British Pearl targets £300m investment portfolio in three years
BRITISH Pearl is aiming to increase the size of its portfolio from £3m to £300m in three years, as it embarks on international partnerships to scale up the business.
The property investment platform, which launched to the public in July 2018, has raised over £6m in equity funding since inception and has invested more than £5m into the business.
Founder and chief executive Ali Celiker told Peer2Peer Finance News that he is now focusing on scaling up the company, after the General Election removed some of the political uncertainty blighting the property market.
“Last year had its challenges due to Brexit and its impact on the property market, so we have strategised carefully about how to grow the business this year,” he said.
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“This year our focus is on international partnerships and joint ventures to scale the business. We have incorporated a company in Hong Kong and are in talks with a conglomerate there, which has a large property portfolio in Hong Kong and mainland China.
“The partnership will enable Hong Kong investors to fund British Pearl projects in Hong Kong and also to access international investment opportunities.”
British Pearl is embarking on a separate joint venture in Europe and hopes to get the two partnerships established in the first half of the year.
“The focus in the second half of the year will be on increasing transaction volumes,” Celiker added.
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British Pearl’s latest annual accounts, filed with Companies House, reported a £1.68m loss for the 12 months to 31 March 2019, with cumulative losses totalling more than £4.8m.
Celiker said that half of the company’s spend to date has been in software development, with other costs including staff and marketing.
“Our revenues to date have been modest as we have £3m of assets under management but we expect these to increase as the portfolio grows,” he added.
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British Pearl has accumulated 2,500 registered customers, 450 of which have invested £2.7m through the platform to date for an average return of 4.2 per cent.
The customer conversion rate has improved to around 35 per cent over the last three months, Celiker revealed.
“From an investment performance perspective, we have done extremely well,” said Celiker.