pikestaff
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Post by pikestaff on Apr 27, 2017 11:38:35 GMT
Not quite p2p, but does anyone know anything about / have experience of this outfit? freplc.co.uk/It seems to be a corporate, building wind turbines and holding the project equity itself, issuing bonds direct to investors. Turbine size is what we are used to seeing on p2p platforms, and the money is being raised for pre-accredited, shovel ready sites. Rates 7-8% advertised. Exit by refinancing the debt after 3 years. |
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fp
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Post by fp on Apr 27, 2017 18:57:02 GMT
Whatever you do, don't register interest unless you like to be phoned and pestered to death  After the first two telephone calls I took to ignoring the number, then he took to phoning on a withheld number, at which point he found out my patience was quite limited. |
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Post by cack3x on Sept 19, 2017 13:17:14 GMT
Pikestaff,
Did you end up investing in this? I'm considering it and haven't seen much in the way of reviews. Please let me know your experience.
C
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pikestaff
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Post by pikestaff on Sept 19, 2017 16:58:08 GMT
No, although I did register interest (before I was warned off by fp). I received a phone call, followed up by an email, from a gent in Canary Wharf. The rate seemed to be somewhat negotiable and I was offered 9% for a £10,000 3 year loan. There was an £89 arrangement fee which reduced the effective rate to 8.7%. Factors which put me off were: - there would be some dead time - there is no secondary market (although this has not stopped me from investing on Downing) - the information I was given on the turbines lacked detail compared to what one gets on AC or TC - at the time, there were no audited accounts. I was assured they would be available soon but they could not wait for my money. Audited accounts for the period to 30 June 2016 were filed on 10 May, just 2 weeks later. beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC505596/filing-history. They show a loss of £0.5m offset by a revaluation surplus of £1.0m (net of tax) on the turbines. The accounts are signed off by a proper firm (BDO) and I don't think they look too bad for a start-up, but everything depends on the valuations. Note 8 shows that the rate paid to bondholders on the first two loans was between 9 and 10.25%, but the effective interest rate payable by the company was between 15.75% and 18.75%. The difference was presumably commission to intermediaries. That's a pretty eye-watering spread, although it may not be out of line with the likes of Lendy. Note 9 refers to a securitisation of the turbines after the year end. I think this will have involved hiving off the turbines and the debt into separate SPVs. I will be interested to see the details of that, and how it is accounted for, in the 2017 accounts. If I like what I see; if they are still finding projects to do; and if I can see the spread coming down, I might take another look then. |
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fp
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Post by fp on Sept 19, 2017 18:16:52 GMT
I don't actually think I found anything untoward about the actual set-up when i looked into it, the thing which put me off were the woes being suffered by some who have invested in renewables via some of the P2P sites, and the twice daily phone calls I received after originally looking at them didn't really help their cause, Bassetgold are currently burning that fuse!
I'm looking for a little more hands off investment at the moment, so I may well re-visit them in the not too distant future and re-evaluate.
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shimself
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Post by shimself on Sept 22, 2017 9:03:15 GMT
Look at the turbine performance reports on AC. There are plenty which are way below forecast. I'm now out of turbine projects until they are up and running (and even then they can go wrong and constructor guarantees aren't rock solid because constructors themselves are on (rocky?) ground)
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