Specialist fund manager Fintex Capital makes third property investment since lockdown

The three deals so far have seen Fintex extend up to £5m in private debt.

While the world hunkers down for a recession, alternative credit investor Fintex Capital has made up to £5m worth of private debt available in a series of property investments since the start of lockdown.

CEO and founder Robert Stafler told AltFi: “The best way to act in a dislocated market is to be decisive, and we have taken in new capital and extended close to £5m in three new deals, which is a lot for two months in private debt, but we knew you've got to act and act quickly.”

Stafler said Fintex saw its highest returns to-date in the month of April, with the quarter ending April seeing a 2.62 per cent return for investors.

The CEO said these results are a testament to the “dim view” that Fintex took on Brexit and the UK economy, which put it in good stead for the arrival of the unexpected coronavirus crisis.

"We were already avoiding risk because we were uncomfortable with topics like SME mortality rate, in the wake of Brexit," Stafler said.

Throughout the first quarter of 2020 Fintex worked to examine its portfolio of 10 outstanding UK loan facilities to understand how the virus and its fallout would affect all of its borrowers. In addition Fintex manages serveral portfolios of German consumer loans and US consumer loans, in all managing close to $150m.

Summing up his portfolio approach going forward, Stafler said: “We are currently reducing our exposure to cars and increasing our exposure to property, within property we are reducing our exposure to commercial and increasing our exposure to residential.”

The CEO made it clear that he’s looking to maintain strong borrower relationships, and will continue to invest, even as the landscape becomes more challenging in the weeks and months ahead.

“We should morally not be paid for lending if in a good market we relax the rules, and in a bad market we try to tighten the rules. So we are always lending through the cycle,” he said.

“This is a market where lenders wish to be seen as a blessing and not a curse, supporting society as a whole, in particular banks which in the last crisis became the devil, but the same is true for fintechs. We want to make sure that we're all in this together.”