This past month has seen my profile grow by an average of 0.88%.
This growth is smaller than anticipated, however, February is a shorter month, which can affect payments. This month my highest returns were through Crowdestor (1.35%), Envestio (1.33%) and Grupeer (1.22%).
Investments
I have added to my investment in Crowdestor, with projects including:
Energy production plant, (running for 24 months, returning 19.5% p.a.)
Biomass boiler house with a capacity of 15 MW is being developed in Riga. Technology includes a water heating boiler with nominal output 12MW and a flue gas condenser which increase energy output in a range of 14 MW and 15 MW, depending on the humidity of wood chips and daytime temperature
SAAPIO (18 months, 18%)
The well-known European fashion brand INCH2 is launching the new natural beauty and nutrition project Saapio that aims to promote natural, non toxic self care products and supplements. (INCH2 received successful funding through Crowdestor in 2018, for expansion)
This month I also have made another purchase through Crowd Estate.
Baltic Forest OÜ (VII), running for 1 year, returning 16.02%
This investment is the 7th round of funding received by Baltic Forest. Baltic Forest has been operating since 2013 and has set the goal to build the Baltic’s most efficient sawmill industry to Paikuse.
Through Envestio this month, I was able to invest in:
Power Plant Factoring/Development Phase 1 (6 months, 17%)
Addition to Tukums DH working capital, necessary for purchase of raw woodchips and further development of cogeneration power plant complex.
Biomass fuel-Factoring 7 (6 months, 17%)
Factoring-type financing for the purchase of raw woodchips.
Biomass fuel-Factoring 8 (6 months, 17.25%)
Factoring-type financing for the purchase of raw woodchips.
I have noticed that through Envestio, that once a loan becomes available, it is usually filled within the time it takes for you to transfer money into the platform. I was lucky enough to have some money already there that I could invest as soon as a loan became available.
Comments
My Crowd Estate portfolio grew by only 0.33%, however, I am not worried. Looking through my investment list, you can see that the interest is not always paid out monthly:
Kreutzwaldi 59c (15.89%) is expected to pay interest and principle out by the end of 2019
Olaines Enerģija (15.01%) is expected to pay interest out every quarter, principle halfway through 2022
Baltic Forest OÜ (V) (15.89%) is expected to pay interest and principle out by the end of 2019.
The platform still expects that I will receive an average return of 15.10%.
Reinvest24 has not returned any money yet, hence why there are no returns to show.
I am still not 100% sure when or how the platform expects to return money to investors, as both of my investments haven’t been fully funded yet.
The two properties that I have invested in through Reinvest24 include:
Majaka 54 – 10, Tallinn, Estonia (net rental yield 13%, gross rental yield 13%)
Majaka 54 – 13, Tallinn, Estonia (net rental yield 8%, gross rental yield 14.5%)
Both properties are apart of the same complex, which Reinvest24 owns multiple properties in. Both apartments were initially empty shell apartments, and are in the process of being internally fitted out. As part of the agreement, Reinvest24 will also be doing some façade works to the building to increase its attractiveness. The property is situated in a fast-growing area. It appears these properties will start generating a rental return at the 9-month mark (once they are completed), and should also produce much higher returns once they are sold.
One thing I do like about Reinvest24, is that the CEO, Tanel, has made a video running through the properties, showing the development progress and investment opportunities.
Other
This month I have also made some major changes to the website. Apologies if things had broken or looked strange over this last month.
I decided to change my website host from Bluehost to SiteGround. The main reason for this is that SiteGround offers a much faster service, with very good customer support. I used the welcome price (€3.95 p/month) for 3 years, which worked out to be the same price as Bluehosts renewal for one year.
It did take me a couple of days to work out how the website transfer works, but the service team responded to my messages generally within 20 mins, so it was overall an easy process.
I also changed my domain registration from Bluehost to NameCheap. Domain registration doesn’t affect speed, so the main thing your paying for is just the registration.
The only critical things through a domain hosting company are the ability to:
- protect your whois data
- easily redirect DNS servers (i.e. in my case I have to point NameCheap towards my host SiteGround).
NameCheap offers free whois protection on all of their plans, and they were about 50% cheaper in renewals than Bluehost.
Overall with the website and domain name transfer, I saved about 65% on my hosting costs. I will write a post about this before the next month’s updates!
Summary
Here is the summary of how my investments turned out this month.
[table id=7 responsive=scroll /]
