UPDATE: UK-based P2P Global takes 4.5% stake in Harmoney
(Adds details of shareholding)
By Paul McBeth
Sept. 25 (BusinessDesk) - UK-based peer-to-peer lender P2P Global Investments has lifted its stake in local platform
operator Harmoney to 4.5 percent, while also giving the Auckland-based firm a $200 million funding line.
P2P Global Investments increased its holding in Harmoney to about 7 million shares worth some $4 million, a Harmoney
spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. That implies a share price of 57 cents and is up from about 1.1 million
shares, or 0.3 percent in February. That month, P2P Global Investments participated in an earlier capital raising,
buying about 615,000 shares at 32.5 cents a share, according to Companies Office filings. That implies the UK firm paid
about $3.1 million for the new shares.
Harmoney says the equity injection values it at $100 million, up from $55 million during the January capital raising,
and the current funding round is still open to the firm's investors.
"P2PGI has been an institutional investor on the Harmoney marketplace since early 2015," founder and chief executive
Neil Roberts said in a statement. "Their equity investment in the company aligns the two companies even closer."
The other leg of the deal will see the UK-firm "purchase loans from the Harmoney marketplace up to $200 million over the
next three years across both the New Zealand and Australian markets." Harmoney facilitated $100 million of loans in its
first year of operation.
In January, Trade Me Group, New Zealand's biggest online auction site, paid $7.7 million for a 15 percent stake as part
of the peer-to-peer lender's $10 million capital-raising, joining Heartland New Zealand, the listed bank, which took a
10 percent stake last September, for an undisclosed sum.
In August, P2P Global Investments said its investment manager entered into a deal with Harmoney in the first half of the
year, calling it "a promising New Zealand based platform." It has also established deals with US platforms Lending Club,
Upstart, and Prosper, and UK peer-to-peer lenders Funding Circle, Zopa, and RateSetter.
Harmoney launched in September 2014 with $100 million of committed lending capital from institutions including Blue
Elephant Capital Management in New York and Heartland Bank.
(BusinessDesk)