Burdett and Potter buy into P2P lender

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Burdett and Potter buy into P2P lender

Multi-manager duo Rob Burdett and Gary Potter have added to a specialist lending investment trust backed by other fund management names including Neil Woodford.

P2P Global Investments, which specialises in peer-to-peer loans in the corporate sector, released more shares into the market earlier this year.

F&C Investments’ Mr Burdett said he had bought shares in the business in its latest C-share issue. Other investment houses that also bought into the trust at the time were Ruffer, City Financial, Prudential, JO Hambro Capital Management and Mr Woodford’s firm.

The multi-manager said the investment trust now made up a 1.2 per cent position in his £1bn F&C MM Navigator Distribution fund. He said he would be happy to increase the position but only up to 2 per cent.

Mr Burdett said the investment manager on the trust was Marshall Wace, the firm behind a successful hedge fund. An affiliate of the company, Eaglewood, which specialises in online-lending strategies, is also involved.

“The hedge fund was built on a system that assessed the success of equity analysts and allocated more to those with a better record on the sell side,” Mr Burdett said.

“The algorithm led to a reliable hedge fund business and the same technology is being used to assess the lending criteria. The managers only lend to one in 10 of the businesses that request a loan.”

The trust’s board of directors also includes Simon King, who previously worked at Gartmore. Mr King joined the now-defunct group in 1994, initially working on the UK smaller companies team, where he ran a handful of funds and mandates.

In 2000 he became a senior investment manager on Gartmore’s UK equities team. He managed and co-managed funds including the Gartmore UK Focus fund, and the AlphaGen Avior and AlphaGen Octanis hedge funds. From 2009 to 2012, Mr King worked at Premier Asset Management.

Elsewhere, the manager said he continued to favour Europe and Japan over the US and UK.

“Our asset allocation has gone well but we are slightly overweight Asia and that has been held back a little this year,” Mr Burdett said.

He added that the market movements of late seemed to suggest investors were more comfortable with the outlook, even if they were not outright bullish.

“There is not much hot money in the market,” he said. “The money there is chasing income and if dividends are paid that may well mean the market is more stable.”