In its Q123 results, FG Financial Group has reported that net reinsurance premiums earned increased to $3.7 million, from $2.5 million in the prior year quarter.
According to the firm, its reinsurance operations benefited from continued increase in net earned premiums, without incurring any major losses from large catastrophe events.
At the same time, FG recorded a net income attributable to common shareholders of $0.9 million, or $0.10 per fully diluted share for the quarter, compared to a loss of $4.3 million, or $(0.66) per fully diluted share for the first quarter of 2022.
Meanwhile, net investment income for Q1 was $2.8 million, a substantial improvement compared to a $2.3 million net investment loss from the prior year quarter.
Additionally, the firm paid the 8% Series A Preferred Share dividend of $0.45 million, which represents FG’s 20th consecutive quarter of paying the full dividend due on the 8% Series A Preferred Shares since their issuance in February 2018.
FG Financial Group CEO Larry Swets, Jr. commented: “We are off to a strong start in 2023 with growth across both our merchant banking and reinsurance platform. Our reinsurance business continued to successfully establish its niche by carefully evaluating opportunities to deploy capital. Our merchant banking division, which we launched last year, saw two milestones in the quarter.
“We announced the formation of Craveworthy, a growing restaurant brand platform that currently owns, operates and franchises 7 distinct brands in 24 states. Also, our SPAC FG Merger announced a business combination with iCoreConnect which is successfully taking advantage of significant technology tailwinds driven by the healthcare industry shift from server to cloud environments and increasing mandated compliance.”
Swets continued: “Finally, this morning the SPAC FG Acquisition Corp. announced a business combination with ThinkMarkets, a multi-asset online brokerage with a global presence. We are confident that the ThinkMarkets team is positioned to take leadership in this segment and they have demonstrated a clear path for growth. As we move through 2023, we continue to evaluate asymmetric risk/reward opportunities and focus on patiently allocating capital to drive long-term returns for our shareholders.”
FG Financial Group Chairman Kyle Cerminara, said: “This was an excellent quarter for FG Financial, and the execution in both our reinsurance and merchant banking businesses drove strong net income. One of the goals when we formed the merchant banking platform was to leverage our experience to create flexible and innovative structures for growing business.
“FG Merger’s business combination agreement with iCoreConnect, announced during the quarter, is a reflection of this strategy; its unique structure enables all investors, including individuals, to have the opportunity to invest at terms typically only available to a select group of institutional investors. We are also excited about FG Acquisition Corp.’s proposed business combination with ThinkMarkets announced this morning.
“ThinkMarkets has seen significant revenue growth from $35 million in 2019 to over $62 million in 2022 and is well positioned to scale its business and realize margin expansion. We look forward to continuing to drive growth across the FG platform and building long-term shareholder value.”
