BLN investors paid £6m but admins lower expected recoveries again
Business Loan Network’s (BLN’s) administrators have paid £6m to investors so far, according to the latest update on covering the six months to 14 April.
In the latest update, administrator Kroll lowered its forecast for expected loan recoveries once again, to £20.2m, up from £22m in November 2021. But the administrators advised that this estimate is likely to change again, as it does not include the recovery of accrued interest.
When the administrators were appointed in April 2021, there were 163 outstanding loans to 73 borrowers, worth around £49.5m.
Read more: Business Loan Network appoints administrators
During the period from October 2021 to April 2022 a further 22 loans have been redeemed and the administrators paid lender withdrawal requests from client assets of £4.2m and from the client money pool of £1.8m. There are now 129 loans left with outstanding balanced of £40.1m.
A total of £7.2m of client assets have been collected and allocated to lenders’ accounts.
Nearly £418k, which is subject to the outcome of an ongoing legal review, has been allocated to the company’s client account. Nearly £1.1m has been also allocated to the company’s client account, the majority of which will be shortly moved to the lenders’ accounts.
Based on the revised estimates, the administrators said fees and costs are likely to be slightly lower than the previously estimated £1.7m. Over the period, the administrators collected £375k of fees and costs, bringing total realisations to £459k.
Although an administration automatically comes to an end after one year, the administrators have extended it for another 12 months. The next progress report is due in October.
BLN was formerly known as ThinCats, which exited the retail peer-to-peer lending market in December 2019 to focus on institutional funding. It fell into administration in April 2021 following a number of complaints that it could not afford to pay out.
Read more: Six key takeaways from Business Loan Network’s first administration report