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Post by timm2006 on May 11, 2016 23:20:11 GMT
Hello
I've been investing in various P2P sites, and am considering Zopa. However, company house reports show they posted a 5 million loss last year, and 2 million loss the year before, which makes me feel a bit uneasy if they are losing money each year? Is anyone else considering investing in Zopa concerned about putting money in a loss making platform?
Thanks
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Post by eascogo on May 12, 2016 3:02:29 GMT
Hello I've been investing in various P2P sites, and am considering Zopa. However, company house reports show they posted a 5 million loss last year, and 2 million loss the year before, which makes me feel a bit uneasy if they are losing money each year? Is anyone else considering investing in Zopa concerned about putting money in a loss making platform? Thanks On Zopa's website I see a link to a piece in The Telegraph from Sept 2015. This gives a brief explanation of Zopa's current situation: "Zopa doubles revenue in peer-to-peer boom. The P2P lender is making heavy losses as it hires more staff, but hopes to turn profitable in 2017". See www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11864516/Zopa-doubles-revenue-in-peer-to-peer-boom.htmlDebts incurred to scale up operation are often unavoidable. In the context of Zopa's size of operation a £5m loss might not be worrying but the risk of miscalculation remains. I imagine that Zopa is unlikely to be the only P2P platform operating at a loss. The advice given on this forum to diversify across loans and across platforms is worth repeating.
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Post by GSV3MIaC on May 12, 2016 7:38:37 GMT
Last time I looked, only RS was making a profit .. FC was making a big loss too, most others smaller losses. You should expect that in rapidly growing businesses. I didn't check them all though.
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james
Posts: 2,205
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Post by james on May 15, 2016 2:51:01 GMT
Last time I looked, only RS was making a profit .. FC was making a big loss too, most others smaller losses. You should expect that in rapidly growing businesses. I didn't check them all though. MoneyThing have said that they have been profitable month to month for the last few months but that their next year end report will still show an overall loss for that year.
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jonah
Member of DD Central
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Post by jonah on May 15, 2016 7:47:13 GMT
Last time I looked, only RS was making a profit .. FC was making a big loss too, most others smaller losses. You should expect that in rapidly growing businesses. I didn't check them all though. MoneyThing have said that they have been profitable month to month for the last few months but that their next year end report will still show an overall loss for that year. Saving stream has also said they are profitable on this forum iirc.
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Post by dualinvestor on May 15, 2016 10:50:54 GMT
Hello I've been investing in various P2P sites, and am considering Zopa. However, company house reports show they posted a 5 million loss last year, and 2 million loss the year before, which makes me feel a bit uneasy if they are losing money each year? Is anyone else considering investing in Zopa concerned about putting money in a loss making platform? Thanks Most of the other companies have not yet published accounts, small correction to your post, the £5.6million loss was for 2014. Zopa has not, as far as I am aware, ever made a profit since 2005 and had accumulated losses to 2014 of £21.8million, this has been funded by its venture capital owners. 2015 accounts will, if past years are anything to go by, be published in around 3 months time. On the plus side they publish far more information than the law requires them to. Ratesetter does take advantage of the small company exemptions but does appear to have made a profit c.£700,000 in 2014, at the year end it still had accumulated losses, but had £26million in the bank from a recent fund raising (as per a post by WestonKev some time ago). Although there has been some information on the other platforms none of those mentioned have published accounts as they are not yet required to, except Lendy Limited the owner of Savings Stream, which does not look too healthy. With the exception of Zopa most companies have limited trading records and are more or less start ups. Most of them have backers but there is no legal obligation upon them to throw good money after bad if they think the platform is not viable. So it is really a case of caveat fenerantis. Edit There has been some discussion on other threads that the FCA requires platforms to have run off contingency plans. Edit 2 Funding Circle had losses of £10.8 million in 2014 and accumulated losses of £20.3 million since it started trading in 2009. Similar to Zopa it publishes full accounts, although not obliged to, and has its losses funded by its holding company.
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