Читать книгу How To Become A Business Angel - Richard Hargreaves - Страница 61

Finally, there are ways of lending to small companies and receiving an attractive headline rate of interest whilst making a secured and credit risk assessed loan. That idea may appeal as part of the diversification of your portfolio.

I am aware of two organisations that organise lending by individuals to companies using online techniques:

1 Funding Circle (www.fundingcircle.com) offers lenders a portfolio of small stakes in several credit agency risk-assessed loans.

2 Thincats.com takes a different approach and instead uses experienced sponsors (for example ex-bank managers) who directly assess a loan application, which might be for as much as £1m over five years.

With both these organisations, once a potential lender has decided they like a particular opportunity they can bid an amount and an interest rate to join the syndicate. Those lenders offering the best interest rates are selected to make up the lending syndicate and get the interest rate they have asked for.

In both cases the deal completion, including legal documents and security, are arranged for the lender. Because the costs and profit margin of a bank are missing, both borrower and lender benefit. At least that is the theory.

I do need to end on a cautionary note. The headline interest rates quoted by websites such as these are very misleading. They take no account of costs or bad debts. Proper allowance for these may easily halve the headline rate and then the returns do not look at all attractive. Coupled to this is the lack of certainty of the timing of repayment, which may make bank savings accounts seem a better bet.