closed end fund Archives

Navigating the Publicly Listed Funds in the UK

We delve into the details of five publicly listed funds in the UK that invest in marketplace lending.

August 2, 2016 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

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.

P2P Global Investments

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The State of The Retail Investor in P2P Lending

Over the last year more options have opened up for retail investors in P2P lending, but we may see more progress in 2016.

February 10, 2016 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

Over the last year there have been many developments for retail investors in p2p lending. This is a trend I expect to continue throughout 2016 as investors have more options to access marketplace lending and real estate crowdfunding. Most notable has been the maturing of the third party tools and new investment options in the form of Regulation A+ deals over the last year. In this post, we’ll review the state of the retail investor in p2p lending.

Lending Club and Prosper remain the only options for retail investors to invest in unsecured loans. Many investors prefer to use third party tools to direct their investments with these platforms. Some of these tools have stopped operations altogether while others have merged. We last reported on all of the third party tools in February of 2015. Here is a breakdown of the major news stories that feature the main tools still in operation for retail investors: [Read more…]

Van Eck Overland Launching a Closed-End Fund Investing in Online Loans

The first U.S. listed closed end fund for marketplace lending, a collaboration between UBS, Van Eck and Overland, files with the SEC.

July 28, 2015 By Peter Renton 11 Comments

Last week a new player emerged on the marketplace lending scene. A Form N-2 registration was filed with the SEC by Van Eck Overland Online Finance Trust to form a new, publicly traded closed-end fund. UBS, the world’s largest wealth management firm, was named as lead manager.

I have known Alex Dunev from UBS for quite some time. Alex leads UBS’ coverage of marketplace lending, so when I discovered this filing we, along with Steve Pierson, UBS’ Global Head of Financial Technology, had a phone conversation to discuss the offering.

The First Publicly Traded Closed-End Fund

The Van Eck Overland (“VEO”) closed-end fund will be the first listed closed-end fund that invests primarily in loans originated by online lenders. Van Eck is an investment management firm that has a long history with mutual funds and ETFs. Overland Advisors will be the sub-advisor of this fund with Peter Sterling as the portfolio manager. Sterling has been investing in marketplace lending for some time as the President of the Overland Direct Yield Fund. Alex Dunev commented: [Read more…]