What Happened to Borro?
October 6, 2019Borro has since relaunched. Story is HERE
In 2013, Borro, an innovative online lending company that was poised to disrupt pawn shop lending forever, invited me to their stylish offices at 767 Third Avenue in Manhattan. It wasn’t for a story per se, but rather to learn more about each other’s place in the world of online lending. AltFinanceDaily was still called Merchant Processing Resource and Borro, well they were beginning to take a shine to the idea that business owners could be a good source of potential customers. Framed as a “luxury asset-backed lender,” AltFinanceDaily would eventually cover the concept two years later as Borro and other lenders like them took off.
A then-executive of Borro explained the model as follows, “People don’t want to put their house at risk when they need capital. They’d rather lose the Maserati or a lovely piece of art than the house.” Ferraris, fine wine, rolexes, whatever, they would take it and make loans as low as $20,000 to as high as $10 million. Borro made $50 million worth of such loans in 2013 and doubled that number in 2014. Founded in the UK, the company’s expansion into the US was indicative of untapped demand and sky high potential. Big name investors got behind it including Victory Park Capital, Canaan Partners, Eden Ventures, and Augmentum Capital, eventually tallying up to more than $200 million raised.
But less than two years after AltFinanceDaily ran its story, Borro went into administration, the UK’s version of bankruptcy.
What happened?
Zelf Hussain, Partner at PwC, had to answer that question in his position as joint administrator of BGH Realisations (2017) Limited, a Borro holding company. Hussain retells the tale in a 2018 Companies House report. It is as follows:
In February 2014, Victory Park Management LLC (VPM) entered into a £67 million credit facility with a number of Borro companies which was guaranteed, inter alia, by the Company. The VPM loan was intended to allow Borro to expand its portfolio and make larger value loans to clients.
Following the VPM loan, Borro’s loan book increased in size and it moved into property lending. This was not a successful move and several loans went into default. In addition, Borro was unsuccessful in selling the underlying properties of defaulted loans in a timely manner. These issues exacerbated its cash flow issues due to carrying costs and the cost of interest due to VPM.
Following a review of the Borro business, it was decided that the property lending side of the business would be closed down. In addition, VPM became aware of other customer loans that were in arrears and these lead to further cash flow issues and a depletion of Borro’s working capital.
In an effort to raise additional capital, Borro instructed investment advisors to run a sales proces. No bids were received which would serve to fully repay VPM or provide any equity value beyond the debt obligations to VPM.
In light of the failed sales process, PwC was engaged by the Company to assess its options. Following discussions, VPM offered to purchase the business and assets of the Company, including its share in Borro Limited (BL) and therefore indirectly the shares in other Borro group companies.
On 15 November 2017 the Company directors resolved that placing the Company into administration to facilitate the transfer of ownership of BL to VPM was in the best interests of all stakeholders and, in particular, the Company’s creditors. VPM would be a well-capitalised and supportive owner, with a long term plan for the business.
We were appointed as administrators on 15 November 2017, and effected the sale of the business and assets to VPM in a pre-packaged transaction on the same day.
Since then, Borro trudged along, but earlier this year the company stopped making new loans.
The news was cheered by one of the same pawn shop lenders that Borro was supposed to disrupt. Jordan Tabach-Bank, a board member of the National Pawnbrokers Association and CEO of a family owned pawn shop business, used the company’s downfall to promote the benefits of doing business offline. “Our clients like the personal touch of a face-to-face loan, particularly when entrusting us to safeguard their most precious and expensive personal possessions,” he wrote in a release.
Last Call To Book Rooms & Sponsor AltFinanceDaily CONNECT San Diego
September 21, 2019deBanked CONNECT San Diego, which kicks off on October 24th at the Hard Rock Hotel, is fast approaching. Discounted hotel rooms through AltFinanceDaily’s special link will only remain available until Monday at 5pm. Even if you were planning to book later and pay full price, the hotel has informed us that they are almost entirely sold out of rooms.
Monday is also the last day to become a sponsor of the event. Don’t miss out on this incredible west coast opportunity and call 917-722-0808 or email events@debanked.com to register.
Tickets to the event can be purchased HERE. Commercial finance brokers benefit from a reduced entry fee.
class=”aligncenter size-large wp-image-182322″ />Four Plead Guilty In Fake Business Loan Scheme
September 11, 2019
Four of the five loan brokers indicted in a fake business loan scheme have pled guilty to charges.
Toplica and his co-conspirators were alleged to have duped an Ohio victim out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront fees, the title to 55 vehicles including a Ford Mustang, several dump trucks, several tractors, several restored classic vehicles, a Freightliner motor home, and trailers. The ruse was that the money was going towards upfront fees to secure a loan and the vehicles were to serve as collateral. In reality there was no loan.
Haki Toplica, the group’s ringleader, pled guilty to 4 counts of wire fraud and 1 count of conspiracy.
Kathryn De La Torre, Luisa Goris, and Robert Russo also pled guilty to various charges. The case against co-defendant Haider Islam is still ongoing. Sentencing for the 4 defendants is expected to happen in January.
