Lion Announces Unaudited Full Year 2020 Financial Results.

HONG KONG: Lion Group Holding Ltd. ("Lion" or "the Company") (NASDAQ: LGHL), operator of an all-in-one trading platform that offers a wide spectrum of products and services with a focus on Chinese investors, today announced its unaudited financial results for the full year ended December 31, 2020.

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

All comparisons are made on a year-over-year ("yoy") basis.

For the Full Year Ended December 31, 2020

Total revenues decreased by 44.8% to $10.2 million from $18.5 million, mainly due to the negative impact of COVID-19.

Net loss was $3.4 million, compared to a net income of $8.2 million last year.

Non-GAAP net income was $0.3 million, compared to a Non-GAAP net income of $8.2 million last year.

Total number of revenue-generating client accounts increased by 23.8% to 5,010 from 4,047 last year.

Total revenue-generating CFD (contract for difference) client trading accounts increased by 44.8% to 2,668 from 1,843 last year.

CFD trading volume decreased by 72.3% to 223,018 lots from 806,111 lots last year.

Futures brokerage trading volume decreased by 19.0% to 738,444 lots from 911,693 lots last year.

Mr. Chunning (Wilson) Wang, CEO of Lion, commented: "Similar to other companies, our various business segments were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our financial performance is subject to changing global market conditions, particularly the fluctuation and volatility of trading activities on major exchanges worldwide, which resulted in decreases in revenue and margins for Lion this year. Despite these challenges, we made efforts to remain competitive in the industry, largely attributable to our diverse new products and service offerings. For example, we launched our TRS trading services to allow international investors to invest in the Chinese stock market. We are planning to launch a fintech business through the prospective acquisition of Lion Fintech, which holds a proprietary trading license for crypto assets in Dubai. At the same time, we recently sponsored two SPAC companies and hope to realize gains from the appreciation of founder shares upon each SPAC's initial public offering."

While we expect our CFD trading services to continue being a major revenue source in the near future, we cooperated with Yun Tian Investment Limited, which has dispatched a team of talent in the areas of finance, technology, and marketing, to further advance our development in the TRS trading business. We are also pleased that Mr. Guandong (Gordon) Wang, who has nearly 10 years of experience in quantitative trading, has joined our Board and is expected to play a key role in our TRS trading business.

"As we head into the new year, we remain confident in our long-term strategies and ongoing developments. We expect businesses will return to normal in June this year once large populations have received the vaccine. In addition, the need for new products and services will further increase as our client base diversifies. As such, we will continue to monitor the situation and develop new products and services to keep up with customer demands and industry trends."

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS/BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

Launch of TRS trading business

On July 16, 2020, Lion announced the official launch of "Lion Lu Gu Tong," its total return swap (TRS) service that offers A-shares (shares that are denominated in Renminbi and traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange) and Hong Kong stock basket-linked TRS. Lion earns income from the spread on interest rate loans provided to TRS trading customers and loans borrowed from our business partners, in addition to receiving commissions and fees from customers for trades made through the TRS trading service. Leveraging Lion's advanced technology infrastructure, the new service provides a fast, smooth, and economical channel that facilitates the purchase of Chinese stocks by international investors.

- TRS is growing steadily and may become a new core driver

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