VPC’s revenue dips in February after record January performance

VICTORY Park Capital (VPC) Specialty Lending Investments saw its total net revenue return dip to 0.81 per cent in the month of February, after reporting a record return of 1.08 per cent in January.

In its monthly market commentary, VPC said that the fall in revenue was due to a combination of factors including a “one-time fee earned in January and a shorter day count”.

Capital losses were attributed to VPC’s equity holding in Elevate Credit – a US-based provider of short-term loans, and securitisation residuals.

Read more: VPC’s portfolio sales drag on performance

The alternative finance-focused investment trust has scaled back its investments in marketplace lenders over the past few months. As of 28 February, it held just three per cent of its £287m portfolio in marketplace loans, with these allocations contributing just 0.09 per cent towards the gross net asset value (NAV).

The trust continued to benefit from its reliance on balance sheet lenders. In keeping with previous months, VPC allocated 80 per cent to balance sheet loans, yielding returns of 0.84 per cent in February, and 8.51 per cent over the previous 12 months. This strong performance went some way towards minimising the effect of February’s US stock market crash, which brought VPC’s equity performance down by -0.07 per cent, and ongoing losses from securitisation residuals, which amounted to -0.31 per cent.

VPC’s total NAV return was 0.49 per cent in February, up from -1.28 per cent in January. This boosted its year-to-date NAV return to -0.8 per cent, while total NAV since inception reached 8.92 per cent.

Read more: VPC continues shift away from P2P with sale of Prosper loans