TBF Financial Buys $60 Million in Commercial Debt from Major Online Lender
September 10, 2019
DEERFIELD, IL, Sept. 10, 2019 ─ TBF Financial purchased nearly $60 million in non-performing loans from a major online small business lender in recent transactions, CEO Brett Boehm announced today.
TBF bought the pools of post-charge-off loans as the highest bidder in transactions arranged through multiple brokers. In most cases, the company purchases directly from alternative lenders, equipment leasing companies and banks.
“We are seeing growing interest from online lenders who want to sell off commercial debt this year. It’s a smart strategy in any economic cycle because it provides lenders and lessors with immediate cash and a way to accelerate recoveries while protecting their customer relationships. Concerns about an economic slowdown are another reason for growing interest in commercial debt sales, as companies prepare to handle a rise in delinquencies and defaults,” Boehm said.
In the most recent deal, the $60 million in transactions included non-performing loans that had not previously been handled by collection agencies as well as post-agency accounts.
TBF Financial is the leading purchaser of non-performing equipment leases, commercial bank loans and online small business loans in the U.S. The company buys commercial accounts up to 4 years old from the date of last payment. This includes equipment leases, loans and lines of credit that have personal guarantees, no personal guarantees, are secured, unsecured, pre-agency, post-agency, pre-litigation and reduced to judgment.
Just as fintechs launched a new industry, TBF created its own industry. When the company started in 1998, there were no businesses buying lease charge-offs on a consistent basis. The principals of TBF believed that they could buy charged-off equipment leases at an attractive price that would also provide TBF with a margin of profit. The equipment finance industry embraced the new services. Since then, TBF has broadened the commercial paper it buys to include commercial bank loans and lines of credit.
The company remains at the forefront of commercial debt buying for the finance industry. For more information, visit tbfgroup.com or contact Boehm at bboehm@tbfgroup.com, 847-267-0660 or via LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Carla Young Harrington
Susan Carol Creative for TBF Financial
540.479.7835
carla@scapr.com
Early Bird Ticket Pricing To AltFinanceDaily CONNECT San Diego Ends Soon!
July 26, 2019AltFinanceDaily CONNECT Toronto was a hit and photos and coverage of the event will be available soon. But in the meantime there’s only SIX DAYS LEFT of early bird pricing to AltFinanceDaily CONNECT San Diego! This event is taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel in October 24th. Brokers get in with a discounted price.
Loan Broker Busted In Advance Fee Loan Scam Faces Drug Charges
July 20, 2019Demetrios Boudourakis, who was arrested last month for operating an advance fee loan scheme that allegedly defrauded small business owners nationwide, is also facing federal drug charges. The criminal complaint, filed on June 14th, asks for an arrest warrant for conspiring to distribute controlled substances.
SecurCapital Acquires Breakout Capital Finance’s Lending Business
July 17, 2019Supply chain and logistics company acquires the lending business of leading fintech small business lender and injects new equity capital
MCLEAN, VA — SecurCapital Corp, an expanding supply chain and financial services provider headquartered in California, today announced the acquisition of the lending business of Breakout Capital Finance, a leading fintech company and nationwide small business lender. SecurCapital is also providing additional equity capital to drive growth in Breakout Capital Finance’s two primary lending products: its highly regarded and innovative term loan product and its FactorAdvantage ® lending solution for small businesses that utilize factoring to finance their business. The acquired lending business assets will be operated by a subsidiary of SecurCapital that will conduct business as Breakout Capital.
Steve Russell, CEO of SecurCapital commented, “We’re delighted to have found a highly respected team and innovative business model in the small business finance space. I share the founder’s vision of the massive potential of the FactorAdvantage lending solution and believe we now have the platform and capital to rapidly grow this industry-changing product. We couldn’t have found a better business to complement SecurCapital’s strategic vision for empowering small businesses.” SecurCapital, through a series of strategic acquisitions, provides supply chain and financial services to small businesses primarily in the logistics industry, including veteran-and minority owned businesses.
Breakout Capital Finance’s Founder, Carl Fairbank added, “After four years as Founder and CEO of Breakout Capital Finance, this transaction begins the next chapter of Breakout Capital’s lending business. SecurCapital is also committed to the proliferation of best practices to drive change in the broader market. I believe Breakout Capital, in partnership with SecurCapital, is now well positioned for substantial growth, especially with its commitment to FactorAdvantage.” Mr. Fairbank will provide strategic guidance during the transition, but has stepped down as CEO of the lending business to focus on driving innovation in advanced technology, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain.
Tim Buzby has been appointed as the new CEO of Breakout Capital. He spent 17 years at Farmer Mac, in executive positions culminating as CEO. Notably, he oversaw a 58% increase in company earnings and an almost 4x increase in stock price and strategically matured the company into an agricultural lending industry leader.
