mason
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Post by mason on Jan 22, 2017 17:01:42 GMT
As the end of the tax year approaches, I was considering this platform as a contingency for my 2016/17 Iffy ISA as it would also give me some added diversification against my existing P2P holdings. On closer inspection, it seems like getting invested into a suitable number of projects could prove very difficult. I don't see anything forthcoming in the pipeline, either on the site or the blog, with the last new project launch mentioned being in November 2016. The secondary market does not look one in which buyers are currently getting a fair deal (presumably due to lack of supply).
I appreciate this tends to be a slow time of the year for new opportunities, but are things likely to pick up over the next couple of months and what would that look like?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2017 17:53:05 GMT
As the end of the tax year approaches, I was considering this platform as a contingency for my 2016/17 Iffy ISA as it would also give me some added diversification against my existing P2P holdings. On closer inspection, it seems like getting invested into a suitable number of projects could prove very difficult. I don't see anything forthcoming in the pipeline, either on the site or the blog, with the last new project launch mentioned being in November 2016. The secondary market does not look one in which buyers are currently getting a fair deal (presumably due to lack of supply). I appreciate this tends to be a slow time of the year for new opportunities, but are things likely to pick up over the next couple of months and what would that look like? I'd considered Abundance for this years IFISA and came to much the same conclusion that I'd never manage a diversified portfolio in the remaining 16/17 timescale. The only viable option seemed to be buy heavy in whatever becomes available and hold a lack of diversification until more comes along next year when I could sell down my holding to fund new projects. I think I've decided to give this option a miss and am hoping other IFISA will be launched shortly. Perhaps Lending Works! Not ruling out abundance in 17/18 though with a full year to diversify my holding and the positive like you say of adding a new string to my p2p bow in the green arena.
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scc
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Post by scc on Jan 23, 2017 15:53:16 GMT
Abundance projects are a bit like buses - it can be quiet for a while, and then you get a rush of them - and not always much warning. That said, I think there were less than 10 of them in 2016. I reckon we might see a couple before the end of this tax year, but I'd be surprised if there was more than that.
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greatmarko
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Post by greatmarko on Jan 23, 2017 18:00:53 GMT
I excitedly joined Abundance towards the end of November last year. At the time there were 2 "live" loans, and 2 coming soon - which they indeed did... although by the end of December, they'd all completely filled, and there's been nothing "coming soon" ever since. The last of these loans to go live (on 16th December) was a Wind one, however, the supporting information for it stated: " ..there has been a significant reduction in the Feed-in-Tariff for onshore wind, so this will be the last opportunity to invest in wind on Abundance for the foreseeable future" (my bold) So it's all gone a bit quiet...  Hoping for some new projects on the platform to invest more of my IFISA with before April... but there's nothing on the horizon at the moment! |
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mason
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Post by mason on Jan 23, 2017 19:21:02 GMT
Thanks, it's pretty much as I suspected then. Not really feasible to get much invested this tax year.
I suppose I do always have the option of dumping some cash into the account at the end of the tax year and then flexibly withdraw it at the start of the next tax year, so that I can gradually replace the funds as new investments come along. That will leave me free to open a 2017/18 IF ISA somewhere else at the same time.
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greatmarko
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Post by greatmarko on Jan 25, 2017 16:48:40 GMT
Just received this - you may be able to get invested this tax year- All in all you raised more than £17m for our issuers across a range of technologies, so much so we found ourselves sold out for Christmas.With the obvious break over the festivities our expanded projects team is working hard on new projects to bring to you in time for the more conventional ISA rush in the run up to the April tax year end. Just a reminder that you can invest up to £15240 of your ISA allowance for this year across your cash, stocks and shares and now of course, our, Abundance IFISA. The exciting news to add is that Abundance is shifting to thinking bigger than renewable energy. Coinciding with the new government’s focus on industrial strategy (in particular the need to invest in infrastructure that supports the development of the economy) Abundance is looking at a range of socially useful investments which can complement our offering of renewable energy projects. When we asked you in September, the response was an overwhelming positive for expanding the range of win win investments your money can help make happen. Areas such as education, health, broadband, local authorities services, social housing etc were all viewed as positive next steps for our team to consider. We think there is a real opportunity to make sure the smaller, more locally focused projects get the funding they need – projects which are overlooked by the usual backers of such long term investments. The whole thrust of the government strategy is that the national headlines don’t hide the need for local renewal and that more people, specifically ordinary investors such our yourselves, share in the returns to be made in supporting the development of a sustainable economy. The response from the market, the people who put together those projects, has been positive also and we are now actively examining a number of deals which we hope to see over the coming months on our site. And don’t worry, those of you who are keen to back more renewable energy projects, there is still plenty to do there as the cost of renewables comes down further and starts to compete on a level playing field with new developments in unsustainable alternatives. Also worth highlighting a couple of other notable bits from that: Abundance are going to be moving/diversifying away from renewal energy
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stevio
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Post by stevio on Jan 25, 2017 20:40:29 GMT
Thanks, it's pretty much as I suspected then. Not really feasible to get much invested this tax year. I suppose I do always have the option of dumping some cash into the account at the end of the tax year and then flexibly withdraw it at the start of the next tax year, so that I can gradually replace the funds as new investments come along. That will leave me free to open a 2017/18 IF ISA somewhere else at the same time. Could do the same with cash ISA as long as flexible Looked at Abundance - do they have more info on loans if register as info without is abissmal
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greatmarko
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Post by greatmarko on Jan 25, 2017 22:22:32 GMT
Looked at Abundance - do they have more info on loans if register as info without is abissmal Yes, generally the investor info for each loan is pretty good - for example, for the last two live loans at the end of last year, there was a 48-page document for one, and a 52-page document for the other. Typically, these "offer documents" are split into sections. For example, here's the contents from the offer document for a recent wind turbine: - Why buy an ***** Debenture
- Key elements of the offer
- Meet the directors
- Who is involved
- Introduction to Feed-in Tariffs
- The basics of wind energy
- Wind resource and electricity generation at *****
- The story so far
- The turbine
- The numbers – how your money will be used, our revenues, our costs
- The numbers – understanding operating surplus
- What you get back
- From wind to cash returns
- Repayment of your investment and tax
- A note on security
- The risks
- How you subscribe
- The role of Abundance as the Agent
- What happens when
- Your questions answered
- The legal agreement
- Our service providers
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mason
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Post by mason on Jan 30, 2017 6:47:24 GMT
I suppose I do always have the option of dumping some cash into the account at the end of the tax year and then flexibly withdraw it at the start of the next tax year, so that I can gradually replace the funds as new investments come along. That will leave me free to open a 2017/18 IF ISA somewhere else at the same time. Could do the same with cash ISA as long as flexible That's true in general, but not in my case as I am making use of a HTB ISA.
