Forum Markets Incorporated (FRMM) outlined its strategy to acquire and operate cash-generating real-world assets while retaining the option to fractionalize or tokenize ownership interests as regulated digital-asset markets develop.
Speaking at the Sidoti conference, John Kristoff, senior vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, said the company is targeting asset categories with what it views as attractive risk-adjusted returns, durable demand, high-quality counterparties and barriers to direct investor access. Forum’s current focus includes aircraft engines, AI infrastructure, modular-home financing and auto credit.
Aircraft engines lead current deployment
Chief Financial Officer John Saunders said aircraft engines represent Forum’s largest current deployment area. The company is focused on CFM56-7B and 5B engines used in narrow-body commercial aircraft.
Forum has acquired five engines, including two purchased after the end of the second quarter. All five are under contract and generating rental income, Saunders said. The company typically contracts with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines or American Airlines, and the engines operate primarily on domestic U.S. routes and some Caribbean routes.
Saunders said Forum inspects engines before acquisition, reviews Federal Aviation Administration records, maintains insurance coverage and has negotiated guaranteed residual purchase prices at the end of contracts. The company also sees potential to use debt financing on the assets and eventually offer tokenized equity in special-purpose vehicles holding the engines.
He said expected net returns, after management fees and incorporating debt and certain depreciation benefits, could be in the mid-teens if the assets are tokenized. Forum expects aircraft-engine rental revenue to rise in the third quarter as its full five-engine portfolio contributes for a longer period.
AI compute project expected to support revenue ramp
Forum expects AI infrastructure to become its second-largest vertical, and potentially its largest over time, Saunders said. The company has been evaluating bridge financing for graphics processing units as well as AI compute investments, and expects to announce a compute-focused partnership in the coming weeks or months.
While Saunders did not disclose deal terms, he said Forum is concentrating on power-ready facilities where GPUs can be deployed quickly. He identified power availability, permits, cooling capacity and interconnection agreements as key constraints for new AI infrastructure projects.
Forum believes compute demand may become more localized and regional over time, according to Saunders. The company also sees a longer-term opportunity to fractionalize ownership in AI projects or in the compute chips themselves.
The anticipated AI compute project is expected to come online late in the fourth quarter and provide a significant portion of Forum’s 2026 revenue outlook, management said.
Other credit verticals
In modular-home financing, Forum has partnered with Zippy, which Saunders described as an originator using AI underwriting. He said the partnership is intended to address demand from first-time homebuyers amid housing affordability pressures.
Saunders said modular-home loans in the company’s targeted strategy carry annualized yields of 9% to 11%. He also cited community recourse for the first five years of certain loans and the relative ease of repossessing a mobile home compared with foreclosing on traditional real property as features that may reduce risk.
In auto credit, Forum has established a warehouse facility that Saunders said generates annualized yields of 12% to 13%. The facility enables loan originations over weekends and holds loans until they can be acquired by a takeout partner. The originator is contractually required to remove nonperforming loans that are not acquired, Saunders said, which he characterized as producing a virtually zero-default-rate facility.
Forum has partnered with Karus, an AI underwriting company, in the auto-finance business. Saunders said the company has deployed the least capital in this vertical so far but could acquire loans directly from the facility as its distribution capabilities expand.
Distribution strategy and financial targets
Management said it intends to pursue both tokenized and traditional institutional distribution channels. Saunders said Forum has an equity position and a trading-fee arrangement with Liquidity.io, under which the company would share in fees from secondary trading of its tokens.
He said regulatory clarity remains important for broader adoption of tokenized products, citing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and anticipated Securities and Exchange Commission guidance. Initially, Forum may target accredited investors through Regulation D offerings before potentially pursuing structures that can reach retail investors more directly.
Forum reported $1.4 million in revenue for the quarter it had just closed. Saunders said the company expects revenue to increase significantly in the third quarter, driven by engine rentals, and again in the fourth quarter if the AI compute project begins operations.
- Forum targets year-end 2026 assets under management of $100 million to $175 million.
- Management forecasts full-year 2026 revenue of $18 million to $22 million.
- The company expects to become cash-flow positive in early 2027.
- Saunders said forward quarterly operating expenses could decline to approximately $4 million to $4.5 million.
Saunders also said Forum repurchased approximately 35% of its outstanding shares when management believed the stock was trading below intrinsic value. Going forward, he said the company’s priorities are controlling costs, expanding cash-flowing asset holdings and eventually recycling capital through asset distribution and fee-generating platforms.
About Flag Ship Acquisition (NASDAQ:ETHZ)
1180 Life Sciences Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops therapeutics for unmet medical needs in chronic pain, inflammation, fibrosis, and other inflammatory diseases. Its product development platforms include fibrosis and anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) platform, which is under Phase IIb clinical trials that focuses on fibrosis and Anti-TNF; Synthetic Cannabidiol (CBD) Analogs platform, which is under preclinical trials that are man-made derivatives of CBD; and a7nAChR platform, an immune suppressive, which is under preclinical trails that focuses on alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.
