NEW YORK, NY, Aug 01, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Fortress Financial Group, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: FFGO) announced on July 24, 2008 that the Company had resolved to distribute an amount of US$400 million of its Gold Assets to its Stockholders, in the form of an Extraordinary Dividend.
This Extraordinary Dividend equates to an amount of 1.24 cents per share of Common Stock based upon the outstanding shares of the Company’s Stock at July 24, 2008. The Company receives an amount of US$500 million in quoted Gold Mining stock (“Goldco”) in exchange for its stockholding in the “Bouse” and “South Copperstone” Gold Mining & Exploration companies. This transaction will be consummated in August of 2008. Our calculations of this valuation are contained in the latest Form 8-K filings with the SEC.
On July 31, the Company announced that a Private Equity Firm was set to control 51% of its outstanding shares of Common Stock.
The CEO of Fortress Financial Group, Inc., Alan Santini, pledged to stockholders that he would address each of their concerns in this Press Release. The main areas of interest and concern to our stockholders are listed below with Alan Santini’s responses.
1. WILL THE COMPANY CONTINUE TO REPURCHASE AND RETIRE STOCK AFTER THE
ASSUMPTION OF A CONTROLLING INTEREST BY THE PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP:
The Company remains committed to further repurchases and retiring of
its outstanding shares of Common Stock; and in particular its "free
float." We have been given undertakings by the Private Equity Group
that this will continue and they support this strategy.
2. WILL ALAN SANTINI REMAIN AS CEO FOLLOWING THE ASSUMPTION OF A
CONTROLLING INTEREST BY THE PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP:
Yes. The Private Equity Group has stated that they support Alan
Santini and will back up and assist him in his endeavors.
3. WHY DOES THE COMPANY HAVE SUCH A HUGE AUTHORIZED SHARE CAPITAL:
I understand that this is a historical matter. Obviously the Company
does not require 5 trillion shares of Authorized Share Capital, this
was an error made some time ago. The Company has filed to amend its
Authorized Share Capital to that of 35 billion shares and will
decrease this number over time.
4. WILL THE COMPANY EFFECT A REVERSE SPLIT OF ITS COMMON STOCK:
The Company will not contemplate a Reverse Split until such time as we
can be absolutely assured that we can protect the stock price, post
any split. In my opinion and based upon this Company's history of
unsuccessful Reverse Splits, I will not be entertaining the idea of a
Reverse Split at this time. The Private Equity Group has made it clear
that they will not support any Reverse Split.
5. HOW MANY SHARES DOES THE COMPANY BELIEVE TO BE IN THE "FREE FLOAT":
The Company is awaiting the filings of Form 13(g) and Form 13(d) from
certain investors. Upon receipt of these filings, we will be in a
position to publish an accurate number. We do not want to mislead
investors nor stockholders. The "Free float" has been considerably
reduced over the past month and the daily trading volumes reflect much
intraday trading as the "free float" certainly cannot now be in excess
of 1.5 billion shares of the Company's Common Stock.
6. WILL THE COMPANY STILL BE PAYING THE EXTRAORDINARY DIVIDEND AFTER THE
ASSUMPTION OF A CONTROLLING INTEREST BY THE PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP:
Absolutely yes. They invested primarily as they saw our Company as a
"value play." They are 100% behind the payment of this Dividend. It is
of huge benefit and profit to themselves.
7. WHY HAS THE TRANSFER AGENT NOT YET CANCELLED ALL OF THE SHARES
REPURCHASED BY THE COMPANY:
This is a time consuming process and involves much paperwork. We are
awaiting stock certificates from a number of parties; and upon
receipt thereof, we will file them with the Transfer Agent for
cancellation along with all of the requisite paperwork. Stock
repurchased by the Company in the market can only be cancelled upon
settlement of these trades and then a physical stock certificate will
have be requested from the Broker; and these stock certificates will
be filed with the Transfer Agent for cancellation.
All stock cancellations will be up to date with the Transfer Agent
well before the "Record Date" of the Extraordinary Dividend to ensure
that there are no errors in the payment of this Extraordinary
Dividend.
8. WHY IS THE COMPANY INCREASING ITS STOCK IN HUNT GOLD CORPORATION:
The Company believes that Hunt Gold Corporation is way undervalued and
as it is already a stockholder in that Company, we see an opportunity
to profit from a takeover of that Company. We will continue to
increase our holdings in that Company and will keep up the pressure in
the hopes of a "bidding war" for that Company. To date, we have made a
sizeable paper profit on this investment. This a short term and
unrelated activity to our core business and being done purely for
short term investment gains.
Alan Santini, the CEO of Fortress Financial Group, Inc. commented that he hoped that he was able to clarify many of the issues raised by Stockholders. Alan Santini “hoped that these answers would enable stockholders to make logical decisions as to whether or not they should buy or sell the Company’s stock.”
Any further information required by our stockholders will be immediately provided, should they E Mail their questions to the Company.
About Fortress Financial Group, Inc.
Fortress Financial Group, Inc. was primarily engaged in the issuing and marketing of prepaid debit card and related payment solution activities. Through the closure of the Trinity Mercantile Finance Group and the Mortgage Bank acquisitions, Fortress Financial Group, Inc. is now expediting its plans to become a broadly based Consumer Finance Group. The “Mortgage and Consumer Lending Divisions” will comprise the vast majority of the Group’s earnings in the immediate to medium term.
The Company is utilizing is substantial Balance Sheet of circa US$100 million comprised of quoted and unquoted Gold Mining & Exploration stocks (This is after the payment of the Extraordinary Dividend of US$400 million to stockholders) to aggressively fund a large number of acquisitions in the consumer financial services sector, initially focused in the Mortgage Lending and Banking sectors.
ess than a dime per share only a few years ago. From a nickel per share to over $26.00? Quite the percentage return wouldn’t you say? How did they do it you ask ? Something most investors don’t know about: the acquired merger.An near empty, dormant public company acquires a really tangible and highly lucrative private co and off they go… instant value-added business model linked to a tightly held, underlying float. in this case I’m sharing the suggestion that we take look at shares of Veridigm , Inc (VRGD) as the latest acquired merger thats gone pretty much unnoticed, until Friday afternoon when its stock woke up. Trading under the symbol VRGD , Veridigm , Inc has just signed deals with Serious Web 2.0 players including MediaPal.com a Warner Music Group contractor (one of only three globally!!) . Trading for under a dime a share – I think a conservative long term estimate of $1.00 – $2.00 dollars isn’t out of the question. Do yourself the favor of looking into Veridigm, Inc (symbol VRGD) while its down here and hopefully, once the rest of the people catch on you’ll think you’ve found a true religion.