VPC continues shift away from P2P with sale of Prosper loans

VICTORY Park Capital Specialty Lending (VPC) has announced the sale of its Prosper marketplace loans as it continues to shift its portfolio from peer-to-peer lending towards balance sheet assets.

The alternative-finance focused investment trust used its November monthly report to reveal it had sold loans held with the US platform during November and had subsequently reduced its marketplace loan exposure to 3.4 per cent of its portfolio.

The money raised has been reinvested into other balance sheet investments, which now account for 79 per cent of its portfolio, up from 70 per cent in November.

Read more: VPC record revenue pushed down by marketplace loan losses

Its report showed the fund reached its highest net asset value (NAV) return for eight months during November at 0.55 per cent, just below the previous high that year of 0.57 per cent in March.

Despite record gross revenue returns of 0.91 per cent from VPC’s balance sheet loans, its monthly revenue return was 0.82 per cent, which was then pulled down by capital losses of 0.27 per cent, leaving a NAV return of 0.55 per cent.

This took its returns for the year to November 2017 to 2.79 per cent.

The London-listed trust announced at the end of 2016 that it was winding down its underperforming marketplace lending portfolio, after losses triggered substantial writedowns.

The investment trust is currently trading at a discount to NAV of 14.6 per cent.

Read more: P2P trusts reap rewards from changing focus