Fintech Athena breaks Aussie VC funding record
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Australian mortgage industry fintech disrupter Athena Home Loans has broken the record for the largest capital raise completed entirely from local backers, banking $90 million in funding as its loan book booms.
The company, which was founded in 2017 and launched in 2019 by former NAB bankers Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey, claims to help Australians pay off their home loans faster, by offering low rates with no fees, which are automatically lowered if a person pays off a chunk of their loan faster than expected.
Athena Home Loans co-founders Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey want to provide $8 billion of loans by 2023.
Bloomberg News
Blackstone Group Inc. funds have offered to buy St. Modwen Properties Plc as the private-equity giant chases a bigger slice of the U.K.’s red-hot warehouse market.
The British developer said it’s likely to accept Blackstone’s indicative offer of about $1.7 billion should it be made firm, according to a statement Friday. St. Modwen stock jumped as much as 20% to 538 pence in early London trading, close to the offer price of 542 pence a share.
Competition for warehouses across Europe has intensified as global investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Cerberus Capital Management LP and GIC Pte bet on rising rental income fueled by demand from e-commerce retailers as the pandemic moved more shoppers online. That’s prompting rivals like Blackstone to turn to more complex deals including snapping up public companies as they look to build their warehouse portfolios.
Africa s market to recycle bad debt will boost banks — and entice investors spglobal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spglobal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Investors search for better yields could bolster Africa s nascent secondary market in nonperforming loans, with surging defaults across the continent due to the pandemic creating more opportunities to buy distressed debt.
For an NPL market to develop, three key aspects are required: An adequate regulatory and legal framework; sufficient capital from investors; and specialist companies to rehabilitate the loans acquired.
A lack of supportive laws and regulations, and difficulties in agreeing on prices for NPL portfolios, have so far stymied growth in Africa and support from the likes of the World Bank s International Finance Corp., or IFC, will be critical to creating a functioning secondary market.