Folk2Folk chief bullish on 2019 prospects after increased shareholder backing

FOLK2FOLK chief executive Giles Cross has expressed gratitude to the shareholders after a “challenging 2018” but says he is full of optimism for the next 12 months.

The peer-to-peer business lender’s latest company accounts for the 12 months to January 2018 showed the P2P lender made a net trading loss of £1.46m. A note in the annual report said the platform was reliant on continued support from its parent company Folk Group, and required future equity investment to fund anticipated losses and continue as a going concern.

The latest company accounts are for the period ended January 2018, however other Companies House documents for the period thereafter show there have been extra allotments of stock to shareholders since then.

Its latest statement of share capital shows it has allotted £87,883 of equity as of 14 January 2019, which is up from £66,965 in May 2017.

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Cross told Peer2Peer Finance News that the lender is now more concerned with supporting the rural businesses it serves, especially with Brexit approaching.

“We are a start-up and rely on the good faith of our shareholders to scale up,” Cross said.

“We are grateful to our shareholders for their continued support and hope to repay it in spades for years to come.

“We grew our loanbook by 38 per cent during 2018 and we haven’t finished yet.

“We are now more concerned with the impact of Brexit on the rural economy.”

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