Lending Works to double staff and target £1bn in lending after Intriva takeover
Lending Works plans to increase its headcount from 40 to around 100 in the next couple of years, while eyeing annual lending of approximately £1bn over the next five years.
In a note to investors, the peer-to-peer lending platform said that it intends to “continue to invest heavily in our people and product with the objective of offering attractive and stable loss-adjusted yields to investors.”
Last week Lending Works announced that it was being acquired by fund manager Intriva Capital, which focuses on special situations and distressed investment strategies across Western Europe.
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Lending Works told investors that the acquisition will also help the platform to diversify its funding base by opening up other forms of institutional capital.
“This offers an indirect benefit to our retail investors as it will enable us to scale up the business significantly, therefore making it more resilient,” said the investor note.
“As has always been the case, retail investors will never be disadvantaged by institutional lenders joining the platform. Loans are allocated to different lenders at random, and no lender is able to actively select loans or have any form of competitive advantage in picking the best loans.”
The note added that Intriva “fully supports” Lending Works’ growth plans, and “will provide the company with the resources needed to achieve its objectives.”
However, the platform was unable to tell investors when it would be exiting the ‘normalisation period’ – a recently extended period of time during which all new lending has been paused.
“There remains significant uncertainty in the economy and credit markets due to the coronavirus crisis, and we continue to work hard to protect your investments,” said the platform.
“We are conscious that at this moment in time you will want to know when we will exit the ‘normalisation period’, what the performance of your investment and the loan portfolio will be, and have certainty for the future. All of these things will be communicated as soon as we possibly can.”
