Victory Park are planning to raise £200m for investment into Peer-To-Peer Lending

A US private equity firm is hatching plans to raise £200 million on the London Stock Exchange to invest in the growing number of peer-to-peer lending websites in the UK.

Victory Park Capital Advisors is following the lead of Mayfair hedge fund Marshall Wace in entering what it hopes will be a lucrative source of new loans.

City sources said stockbroker Jefferies is helping advise on a float. Victory Park, which declined to comment, has been keen to expand in the UK. It recently struck a deal with Assetz Capital to lend up to £150 million to its customers.

Until recently, peer-to-peer lending in Britain has mostly consisted of members of the public making deposits which are then lent out to small businesses or individuals.

Platforms such as Zopa and Funding Circle check the borrowers’ creditworthiness and act as a conduit for the people offering the loans.

In the past year, however, institutional investors have been joining as lenders too and the practice is commonplace in the US. Yields are higher than traditional banks because of low overheads. Victory Park is reportedly targeting an 8% dividend yield from its fund. Similar floats are expected to follow.

- February 10, 2015