BLN investors repaid £3.49m as admin costs reach £1.53m
Business Loan Network’s (BLN) administrators have repaid investors £3.49m so far, while administrator fees are expected to reach £1.53m.
In the latest progress update, administrator Kroll lowered its forecast for expected loan recoveries by £3m. Approximately £22m is now expected to be returned to lenders overall, before fees and costs.
Kroll was appointed as administrator of BLN – the peer-to-peer lending arm of business lender ThinCats – in April 2021.
At the time, there were 163 outstanding loans to 73 borrowers, with an outstanding loan value of approximately £49.5m.
Since April, 12 loans have been redeemed, and the joint administrators have paid lender withdrawal requests from client assets of just over £1.96m, and from the client money pool of approximately £1.52m.
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The administrators said that they will continue to process and pay lender withdrawal requests weekly. They request all investors to submit lender withdrawal requests by logging onto the platform and submitting the request where they have uninvested client monies held in their account.
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The administrators said lenders will continue to receive updates on their loans by email, and said that estimated loan recoveries have been revised to around £22m – down from the £25.9m estimate given in June.
“The reduction in estimated loan recoveries relates solely to a group of non-performing loans and, in some extent, is because of prudent estimation,” the administration progress report said.
“The estimates for the majority of other loans have slightly increased on an overall basis. It should also be noted that the current estimate does not include the recovery of accrued interest, which is likely to change.”
The administrators added that a £1.53m fee estimate was approved by the BLN creditors committee and effectively acts as a cap on the remuneration that can be drawn by the joint administrators, subject to there being sufficient funds in the administration estate.
The joint administrators’ total time costs incurred for the period of 15 April to 14 October totalled £467,618, which represents 1,023 hours at an average hourly rate of £457.
Pre-administration fees from Kroll and lawyers Gunnercooke totalled £486,017, of which £296,473 has been paid and £189,544 is unpaid.
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