounts. Nonetheless, I still prefer to be an active investor.

ArchOver

Lent to Date: £62,464,000 – no change.

There were 0 auctions taking place on the day this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: Subsea engineers returned to the platform just after the last blog went to press to secure the first of 2 £250k loans to support newly won contracts. This was one of ArchOver's offerings that offered relatively high security with a charge over future revenues – these will be paid into an account controlled by the platform – and security from Coface.

Platform News: ArchOver are going to provide their customers with a "Wallet" in early April. This will allow investors to retain interest in their account rather than it being sent to their bank. As I like to compound my interest by re-investing, this gets my approval – and puts the site inline with other platforms – although it will take me some months to accrue enough interest to reach the £1k minimum bid ArchOver employ.

The platform also intends to roll out its IFISA next month, initially just to selected customers.

CapitalRise

CapitalRise intermittently list loans to property developers and I received notification of one such offering late last week to provide a bridging loan for just under £1.4 million. This is required while 3 new build properties near Royal Leamington Spa are waiting to be sold. The developer has already found buyers for 6 houses on the same site. With a First Charge provided as security, investors were offered a return of 8% pa over a 12 month term.

To use up some of my IFISA allocation from last year, before the P2P platforms with greater throughput received FCA Authorisation to offer tax-free accounts, I invested in a loan to develop a property in Central London via this site although with the rise in the value of the pound bringing down property prices in the capital I am a little concerned over the safety of my investment however anything could happen before the loan matures in another 11 months.

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa

Lent to Date:  £3.13 billion – an increase of £40 million over the past 2 weeks – 1.29% growth.

Returns: Zopa's 2 accounts offer returns of 4.0% and 4.6% 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: £2,388,087,246 – an increase of £2,782,595 over the past 2 weeks – 0.95% growth.

Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 2.8% pa to 4.6% pa depending on the length of the investment. Over the past 2 weeks these figures have increased by 0.3% and 0.9% respectively.

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

Platform News: Even though Ratesetter only opened its IFISA to new investors on 1st March, they and their existing customers have taken out more than 5,000 accounts that use the tax-free wrapper.

Lending Works

Lent to Date: £97,162,468 – an increase of  over the past 2 weeks – 2.56% growth.

Lending Works are another platform who have decided to only quote an approximate value for their totals lent.

Returns: 4.5% pa and 6.0% pa via an IFISA or standard account for 3 and 5 year investments respectively. These have not changed over the past month.

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.