Plenti Group: A lovely set of numbers backed by a $2.3b loan book
Plenti Group Chief Executive Officer Adam Bennett on 3AW, 2GB, 4BC & 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX-listed Plenti Group CEO Adam Bennett talk to Matt Birney on the Bulls N’ Bears Report about Plenti’s lovely set of six monthly numbers backed by its rampant $2.3b loan book.
TO LISTEN TO THE PLENTI GROUP AUDIO INTERVIEW - CLICK BELOW
Plenti Group was established in 2014 and is Australia’s biggest “fintech” consumer lender, offering loans tailored to various clients and sectors through its proprietary technology. The company has been developing partnerships with the likes of big four lender National Bank and has developed personal loan products for specific sectors including for people seeking to install solar or purchase an electric vehicle, to name just two. All of which has impacted its recently tabled 6 monthly figures tremendously.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears brought to you today by fintech money lender, Plenti Group.
Matt Birney - ASX code: PLT
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and I'm joined now by the CEO of Plenti Group, Adam Bennett.
Matt Birney - Hi Adam.
Adam Bennett - Hi Matt.
Matt Birney - Okay so Plenti Group was established in 2014 and is Australia’s biggest “fintech” consumer lender, offering loans tailored to various clients and sectors through its proprietary technology. The company has been developing partnerships with the likes of big four lender National Bank and has developed personal loan products for specific sectors including for people seeking to install solar or purchase an electric vehicle, to name just two. All of which has impacted its recently tabled 6 monthly figures tremendously.
Matt Birney - Okay Adam we'll get to those figures in a minute, but firstly just very quickly, how does Plenti differ from a traditional bank? Where do you sit in the market and how does your technology play a role?
Adam Bennett - Yeah we've got a clever innovative technology stat Matt, that allows us to do peer-to-peer lending with mums and dads who want to lend money that we then onlend to our customers and also we borrow from all the big banks in the normal wholesale markets.
Matt Birney - Okay so Plenti has just tabled a lovely set of numbers for the 6 months to the end of September. Let's run through them with some rapid-fire questions and answers. Firstly how big is your loan book there? How much money have you got out there and how big was it in the prior six-month period?
Adam Bennett - Yeah look we've just hit $2.3 billion and that's up 14 per cent on the comparative period.
Matt Birney - What was the value of all the new loans you wrote for the last 6 months?
Adam Bennett - We did $627 million worth of new originations for the last half.
Matt Birney - And what was your revenue for this half year and how did it compare to the previous six-monthly period?
Adam Bennett - Yeah so our revenues were $124 million and that was 28 per cent up on the prior comparative period.
Matt Birney - And how's the bottom line look? Net profit after tax for the 6 months of September, what was it and how did it compare to prior period?
Adam Bennett - Yeah pretty good, it was up 260 per cent to $5.5 million.
Matt Birney - Was that impacted by an investment in technology or do you capitalize that?
Adam Bennett - We expense all of our technology and that's really a result of us really having a compelling offer in the market, working hard and making sure the company is aligned around what we need to do.
Matt Birney - What would you have spent on technology in that six-month period?
Adam Bennett - We spent about $7 million for the half.
Matt Birney - Tell me, what sort of defaults do you see? I'm guessing the personal loan business can be tricky right? Or am I wrong?
Adam Bennett - Well look we're, we've always been a prime lender. So we really only lend to people who have got very good credit and so our loan defaults are relatively low, it was about 1.1 per cent so we're pretty good and well placed in relation to our credit outcomes.
Matt Birney - Very quickly, I see you recently teamed up with Tesla to offer a curious form of a loan, presumably to customers who want to buy Tesla vehicles. Who puts the money up for those loans and how does Plenti make money out of it?
Adam Bennett - We've got a great arrangement with Tesla where we're integrated into their website so when you're buying a Tesla you can click through and borrow money from Plenti and Tesla will subsidize that rate through a subvention arrangement and we lend the money and the customer gets the car.
Matt Birney - Adam Bennett from Plenti Group.
Matt Birney - Thanks for joining me on Bulls N' Bears and remember we're only here to give you information, not advice, which you should of course seek independently.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and this is Bulls N' Bears.
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