On 28 February Proplend confirmed to its participating ‘Lenders’ that it’s latest peer to peer loan had drawn down. Nothing too remarkable about that until you consider that the commercial property-secured platform had only received the lending enquiry 6 days earlier.
Stewart Bruce, business development manager at Proplend, received the loan enquiry from a commercial finance broker who had a client needing to complete on a site with commercial property over which they had an option. The client had just received planning but only had 6 business days before their option expired.
Faced with such challenging timescales, fellow NACFB-members, PIA Financial Group who brokered the finance, understandably approached a number of potential lenders. But only one showed the necessary commitment and confidence in their own processes to make the required £1.6m bridging loan facility available by the end of February deadline.
Proplend issued indicative terms the same day and these were gratefully accepted within 24 hours. Within 2 days members of the borrowing team had met with the client and within 5 days had completed their comprehensive ‘know your customer’ checks and due diligence.
The loan request approved and Proplend’s extensive lender base having been informed of the investment opportunity within the hour, a fixed time was set for the loan to go ‘In Funding’ on the platform the following day. And even without the platform’s soon to launch Auto-Lend facility, Proplend’s registered platform Classic and Innovative ISA account lenders wasted little time in satisfying the full loan requirement.
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In under 6 hours the loan had been fully-funded and the borrowers notified. The loan was drawn down and the site purchased before the option deadline. 200+ participating Lenders had started earning more than 10% fixed interest on a loan to value of 33% within 48 hours. Proplend CEO Brian Bartaby commenting; “This is what peer to peer lending is all about. We accepted the challenge for the benefit of our Lenders and to help a borrower who was presented with a big opportunity, but a race against time.”
“Our technology platform might have facilitated the lending arrangements, but we couldn’t have done it without our Lenders who as always were ready and eager to lend. Nor could we have met the deadline without the experience, groundwork and motivation of the appointed representatives in question, acting for the borrower.”
“PIA Financial Group is an established introducer of high-quality loan requirements to Proplend, they produced a comprehensive due diligence pack and we are pleased to have completed this transaction with them.” stated Bartaby.
Gitesh Patel of PIA Financial Group added; “There really aren’t many lenders who can understand and turn around deals like this within such a tight timeframe”.
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Proplend was advised by a team from Paris Smith led by Nick Vaughan, Senior LLP Partner, and Alexander Cheele, Solicitor. Philip Gould, Head of Credit at Proplend, added; “The longstanding relationship between the teams at Proplend and Paris Smith meant that any potential issues were identified and resolved early, making the process seamless with the deadline for completion being met with relative comfort”.
Gould concluded; “Speed and flexibility are often cited as benefits of peer to peer lending over traditional high street lending and both were certainly in evidence here. It’s not always possible to act quite so fluidly but now we’ve proved it is indeed possible!”
