Welcome to ThinCats.com

An Investment Club for experienced investors.

ThinCats.com operates as an investment club for experienced investors seeking low risk investments that produce a better than average return and regular, predictable income.

Bank deposit interest rates have been at a record low level since March 2009 and volatile financial markets make it very difficult to manage any investment portfolio to achieve income above inflation, let alone consistent growth.

We offer a different class of inherently stable investment which provides an attractive rate of interest that the investors set themselves and a regular fixed monthly income.

Intended to meet the needs of anyone managing an investment portfolio (including individuals, pension fund managers and companies with cash deposits), ThinCats provides direct access to the low risk market sector traditionally occupied by high street banks.

We use the auction method adopted by most peer to peer ("P2P") lending platforms to arrange loans but we are unique in always requiring security and carefully selecting a small number of relatively large deals. Since we began operating in January 2011 we have achieved an average interest rate for lenders in excess of 10%.

Creating Syndicates of Lenders through an on-line Auction

Lending members take part in an on-line auction to join a lending syndicate for each loan. At the end of the auction those lenders offering the best interest rates are selected to make up the lending syndicate and get the interest rate they have asked for. ThinCats manages the deal completion including legal documents and security. As we cut out the costs and profit margin of the bank both Borrower and Lender get a good deal.

The Borrower is then offered a loan at the weighted average of the accepted bids plus 1.5% to cover operating, deal management and monitoring costs.

NO CHARGES for lenders

There are no charges to be deducted from the gross income quoted. This means no membership fee, no annual charge and no charges for making individual bids. Lenders therefore get the interest rate they actually bid (assuming their bid is successful).

'Pick Your Own' interest rate

Lenders make all their own investment decisions and specify the interest rate they require. The minimum loan is £1,000 and the maximum is the whole loan. So far the most common bid has been £5,000 but bids of £50,000 are not uncommon.

Predicted Loss Rate

Uniquely, all ThinCats loans are backed by security in the form of debentures, personal guarantees and any other security that is available - to a similar standard that a bank would normally require. It is common for peer to peer lending platforms to predict their loss rates based on their past performance so that lenders can take account of probable losses when making bids. These rates range from about 0.6% pa to more than 3% pa depending on the quality of the loan.

It is inevitable that some of the ThinCats borrowers will get into difficulty but our hands-on approach, coupled with our security should give us a good chance of recovering loans even if the business eventually fails. At the time of writing (January 2013 after 2 years of operation and 86 loans) we have two borrowers in liquidation and believe that we have a good chance of recovering between 50% and 100% of those loans, given time. Currently, our 'best estimate of losses' would be less than 1%. It is our intention to publish a detailed case study of each of these cases as soon as the outcome is clear, identifying the lessons we have learned and the losses (if any) that ThinCats lenders have sustained.

Summary:

Lenders Get:

• Access to a new class of investment that produces fixed monthly returns
• 'Pick-Your-Own' rate of interest and amount to lend (min £1,000)
• Detailed information about the borrower to help select appropriate deals
• Vetting, legal documentation, deal management and Security
• We minimise risks by careful vetting and taking security in every case
• Lenders can manage risks further by spreading investments over a portfolio of loans
• No fees and no commitment to make loans

Borrowers Get:

• The support of an experienced 'Sponsor' who helps prepare the Information Pack
• A responsive and flexible service at a modest cost, payable only on success
• The ability to raise capital when you need it to unlock profit opportunities
• A competitive deal that can complement existing bank and equity funding
• No penalties for early repayment

Discussion Forum

We have recently created the ThinCats Discussion Forum where members with funds deposited can discuss various matters. Those without funds deposited can still browse the forum but are unable to create topics or make comments.

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