Are more platforms planning to go public?
Funding Circle became the first UK peer-to-peer lending platform to list on the stock market back in 2018 and more platforms are now considering a public listing.
Here Peer2Peer Finance News summarises some of the most recent stock market floats and future plans to go public.
Read more: P2P lenders urged caution with stock market floats
Zopa
The world’s oldest P2P platform was reported to have appointed JP Morgan to help with a £100m funding round that would be its last ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO).
According to Sky News this would value the platform-turned-bank at more than £500m and push it toward becoming a unicorn with a £1bn valuation.
In the summer, the platform said it was planning to list in London next year or in early 2023.
Shojin Property Partners
Speaking at the P2P Investing Summit, a virtual event hosted by Peer2Peer Finance News and AngelNews, Shojin Property Partners chief Jatin Ondhia said that he saw the platform going public or being bought out in three years’ time.
The platform’s £10m Series A fundraise went live in August, offering early investors a discount, aiming to raise £3.5m from investors on its platform, converting £1.7m through the future fund and £5m through private placement from large investments.
LendInvest
In July, former Peer-to-Peer Finance Association member LendInvest started trading on London’s Aim.
The online property lender, which is no longer open to retail investors, filed IPO documents which valued the company at £255.6m.
LendInvest said that it expected to raise £40m through the IPO, which will be invested in new property finance product areas and technology.
Assetz Capital
Assetz Capital chief executive Stuart Law told Peer2Peer Finance News in March that the P2P platform plans to launch an IPO within the next three years, as part of long-term expansion plans.
He said the platform expects to plan a modest free float at the end of that time period.
Robo.cash
The European P2P platform had been planning to launch its IPO on the Australian stock market last December to fund its launch of a digital bank in the Philippines, but this has now been postponed until the second half of 2021.
Robo.cash said this was because it wanted to explore its listing options, after profits for the first nine months of 2020 exceeded expectations.
Robo.cash achieved earnings of £16.2m for January to September 2020, a rise from a net profit of £12.72m for the whole of 2019.
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