FG Financial Group, Inc. Expands Growth Strategy Through Formation of Merchant Banking Division

Significantly Broadens Market Opportunity and Leverages Management’s Extensive Experience Creating Value Enhancing Structures for Growing Businesses

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
FG Financial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: FGF) (the “Company”), today announced the expansion of its growth strategy through the formation of a merchant banking division. FG Financial is a reinsurance and asset management holding company focused on collateralized and loss capped reinsurance and merchant banking that allocates capital in partnership with Fundamental Global^®, a private partnership led by Kyle Cerminara and Joe Moglia, as well as other strategic investors.

FG Financial Group Chairman Kyle Cerminara, CEO Larry Swets, Jr., and CFO Hassan Baqar have demonstrated proven success organizing or sponsoring fundamentally strong businesses and creating new structures across multiple industries and stages of growth.

FG Financial Group Chairman and Fundamental Global CEO Kyle Cerminara commented, “Developing extraordinary businesses and framing value-creating structures are fundamental elements of our team’s expertise. Whether it be sponsoring SPACs - where we’ve successfully closed on two profitable targets - reverse mergers, or sponsoring startups, we have demonstrated an aptitude in productive collaborations with companies at all points in their lifespans.”

Continued Cerminara, “By formalizing our merchant banking capabilities, we are excited to expand our addressable market across a larger universe of opportunities.”

FG Financial Group CEO Larry Swets, Jr. added, “Evolving our strategy to encompass merchant banking is a natural progression which builds upon our initial success with our reinsurance and SPAC businesses and fortifies our strategy of leveraging the team’s proven experience running, sponsoring and creating innovative structures for growing businesses. Given our deep relationships and exposure to multiple industries, we see many companies in need of merchant banking services and this new division will offer us enhanced flexibility to capitalize on asymmetric risk/reward opportunities.”

FG Financial Group, Inc.

FG Financial Group, Inc. is a reinsurance and asset management holding company focused on collateralized and loss capped reinsurance and merchant banking that allocates capital in partnership with Fundamental Global^®, a private partnership led by Kyle Cerminara and Joe Moglia, as well as other strategic investors. The Company’s principal business operations are conducted through its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These statements are therefore entitled to the protection of the safe harbor provisions of these laws. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “budget,” “can,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “envision,” “estimate,” “expect,” “evaluate,” “forecast,” “goal,” “guidance,” “indicate,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “might,” “outlook,” “plan,” “possibly,” “potential,” “predict,” “probable,” “probably,” “pro-forma,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “view,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result” or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. In particular, discussions and statements regarding the Company’s future business plans and initiatives and the expected timing of the closing of the offering are forward-looking in nature. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections. While we believe these to be reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, and may impact our ability to implement and execute on our future business plans and initiatives. Management cautions that the forward-looking statements in this release are not guarantees of future performance, and we cannot assume that such statements will be realized or the forward-looking events and circumstances will occur. Factors that might cause such a difference include, without limitation: risks associated with our inability to identify and realize business opportunities, and the undertaking of any new such opportunities; general conditions in the global economy, including the impact of health and safety concerns from the current COVID-19 pandemic; our lack of operating history or established reputation in the reinsurance industry; our inability to obtain or maintain the necessary approvals to operate reinsurance subsidiaries; risks associated with operating in the reinsurance industry, including inadequately priced insured risks, credit risk associated with brokers we may do business with, and inadequate retrocessional coverage; our inability to execute on our investment and investment management strategy, including our strategy to invest in the risk capital of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs); potential loss of value of investments; risk of becoming an investment company; fluctuations in our short-term results as we implement our new business strategy; risks of being unable to attract and retain qualified management and personnel to implement and execute on our business and growth strategy; failure of our information technology systems, data breaches and cyber-attacks; our ability to establish and maintain an effective system of internal controls; our limited operating history as a public company; the requirements of being a public company and losing our status as a smaller reporting company or becoming an accelerated filer; any potential conflicts of interest between us and our controlling stockholders and different interests of controlling stockholders; potential conflicts of interest between us and our directors and executive officers; volatility or decline in the value of the shares of FedNat Holding Company common stock received by us as consideration in the sale of our insurance business or limitations and restrictions with respect to our ownership of such shares; risks of being a minority stockholder of FedNat Holding Company; risks associated with our related party transactions and investments; and risks associated with our investments in SPACs, including the failure of any such SPAC to complete its initial business combination. Our expectations and future plans and initiatives may not be realized. If one of these risks or uncertainties materializes, or if our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected, estimated or projected. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof and do not necessarily reflect our outlook at any other point in time. We do not undertake and specifically decline any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any such statements to reflect new information, future events or developments.

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INVESTOR RELATIONS:

IMS Investor Relations
John Nesbett/Jennifer Belodeau
(203) 972-9200

IR@fgfinancial.com

Source: FG Financial Group, Inc.