Alternative mortgage lender LendInvest posts a 133 per cent rise in revenue as profit flattens out
Alternative mortgage company LendInvest has posted a 133 per cent increase in gross revenues for the year to 31 March 2016.
Revenue leapt to £32m, up from £14m in the year before.
Profits for the lender – which is targeting the funding gap left by the retreat of high street banks from the sector – remained flat however, coming in at £3.4m, up from £3.3m for the year before.
Flatter profits were put down to an increase in employee headcount – to 90 full time staff, from 34 previously – and investment in new technology.
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Total annual lending almost doubled to £320m over the year, from £174m.
LendInvest claims it has been "resilient" to the uncertainty created by the UK vote to quit the European Union in June, with gross revenue for the four months of its financial year since March 59 per cent up on last year.
Christian Faes, co-founder and chief executive, said:
In light of the headwinds that the Brexit vote has caused for the UK’s economy, it’s been particularly rewarding to see customer demand for our products still growing and we look forward to building on this positive momentum in the next year.
We have invested heavily in recruitment, technology development and underwriting expertise to keep our credit standards high and defaults low.
Over the summer Stephan Wilcke – the former executive chairman of OneSavings Bank – joined LendInvest as a senior adviser.
In April, LendInvest announced a new funding round worth £40m in the form of a warehouse financing deal with investment bank Macquarie.
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LendInvest said the £40m, used to fund mortgages via its website, will allow it to grow and consolidate its position in the UK short-term mortgage market.
LendInvest – which was spun out of spun out of real estate financier Montello in 2013 – manages around £300m on behalf of individual and institutional investors, and has lent £750m to professional property investors and developers across the UK.