P2PGI writes off exposure to closed Urica platform
P2P GLOBAL Investments (P2PGI), the peer-to-peer lending-focused investment fund, has written off a holding in Urica after the supply chain funding firm closed this week.
Urica, which has in the past received government funding to help boost small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) finance, put itself into liquidation after failing to recover from a fraud attack in France earlier in the year.
A stock market announcement from P2PGI revealed the investment trust had an equity position in Urica and provided a rolling credit facility to Urica Europe, which is a separate legal entity to Urica and is not in liquidation.
The equity investment was made in October 2015 and is worth around £5.5m but as a result of the liquidation has now been written off, P2PGI said.
The investment trust has an outstanding exposure of £24.4m to Urica Europe.
“Its ownership of receivables is bankruptcy remote from the insolvency estate of Urica,” P2PGI said.
“New funding under the revolving credit facility has been restricted and the company is working with key contacts within Urica and other counterparties to ensure that the receivables owned by Urica Europe continue to be serviced and managed effectively.
“The receivables are short term in nature and also benefit from credit insurance.”
Meanwhile, Urica has recommended other alternative finance providers including P2P business finance platform MarketInvoice to clients looking for funding.
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Lindsay Whitelaw, founder of Urica, said all existing deals were held in a separately ringfenced company.
“We didn’t want to leave clients high and dry and we were really keen to recommend three or four names if people needed access to finance,” he told Peer2Peer Finance News.
“We have arrangements with MarketInvoice that if we weren’t able to help we would let them know.”
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