Many investors like the simplicity, ease and liquidity of investing in a publicly traded fund. There are currently five closed end funds that are publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange and focus on the marketplace lending industry. In this post we’ll share the details of each fund and dig into the differences between them. As you will note from the table below, most of the funds are trading at significant discounts to their NAV. The Funding Circle SME Income Fund trades closest to it’s NAV at a 2.5% discount as depicted below.
| FUND | P2P GLOBAL INVESTMENTS (P2P) | VICTORY PARK CAPITAL SPECIALTY LENDING (VSL) | RANGER DIRECT LENDING (RDL) | GLI ALTERNATIVE FINANCE (GLAF) | FUNDING CIRCLE SME INCOME FUND (FCIF) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market Cap (millions) | £729.29 | £306.09 | £149.97 | £94.57 | £147.75 |
| Performance (YTD)* | -15.12% | -14.63% | 3.96% | -7.89% | -2.62% |
| Leverage | 1x | 1x-1.5x | 0.5x | No | 0.25x-0.5x |
| Fees | 1% net assets, .5% leveraged assets, 15% performance | 1%, 15% performance | 1%, 10% performance | 0.8% | N/A |
| Premium/Discount to NAV | (15.97%) - June, 2016 | (11.75%) - May, 2016 | (17.38%) - June 2016 | (11.41%) - June 2016 | (2.5%) - June 2016 |
*NAV performance YTD through time of writing on August 2, 2016, dividends excluded.