Breakout Capital has also hired McLean Wilson, former CEO of Charleston Capital, an asset manager in the SME space, and former CEO of inFactor, a factoring company, as Chief Credit Officer. Mr. Russell added, “With the appointment of Tim as CEO and the addition of McLean to the management team, we expect Breakout Capital not only to carry forward its role in the industry as product innovator and transparent lender but also to deliver financing solutions to a much broader range of small businesses.” Breakout Capital is committed to maintain the high ethical standards, best practices, APR-based disclosure, and competitive pricing for which it has always been known.
About Breakout Capital
Breakout Capital, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, has been and will continue to be a leading fintech company, offering innovative small business lending solutions across the country. As part of SecurCapital, Breakout Capital will remain committed to transparent and responsible lending solutions through product innovation, small business borrowing education, and advocacy against predatory lending practices and will continue to empower small business through right-sized lending, suitability testing, improving terms and supporting the long-term financing objectives of small businesses. Breakout Capital has been widely regarded as the “white-hat” lender in the alternative finance space and intends to retain that reputation as part of SecurCapital.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Breakout Capital www.breakoutfinance.com
CONTACT:
Public Relations and Media Contact:
Phone: 703.852.6142
Email: info@breakoutfinance.com
About SecurCapital
SecurCapital is headquartered in greater Los Angeles, California with locations in San Diego, Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, DC. SecurCapital provides supply chain financial services and proven advisory services to logistics businesses from a seasoned team of logistics and financing professionals. SecurCapital offers mid-tier and startup companies access to working capital, M&A consulting, technology enablement and mission critical services for all their supply chain needs. SecurCapital offers forwarders, truckers, custom brokers, 3PL, wholesalers, 4PL, suppliers, veteran owned small businesses (VOSB), minority owned enterprises and government contractors’ on-line access to a broad range of services.
Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time the statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainty and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
SecurCapital Corp www.securcapital.com
CONTACT:
Public Relations and Media Contact:
Phone: 619-384-3359
Email: info@securcapital.com
Key Takeaways from the Q2 2019 Private Capital Access Index
July 17, 2019The latest Private Capital Access Index, published quarterly by Pepperdine Graziado Business School, was released recently, and with it came fresh insights into the minds of business owners. Covering companies that earn under $5 million in revenue annually, as well as those that raise between $5-100 million, the Index provides information on a wide range of business. Below are snapshots of some of the main points found within the report:
More Large Businesses Appear to be Looking for More Money
Businesses that earn between $5-100 million a year are seeking to raise more financing in 2019. Compared to 2018, many loan ranges have seen jumps: the amount of larger businesses seeking between $500,000-999,999 has over doubled in size to 39% and $1-1.999 million has more than tripled to 28%. However, outside of this range, desire has fallen for financing among larger firms.
Slight Fluctuations in How Quickly Customers Are Paying
The past year has witnessed some small changes in the speed at which businesses receive payments from their customers. With 15% of smaller businesses reporting accelerated reception of payments in the previous three months, an increase from the 11% that was stated this time last year, and an increase of 1% of larger businesses claiming a speed up, it seems at least that a small sector of fortunate vendors are benefitting from increasingly prompt customers.
Accompanying these figures are the reports of payments slowing down, that show a 2% increase amongst smaller companies and a drop to 10% from 23% for their larger counterparts. This jump is accounted for by the 81% of larger businesses which reported that the speed of payments remained the same, which is up from 70%; while the smaller firms reported 63%, down from 68% in 2018.
More Businesses Are Planning to Raise Finance
More businesses of all sizes are looking to raise capital in the coming six months compared to 2018, with 35% of small businesses and 28% of larger businesses claiming that they will be seeking financing, an increase of 5% for both. This news, coupled with the knowledge that the total number of businesses which said they will not be seeking finance dropped, may come as a gift to lenders and brokers, but it should be taken with a pinch of salt, as those who said they were unsure also rose by 4% to 35%.
Purposes for Raising Finance Remain Mostly Unchanged
Growth and expansion continue to be the primary reason for seeking finance, with an increase on last year from 58% for both the smaller and larger companies to 62% and 77%, respectively. As well as this, working capital fluctuations and refinancing existing loans/equity remain as the second and third highest reasons to raise funds, with the total of the former dropping 3% to 17% and the latter falling to 7% from 10%. Besides these motives, capital required to replace equipment or facilities unrelated to expansion saw a dip of 4% in larger businesses.
Businesses Are Optimistic
Despite over 50% of businesses saying that it is difficult to acquire both equity and debt finance, as well as 49% claiming that the current business financing environment restricts growth opportunities, businesses appear to be confident about the future, with 68% of them expecting increases in revenue over the next year. Also, respondents appear to be unconcerned by external forces, as 57% of businesses don’t believe the federal tax hike will impact them and 74% don’t expect to be hampered by severe weather from climate change. These may or may not prove to be naïve as time goes on, especially the latter, as 56% of the respondents do not have emergency funds in place should severe weather disrupt their business, but for now companies seem to be looking forward to the coming year.
The full report is available here.
