PeerBerry to stop listing Polish loans, teases new lending opportunities
No Polish loans will be available on the PeerBerry platform from 1 January 2024, due to incoming regulation.
However, the lender plans to add more geographies in the coming months, offering new lending opportunities in Mexico, Tanzania, Nigeria, Colombia and South Africa.
In a note to investors, PeerBerry’s chief executive Arūnas Lekavičius said that the company’s parent Aventus Group is focused on diversifying due to “changes in international markets and the geopolitical situation”.”
“In recent years, Aventus Group has actively worked toward business diversification, expanding its business in new markets,” said Lekavičius.
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“In addition to our long-term partners, last and this year, we offered our investors to invest in loans issued in Romania, the Czech Republic, Spain, Kenya, and India. Very soon, we will add more geographies to the platform – we will start offering investments in businesses in Mexico, Tanzania, Nigeria, Colombia, and South Africa.”
Lekavičius added that at the beginning of next year, new regulations will come into force in Poland which mean that Polish lenders will no longer be able to borrow funds from investors through platforms.
“Any ‘creativity’ in funding Polish lending business through platforms puts the lending company at risk of losing its license,” he explained.
“We knew about coming regulatory changes in Poland for quite a long time, and our partners have been preparing for it.
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“Our Polish partners count 10 years of outstanding business performance and are among the market leaders in Poland with solid two-digit million net profits – they are in no need of external funding to develop further successfully. In recent months, our Polish partners have been gradually reducing their exposure on PeerBerry.”
Currently, the share of Polish loans on the PeerBerry portfolio is approximately 16.6 per cent, or €15.9m (£13.81m).
“We will still continue listing Polish loans in small volumes; however, all Polish loans will be repaid to investors before the end of this year, and there will be no Polish loans on the PeerBerry platform from 1 January 2024,” added Lekavičius.
He told investors that the total loan offering will not decrease on the platform, and noted that PeerBerry has “disconnected” other countries in the past.
“I want to remind you that at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian loans represented 50 per cent of our portfolio,” he said.
“In the first quarter of this year, we also disconnected Vietnam, representing a quite significant share of our portfolio. After disconnecting all these countries, we had a decrease in loan supply, but only temporarily.”
New lending partners in Mexico, Tanzania, Nigeria, Colombia, and South Africa will ensure a sufficient loan supply in the long run, the platform added. Aventus Group is also expanding its business in Sri Lanka, and new lenders from Romania and the Philippines will join the platform next year.
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