P2PGI Enters FTSE 250

A short update on P2PGI, which has now entered into the FTSE 250.

The world’s oldest and largest marketplace lending focused fund enters the Index alongside fellow newcomers Sophos – the cyber security firm – and biopharmaceutical firm Circassia. P2PGI’s inclusion is said to reflect the heightened level of investor interest that is currently being generated by the alternative finance space.

P2PGI debuted on the London Stock Exchange in May 2014, raising £200m. Since then, the company has taken on a further £670m in share capital, bringing its total fundraising to date to £870m. Mostly recently the investment trust closed a £400m C Share issue ahead of schedule amidst “very strong” demand. The fund has attracted a host of imitators over the past year, but continues to hold down the top spot in terms of cumulative money raised.

The inclusion of P2PGI within the FTSE 250 is relevant in that it opens up another avenue of indirectly investing in the global P2P/marketplace lending space. Investors will be able to allocate cash to FTSE 250 tracker funds, the performance of which will be partly determined by the success of P2PGI. There is currently over £1.1bn in net assets tied up in the iShares FTSE 250 UCITS ETF. P2PGI accounts for 0.27% of that total. That equates to a little over £3m of money that has been channeled directly into the P2PGI vehicle via the iShares tracker product. Whilst £3m isn’t a significant number for P2PGI at present, the money that will flow into the fund in the future might well be.