Secret Investor: ThinCats delay IFISA launch to 2018/19 Tax year but Assetz Capital increase flexibility of their IFISA

Totals lent to date (7th March 2018)

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

LOANS TO BUSINESSES

Assetz Capital - £438,600,000

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 - £27,826,296
ArchOver - £62,464,000

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa - £3,090,000,000
RateSetter - £2,365,654,418

Lending Works - £94,379,873

…………..

LOANS TO BUSINESS

Assetz Capital

Lent to Date: £438,600,000 - £5.1 million growth (1.18%) in the past fortnight

When this blog was compiled there were 81 loans in the pipeline and 1 was imminently due to be drawndown.

Highlighted Loan: An Indian Restaurant requested £343k to acquire larger premises and also to purchase a second mixed use property. The LTV was high at 70% and the return was 7% pa – I decided to pass on this one in case the expected increase in trade did not materialise. Their current location is only full 3 nights a week.

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 launched their Manual Investment IFISA having made the tax-free wrapper available on their managed accounts before Christmas.

Crowd2Fund

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

Over the past 2 weeks, 4 auctions have appeared.

Highlighted Loan: Dealers of second-hand agricultural plant were looking to raise £53k to increase their stock levels. While it is good that assets were being purchased, annual profits were a little low at £34k. Given this concern, a return to investors of 11.5% pa seemed reasonable.

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.

Defaulted Loans Update: A rare event – no fresh defaults occurred in the past fortnight although my monthly newsletter from FundingCircle tells me I had 5 during the month of February. Thanks… and goodbye!

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. Monthly growth of £7,425,300 (3.37%).

The rate of growth has slowed to roughly 60% of what it was in the second half of last year.

Today no auctions were launched on the site.

Highlighted Loan: I invested in a renewal for a bridging loan to develop a property in the North West of England. The renewal paid the interest to date thereby increasing the amount borrowed which is not necessarily a good sign although it didn't take the borrowing beyond 70%. FundingSecure, however, reported that the works have been completed and longer-term financing was in the process of being arranged.

Defaults: There have been worryingly few updates on many of my loans that are in default on this site. Some haven't been updated since early January. Is there a lack of resources to track bad debt at FundingSecure? At least there have been no new additions to the list although one may be added soon if the borrower in question doesn't respond. This loan was one of my larger investments but, having checked recent sales in the area in which the property held as security is located, the valuation seems about right assuming there has been no deterioration in condition and so a successful recovery should occur if required.

Money & Co

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

When this blog was compiled there were 2 auctions taking place.

Highlighted Loan: Refurbishers of engines for light aircraft required £160k to refinance existing borrowing. This was very popular being fully funded 3 days before the close of the auction – no wonder as they have customers from across the Globe. A return of 8% pa was offered. Meanwhile the 9th £50k tranche of the loan to the financial services company which I have been following over the past few blogs was still only 43% funded!

rebuildingsociety

Lent to Date: £12,300,000 – fortnightly increase of £100,000 (0.82%).

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

Highlighted Loan: Toy & Games retailers were looking to raise £26.5k to refinance existing debt and for working capital to give them more buying power with suppliers. Using this, they hoped to double their turnover. I found this claim rather ambitious, one hopes they won't be buying a ton of stock they'll not be able to sell. The only security was provided by an all assets debenture although this had a LTV of 20% against the value of their current inventory. I wasn't tempted but others were for an average return above 19% pa.

ThinCats

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

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

Platform News: Due to the expected high levels of the demand, ThinCats will not make their IFISA available to investors until after the new tax year begins on 6th April. They suggested that their pipeline of loans (6 are upcoming) wouldn't support the anticipated volume of deposits over such a short timeframe. Another way to look at this is that it appears the pipeline may not yield many investment opportunities before 5th April.

Invest & Fund

Lent to Date: Over £3 million

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

Highlighted Loan: Property Developer from the North West returned for their 8th tranche of funding, worth £77.5k out of a total facility of £1.1 million. The new houses are close to completion and look good into the photographs. Indeed, 2 of the four properties are under offer. Investors were offered a return of 9% pa for the remainder of this development.

LendingCrowd

Lent to Date: £27,826,296 – fortnightly increase of £1,028,120 – 3.84% growth.

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

Highlighted Loan: A business that provides shared accommodation for young professionals was looking to raise £206k to expand their portfolio of properties and also to undertake marketing of their enterprise. Net assets were more than double the amount being borrowed although annual profits were only £92k. Usually, Lending Crowd loans take around 24 hours to fill but this one had closed little more than 4 hours after the notification email was sent out so I missed the opportunity. I'll have to be quicker on the draw in future. Those investors who did make successful bids will on average earn a return of 8.18% pa.

Default: I didn't follow my own advice on this one... The first time a business that supplied internet connections to remote locations requested a loan, I felt they were likely to be squeezed out by larger communication companies but when they renewed their borrowing I believed their claims that their niche market could sustain the business and invested. They have now ceased trading and the loan has defaulted. I have £68 of my original £80 outstanding and this dropped my annual rate of return on this site to 5.7% pa.

Platform News: Funds deposited into this site's managed accounts will now be used to purchase parts in loans on the Secondary Market as well as new offerings. This will increase investors' diversity, no doubt making the SM more fluid too.

ArchOver

Lent to Date: £62,464,000 – fortnightly increase of £2,025,000 – 3.35% growth.

There was 1 auction taking place on the day this blog was compiled.

Highlighted Loan: Developers of technology that uses RADAR to detect concealed threats carried about the person (weapons, bombs, etc) were looking to raise £125k in the form of an advance on their R&D HMRC rebate to enable them to market their product in the Middle East.

I asked ArchOver for more details about this new category of loan. If HMRC did not agree to a rebate then the borrower would be pursued to make a repayment – although there are no charges over any assets. Another factor to consider is that the amount of capital ArchOver agrees to provide is usually less than the anticipated HMRC rebate. In the case of the first loan of this nature, the borrowing was 70% of the expected rebate. This gave me more confidence to invest.

PERSONAL P2P LENDING

Zopa

Lent to Date:  £3.09 billion – an increase of £40 million over the past 2 weeks – 1.31% 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: £2,365,654,418 – an increase of £17,138,356 over the past 2 weeks – 0.73% growth.

Returns: Interest rates are set according to supply and demand. They currently range from 2.7% pa to 3.7% pa depending on the length of the investment. Over the past 2 weeks these figures have significantly reduced by 1.5% and 0.8% respectively.

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: £94,379,873 – an increase of £2,353,860 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.