Honeycomb sees positive impact from emergency loan schemes
The Honeycomb investment trust has hailed the impact of the government’s emergency support packages for businesses.
A May update from the alternative finance-focused fund said it was seeing a “positive impact” from the bounce back loans and the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme in providing “material support” to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
It said the scheme has led to “significant refinancing activity.”
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The update said the number of forbearance plans in the consumer side of its portfolio are starting to reduce with “early signs” that the majority are returning to full payments in July.
There has also been “strong refinancing” in its property holdings, the update said.
The investment trust posted a net asset value return of 0.42 per cent for May, which was the same as April and took its annual return to five per cent.
“The result includes an elevated level of provision to cover potential expected losses in the whole loan portfolio as opposed to realised losses as the manager prudently builds additional coverage on loans that are on forbearance and payment plans in line with Bank of England and regulatory guidance,” Honeycomb said.
“The result also includes the impact of the reduced portfolio size with net investment assets reducing from a peak of £595m in February 2020 to £560m at the end of May with debt being reduced over the same period from £221m to £183m.”
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