LendInvest returns with second retail bond

The proposed issue comes eight months after its debut bond listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Property lending platform LendInvest is back for another bond issue. The firm has announced the proposed issue of sterling-denominated fixed rate notes, due October 2023, carrying a fixed rate of 5.375 per cent. The notes will be issued by its wholly-owned subsidiary LendInvest Secured Income.

LendInvest shook up its funding mix in May of last year when it closed off its P2P platform to retail investors. It then broke new ground with the launch of a retail bond offering in July, and by August had raised £50m in a significantly oversubscribed raise. That bond is now 99.6 per cent utilised, with an interest coverage ratio of 192 per cent and a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 57 per cent.

As with the last bond, the proceeds of the new issue will be used by LendInvest to fund the origination and/or purchase of bridging and buy-to-let loans. The notes carry a minimum investment amount of £2,000 and are available in multiples of £100 thereafter.

The bond will be secured “by way of a floating charge over all of the over the whole of the undertaking and all property, assets and rights, both present and future, of the Issuer”. It is expected to be eligible for inclusion within stocks and shares ISA or SIPP wrappers.

The offer opens today and is expected to close by midday on 29 March 2018. Peel Hunt LLP is acting as lead manager on the issue.

“We are delighted to be coming back to the market so soon after the successful issue of our first oversubscribed bond in August 2017,” said Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO of LendInvest.

“Our marketplace platform provides access to our loans to an extremely wide universe of investors, and our retail bonds make up an important channel for both retail and institutional investors alike. LendInvest provides investors with the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of loans that are all secured by property, at conservative LTV’s, and backed by an unrivalled 10-year track record.”