Plenti has achieved a billion-dollar loan portfolio and turned their first profit, marking a key milestone for the lender in their 1H22 results announced yesterday, with a specialist electric vehicle loan to bolster options for brokers going forwards.
Highlights included a 183% growth on the prior comparable period last year and posting their first ever NPAT. CEO Daniel Foggo said that the personal lender’s success was down to the enthusiasm with which brokers had taken up their offering.
“We put it down to our growth in the broker channel,” he said. “Our growth is driven there, and when we look head, that’s where we’re doubling down. We’re focussed on helping brokers to grow their own businesses.”
“Over 80% of our automotive loans come through brokers, and that represents the majority of our originations. It’s obviously important to us.”
“I’d also call out our personal lending: we’ve had a number of record months of originations through brokers there.”
“Our commitment to speed and consistent credit decisions has really resonated with brokers, and we have a sales team that are firing on all cylinders with a great understanding of how to help brokers grow their businesses there. We couldn’t be more pleased with our performance in personal loans as well as automotive.”
The two twin milestones of profitability and topping a billion dollars in loans were based on brokers and their expectations, said Foggo.
“It’s been our offering from day one, to build a large and profitable business that is sustainable,” he said. “It’s an important point for brokers: when you’ve got a billion dollar loan portfolio, you’re proving that you expect to be a permanent part of the landscape and it’s worth brokers putting in the time and effort to partner with you, because you’re going to be around the channel for some time, improving your offering to brokers.
Plenti is a market leader in electric vehicle loans, and now boasts a specialist product that can encourage their use and make life easier for brokers with clients that are looking to enter that marketplace.
“I think that EV penetration is starting to grow now,” said Foggo. “By 2030, there’s an expectation that a third of new cars in Australia will be EVs. Clearly, it’s an important channel for us.”
“We’ve launched an innovative new offering for EV borrowers that gives them at least a 50 basis point rate reduction if they’re purchasing an electric vehicle.”
“We can do that because we’re getting lower cost funding, and we expect to incur lower credit losses as a consequence of being an EV customer.”
“We want to help brokers penetrate the EV market, so we’ve launched our electric vehicle loan with discounted rates.”
“We’re also integrating other things that make it helpful for brokers and their clients. That includes discounted EV insurance, specific to electric vehicles as lots of insurance doesn’t cover them.”
“We’ve got unique loan features that we don’t think others in the market have that allow you to add on additional features such as charging equipment and software upgrades, which can be material in terms of cost. Having a flexible loan that allows you to top up over time is an important feature.”
“We’ve been preparing to launch our innovative electric vehicle loan offering for some months and we’d happy to have it on market now and available to brokers.”
