Folk2Folk doubles its profits
Folk2Folk is on track to achieve a pre-tax profit of £1.98m for its 2021 financial year, almost double the £1.1m from the previous year, as it targets further growth through institutional investment and acquiring loanbooks from other platforms.
The peer-to-peer lending platform and specialist lender for UK regional small- and medium-sized enterprises said the profit, subject to audit, will be its largest to date and marks three consecutive years of profit for the company.
During 2021, Folk2Folk returned to its pre-2020 track record of double-digit loanbook growth, achieved an annual lending record of £108m, expanded into Northern Ireland and secured a £7m funding line from the British Business Investments.
Going forward, managing director Roy Warren (pictured) said that the platform has “ambitious growth plans”, is seeing considerable loan volumes, is eyeing institutional investment and aims to tap into an opportunity to acquire loanbooks from other platforms.
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“I am proud that during 2021 we delivered on what we said we’re going to do and are financially robust,” he said.
“But we’re not stopping there, we have ambitious growth plans for this year which are already moving ahead at pace. We see huge opportunities to write considerable volumes of loans across the UK, and institutional investment is a key part of our strategy to support that.
“We also expect the alternative finance market to continue to consolidate and present opportunity for us to acquire loanbooks from other platforms. We see this as a growth area for us and are actively looking within the market to move forward with this.
“We have to anticipate that 2022 is likely to be a challenging year for everyone, with a backdrop of inflation, rising interest rates, and hostilities in Eastern Europe all feeding into an uncertain external environment. This makes having a solid and sound base for any business ever more important.
“With only a small handful of lending platforms turning a profit, our strong profit levels evidence Folk2Folk’s stability in terms of finances, business levels and governance, and we know this supports investor and borrower confidence in us.”
In September, Folk2Folk said it was on track to double its profits in 2021 after breaking the £1m profit barrier the previous year.