Plenti records $1bn Aussie fintech ‘first’

Plenti has recorded three consecutive record months, totalling a milestone of $1 billion in cumulative lending and over $500 million in loans, both ‘firsts’ for an Australian fintech  consumer lender.

The fintech’s total loan portfolio increased to $508 million at 31 December 2020, 46 per cent above 31 December 2019 and its cumulative lending hitting $1 billion in September 2020.

For their third quarter of this financial year, the lender achieved $130.9 million, 58 per cent above the prior corresponding period and 22 per cent above the prior quarter.  

Having achieved six consecutive months of record loan originations, the consumer lender’s growth has reportedly been led by automotive lending, which has increased 273 per cent compared to its corresponding period and 24 per cent compared to last quarter.

The growth in Plenti’s automotive lending space could be attributed to its significant funding headroom, to which it upsized its secured automotive loan warehouse facility to $275 million from $150 million. 

At 31 December, Plenti had $212 million of available funding headroom across its two warehouse facilities, with Plenti also establishing a new $100 million warehouse funding facility to support growth in renewable energy and personal loan originations.

According to the published financial results, renewable energy was notably up 19 per cent compared to last year, with a recovery in Victorian volumes post easing of lockdown restrictions. 

Daniel Foggo, Plenti’s chief executive officer spoke of the facility expansion, adding that Plenti is “successfully achieving scale in the large markets [it] addresses, while lowering [its] cost of funding through the expansion of our warehouse facilities”.

Although Plenti has seen a successful year, personal loans are still reportedly in recovery mode due to COVID, and while its results prove to be up 31 per cent on the prior quarter, they remain comparatively down 8 per cent from the prior corresponding period.

However, COVID has not managed to wane the company’s credit performance which has plateaued, nor did it affect loan deferrals, which achieved pre-COVID-19 levels, representing 0.44 per cent of the loan portfolio at 31 December, significantly below the 0.78 per cent reported at 30 September.

Looking to the future, Mr Foggo said: “With our strong capital position, leading technology, market leading credit and growing momentum across  each part of our business, the outlook for the fourth quarter and rest of 2021 is very positive.”

[Related: Plenti sets up $100m green warehouse facility]