From Richard Woodhead, GPS Investment Fund Limited Managing Director
As we move into the new year, I’ve made it known to our team that while I look to step back a little (we spoke about this before, but retirement is not on the cards for me anytime soon). I’m focusing on what really benefits our investor base; finding good, core GPS loans.
So, to give you an idea of what’s to come this year, I’ll start by saying that at the end of each financial quarter, I put together a loan matrix to make sure that GPS is on track for the following six months. I break down the loans I believe have the best prospect of being settled in the upcoming period into categories (but more on that next month).
The budget for GPS continues to be 2 loan settlements per month. It’s an easy budget to remember as it’s been the same budget for ~30 years. It only gets varied to deal with economic and market conditions.
One of my sayings is that any fool can lend money, few can get it all back, and even fewer can lend it consistently.
Consistency is important, as lenders like GPS need to maintain good levels of usage of funds. The better the usage of funds rate, the better the distribution rate to investors. Over the years GPS has outperformed most other lenders on usage of funds. This allows us to provide a good risk/return ratio. We don’t make our returns to investors by taking on riskier loans. It’s about us all benefiting from solid management.
What I see in our January pipeline is just this, core GPS loans with a quality risk/return ratio which favours the needs of our investors. I look forward to what this year has to bring, and will continue to do what is in your best interest, which is ensuring we have good, consistent opportunities to offer you.
