Innovative investment bond launched to boost UK property market
An innovative new investment vehicle to provide funds to support UK property deals – commercial and residential – has been launched by one of the UK’s leading private equity firms in conjunction with a financial technology (fintech) firm.
MAVEN Bonds has been designed to provide investors with the chance to diversify their investment portfolio while earning annual tax-free returns of up to 7.75%.
Maven Capital Partners in conjunction with fintech company Growth Capital Ventures (GCV) aim to raise up to £7m from the initial bond offer. Minimum investments start at £1,000.
The bond works by providing secured loans to property developers and property development companies. Returns are generated by charging interest and fees on these loans.
The venture has been driven by rising demand for good quality housing. It is also a response to the lack of affordable mainstream finance available to property investors in many sectors such as hotels, student accommodation and residential.
It gives MAVEN Bonds investors who are looking for higher risk investments the potential to earn much higher returns than those offered by other tax-free investments such as cash ISAs.
Craig Peterson, chief operating officer at GCV, said: “Our core objective is to provide investors with higher returns than those currently available through traditional investment routes, whilst simultaneously providing secured loans for experienced borrowers within the UK property market.
“These loans are ideal for borrowers who have previously funded their property transactions solely through money secured from mainstream banks. A continued period of conservative bank lending has opened a gap in the market for alternative types of finance throughout all areas of the UK property sector, and that’s where MAVEN Bonds come in.
“Our intention is to deliver a diversified portfolio of high-quality loans across the residential and commercial property spectrum, and we’ll look for opportunities to co-lend with banks and other institutional investors where appropriate.”
Since January 2015, the combined Maven and GCV advisory team have completed property transactions worth more than £300m, leveraging over £125m of equity in the process.
The MAVEN Bonds Investment Platform – www.mavenbonds.co.uk – has been designed and developed by GCV’s inhouse software engineering team. The online investment platform has been designed to streamline the investment process and provide investors with access to bonds with target returns of 7.75% per annum. Investors have the option to select the term in which they want to invest in (either two or four years) and then decide between repayments being made either quarterly or at maturity. The bonds can also be held within an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) which means any returns are tax free.
Simon Lenney, independent chairman of Maven Bonds, said: “The Innovative Finance ISA market is growing rapidly, with more than £1bn invested since April 2016. For investors happy to take on more risk, the IFISA is a viable alternative investment product because, in the current climate, traditional cash ISAs are struggling to offer returns that even match the rate of inflation.
“Together with the property teams at Maven and GCV, we’ve already generated a strong pipeline of transactions for MAVEN Bonds that will help to deliver much needed high-quality housing developments and commercial property schemes, whilst delivering better risk-adjusted returns for investors.”
