UK Bond Network seeking to offer P2P securitised loans to retail investors
UK BOND Network (UKBN) may become the first platform to offer securitised peer-to-peer loans to UK retail investors through its Innovative Finance ISA.
The P2P bond auction firm, which underwrites bond deals of between £500k and £4m for business borrowers, is hoping to extend the next tranche from a Sancus BMS securitisation it participated in to all its investors, by adding it to the tax-free wrapper it launched in March.
The firm helped alternative lender Sancus BMS structure a £14.45m securitisation of a variety of its assets including P2P loans at the end of April. £11.45m of senior notes were up for sale to high-net-worth individuals and small family offices, offering returns of seven per cent.
“Due to restrictions on how we were able to distribute the offering, it was available to professional investors only, and we took a relatively passive involvement at this stage,” UKBN’s chief executive Chris Maule (pictured) told Peer2Peer Finance News.
Read more: Sancus Finance launches re-vamped P2P platform
The firm participated in the first-loss equity tranche of the securitisation, which represented about 20 per cent of the deal, but would be keen on contributing more largely next time around if the notes were rendered eligible for all UKBN investors.
“If Sancus [BMS] were to tweak and evolve its offering, taking steps to enable us to introduce the product to retail investors, it could be very much a possibility,” Maule said.
John Davey, director and co-founder at Sancus BMS, said that while the specialist finance provider hadn’t reached a decision on whether to structure its next batch of securitised bonds as a retail offering, the move could represent a realistic possibility.
Read more: UK Bond Network arranges £550,000 fundraising for tech investment firm