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greatmarko
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Post by greatmarko on Feb 21, 2017 1:47:44 GMT
abundance - you recently indicated in an email that you were working hard to bring us several loans in time for this year's ISA. I personally am not using an IFISA, but would be keen for an update on your pipeline, given the impending end of the tax year. Yeah, it's all gone - worryingly - very quiet! Their last new loan was over two months ago now, and no sign of anything "coming soon" either!
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scc
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Post by scc on Feb 21, 2017 14:46:54 GMT
They are offering 2% on any cash in their IFSA until 31st May. I think we can take it that any new projects might miss this year's ISA deadline.
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greatmarko
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Post by greatmarko on Feb 21, 2017 15:18:19 GMT
They are offering 2% on any cash in their IFSA until 31st May. I think we can take it that any new projects might miss this year's ISA deadline. Indeed! ..although the details are a little ambiguous: " You will also only receive the 2% AER return on uninvested cash funds, as soon as you invest your ISA cash you will no longer recieve the 2% AER return." So, if you put say £1,000 into your Abundance IFISA today, then it'll sit there gaining 2% AER until 31st May. However, if a new project comes along on the platform before then, and you put say £200 of your £1,000 into that, this above statement would seem to imply that you would then no longer receive 2% AER on the remaining £800 that's just sitting there uninvested? I suspect, what Abundance actually mean is: "You will also only receive the 2% AER return on uninvested cash funds, as soon as you invest your ISA cash you will no longer recieve the 2% AER return on the amount invested." ...but it's still a little ambiguous!
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Post by abundance on Feb 23, 2017 11:37:51 GMT
To @leopardcat and others who had questions on the pipeline of new investments on Abundance: We have new projects coming in our pipeline which we are working hard to get ready to launch as soon as possible - we're pretty excited about some of the things we have coming up so we hope they will also be of interest to you and thank you for your patience while we finalise new investments for you. We have two projects in particular that we are working on completing - it will be touch and go whether either of them will be ready before the end of the tax year, but we will do our best. We won't rush an investment out before we are comfortable with it. Once a project is closer to launching we will get a Coming Soon page up on the Abundance website to give you a better idea about what we have in the pipeline. In terms of our longer term pipeline, we have a lot of possible investments to focus on and we have recently expanded our projects team to allow us to get more investments launched. We will still be looking at renewable energy investments, including some new technologies on Abundance, but we've also got lots of interesting potential projects in other areas like energy efficiency, healthcare, education and other socially useful infrastructure. In answer to the comments on our new 2% AER offer: We are offering a 2% AER bonus on any cash held in an Abundance ISA up until 31 May 2017. This includes any money you may already have in an Abundance ISA, and any cash you add to it - be that new contributions to your ISA or transferring from another ISA. We have launched this bonus to coincide with the upcoming tax year end to allow you to add money to your Abundance ISA and still earn a return while we prepare the next investment opportunities. We hope to launch a new investment before the end of the tax year and if not, soon after. greatmarkoIf you decide to invest into one of our upcoming investments you will still receive the 2% AER on any remaining cash you continue to hold in your Abundance ISA, up until 31 May 2017 - it is only the amount you invest that will no longer be earning the 2% AER. I'll update the wording on the FAQs to make it clearer. |
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jj
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Jolly Jammy
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Post by jj on Apr 19, 2017 18:03:27 GMT
Am thinking there should be another update due soon. We have abundance adverts all over the place but no loans to buy. That can't be right. How about an update abundance ? |
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 8:47:03 GMT
I've always liked Abundance as a platform name but it certainly wasn't chosen to represent the absolute drought on the pipeline, having transferred into the IFISA it's been great to earn 2% in the interim but with the end of may (and the end of interest) on the horizon can we expect any propositions to arrive and make this an Abundant place to be!! abundance? |
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