Shares will be offered on the London Stock Exchange – with the target size of the issue standing at £200 million. The Directors have reserved the right to increase that number to £230 million. The company’s investment objective is to provide its shareholders with an attractive level of dividend income and capital growth through a highly diversified portfolio – made up of consumer and SME loans alongside corporate trade receivables, all originated via p2p and direct lending platforms.
Simon Champ, CEO of Eaglewood Europe, commented:
“By disintermediating the banks, peer to peer and online lending is transforming consumer and SME finance for the benefit of borrowers and lenders alike. It is now regulated in both the United States and the United Kingdom and has also received support from the British Government which, has, for instance, recently changed the rules on Individual Savings Accounts to include peer to peer assets. Our ambition is that P2P Global Investments will be another major milestone on its road to maturity.”
P2P Global Investments will invest across a wide range of platforms, asset classes, geographies (mostly US and Europe) and credit risk bands to achieve optimal diversification. The company may also go down the GLI Finance route – taking an equity stake in a platform if there is believed to be significant potential valuation upside for shareholders. The firm will generally aim to invest in products with net annualized returns of 5 to 15%.
The wheels have already begun to turn. P2P Global Investments has now entered into agreements with Funding Circle (UK), RateSetter,Zopa and Crossflow Payments to deploy capital. The company will also invest in the Eaglewood Income Fund – which invests in consumer loans through the Lending Club platform.
The company intends to distribute a minimum of 85% of its distributable income a year by way of dividends. Once the proceeds of the IPO have been fully deployed across the alternative finance space, P2P Global Investments will target an annualised dividend yield of at least 6 to 8% of the issue price per share, payable quarterly.
Jonathan Barlow, CEO of Eaglewood Capital, said:
"P2P Global Investments is to be the first UK listed company dedicated to investing in loans originated by leading peer to peer and online lending platforms worldwide. By conducting rigorous platform due diligence and deploying the robust portfolio and risk management processes of our investment manager, our objective is to provide permanent funding to the sector while also offering the potential for capital growth and an attractive dividend income to investors.”
