Financially Challenged LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings Secures a Line of Credit

LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings, the financially challenged creator of an LGBTQ-friendly stock index, has announced that it has obtained a $10 million equity line of credit from Cavalry Fund. That line of credit will allow LGBTQ Loyalty to proceed with the launch of a fund comprised of stocks of LGBTQ-friendly companies that can be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings is headquartered in West Hollywood and led by Bobby Blair. Blair was founder and CEO of Multimedia Platforms Worldwide, which purchased the financially troubled Frontiers Media, publisher of the gay-oriented Frontiers magazine in 2015.  Shortly thereafter, MPW filed for bankruptcy and Frontiers closed as did other gay publications acquired by MPW such as Fun Maps and Next magazine, a New York City gay nightlife guide. The bankruptcy left MPW’s investors with substantial losses and many of its employees and freelancers unpaid.

Formerly known as LifeApps Brands,  LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings describes itself as “a diversity and inclusion driven financial methodology company that quantifies corporate equality alignment with the LGBTQ community and minority interest groups.” Its LGBTQ 100 ESG Index uses LGBTQ community survey data to create a listing of the nation’s best performing major companies that LGBTQ people believe support their rights. An ESG is an index of stocks issued by companies that have been determined to meet certain environmental, social and progressive corporate governance standards. 

In an announcement of the line of credit, LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings said it intends to become a “niche ETF sponsor.” An ETF sponsor is the manager of a fund that is traded on a stock exchange. LGBTQ Holdings would select stocks for its fund based in large part on a company’s ranking as LGBTQ friendly and as environmentally conscious.  It  hopes to launch that fund on the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System) market in the third quarter of this year.

The importance of the line of credit is evident in LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings’s December 2019 filing with the federal Security and Exchange Commission.

“Our independent registered public accounting firm has issued a report that includes an explanatory paragraph referring to our recurring net losses and expressing substantial doubt in our ability to continue as a going concern,” the report states. “Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon our ability to obtain additional equity financing or other capital, attain further operating efficiencies, reduce expenditures, and, ultimately, to generate revenue. …  However, if adequate funds are not available to us when we need it, and we are unable to enter into some form of strategic relationship that will give us access to additional cash resources, we will be required to even further curtail our operations which would, in turn, further raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

“We have incurred significant losses since inception. As of December 31, 2019, we had an accumulated deficit of $9,077,614. We expect to incur increased costs in order to implement additional initiatives designed to increase revenues.”

In addition to Bobby Blair, LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings board members include well-known figures such as Martina Navratilova, the lesbian professional tennis player; former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the nation’s first openly congressman, and Billy Bean, the gay former baseball player with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers.