The world’s largest asset manager is increasingly bullish on fintech if its recent behaviour is anything to go by.
BlackRock’s stake in the Funding Circle SME Income fund has risen to more than 15 per cent as the world’s largest asset manager bought up more exposure to the UK’s second largest fintech lenders’ closed ended- fund.
The now £300m Funding Circle SME Income fund, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is headed up Sachin Patel, has nearly doubled in size thanks to a C-Share round in recent weeks. Aberdeen saw its stake rise above 11 per cent of assets before the C-Share issue and therefore this will have lowered relative to the size of its portfolio by approximately half.
The performance of the fund has been strong since its launch back in 2015. The graph below shows the performance of the fund since its inception back in April 2015 and its performance against the broader market – as measured by the AltFi Data Marketplace Lending index.
The investment trust has also seen, in contrast to its peers, strong performance of its share price and is now sitting on a premium of 3.4 per cent.
Unlike its peers, the Funding Circle SME Income fund peers by having no management or performance fees at the listed fund level, instead charging a 1 per cent platform fee.
