1. DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

Basis of Presentation

The consolidated financial statements comprise those of A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. ("A-Mark", also referred to as "we", "us", and the "Company"), its consolidated subsidiaries, and its joint venture in which the Company has a controlling interest.

Business Segments

The Company conducts its operations in three reportable segments: (i) Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services, (ii) Direct-to-Consumer, and (iii) Secured Lending. See Note 19 for further information regarding our reportable segments.

Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services

The Company operates its Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment directly and through its consolidated subsidiaries, A-Mark Trading AG (“AMTAG”), Transcontinental Depository Services, LLC ("TDS" or “Storage”), A-M Global Logistics, LLC (“AMGL” or "Logistics"), AM&ST Associates, LLC ("AMST" or the "Silver Towne Mint"), and AM/LPM Ventures, LLC, which we formed to acquire LPM Group Limited ("LPM").

The Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment operates as a full-service precious metals company. We offer gold, silver, platinum, and palladium in the form of bars, plates, powder, wafers, grain, ingots, and coins. Our Industrial unit services manufacturers and fabricators of products utilizing or incorporating precious metals. Our Coin and Bar unit deals in approximately 2,100 coin and bar products in a variety of weights, shapes, and sizes for distribution to dealers and other qualified purchasers. We have a marketing support office in Vienna, Austria, a numismatics showroom in Hong Kong, and a trading center in El Segundo, California. The trading center, for buying and selling precious metals, is available to receive orders 24 hours every day, even when many major world commodity markets are closed. In addition to Wholesale Sales activity, A-Mark offers its customers a variety of ancillary services, including financing, storage, consignment, logistics, and various customized financial programs. As a U.S. Mint-authorized purchaser of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins, A-Mark purchases product directly from the U.S. Mint, and it also purchases product from other sovereign mints, for sale to its customers.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary AMTAG, the Company promotes its products and services to certain international markets. Through our wholly-owned subsidiary TDS, we offer a variety of managed storage options for precious metals products to financial institutions, dealers, investors, and collectors around the world.

The Company's wholly-owned subsidiary AMGL is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and provides our customers an array of complementary services, including receiving, handling, inventorying, processing, packing, and shipping of precious metals and custom coins on a secure basis.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary AMST, the Company designs and produces minted silver products. Our Silver Towne Mint operations allow us to provide greater product selection to our customers as well as to gain increased access to silver during volatile market environments, which have historically created higher demand for precious metals products.

The Company operates LPM, its Asia headquarters, through its subsidiary AM/LPM Ventures, LLC. Based in Hong Kong, LPM offers the Company's full-service precious metals products and services in Asia and internationally.

Direct-to-Consumer

The Company operates its Direct-to-Consumer segment through its wholly-owned subsidiaries JM Bullion, Inc. (“JMB”) and Goldline, Inc. (“Goldline”), and through its investment in Silver Gold Bull, Inc. ("SGB"). As of September 30, 2024, JMB had several wholly-owned subsidiaries, including: Buy Gold and Silver Corp. ("BGASC"), BX Corporation ("BullionMax"), Gold Price Group, Inc. (“GPG”), Silver.com, Inc. (“Silver.com”), Provident Metals Corp. (“PMC”), and CyberMetals Corp. ("CyberMetals"). Goldline, Inc. owns 100% of AMIP, LLC ("AMIP"). SGB and Goldline each have a 50% ownership interest in Precious Metals Purchasing Partners, LLC ("PMPP"). As the context requires, references in these Notes to JMB may include BGASC, BullionMax, GPG, Silver.com, PMC, and CyberMetals, and references to Goldline may include AMIP and PMPP.

JM Bullion, Inc.

JMB is a leading e-commerce retailer providing access to a broad array of gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium products through its websites. JMB owns and operates numerous websites targeting specific niches within the precious metals retail market, including JMBullion.com, ProvidentMetals.com, Silver.com, CyberMetals.com, GoldPrice.org, SilverPrice.org, BGASC.com, BullionMax.com, and Gold.com. Typically, JMB offers approximately 6,200 different products during a fiscal year, measured by stock keeping units or SKUs, on its websites. This number can vary over time, particularly when demand is high and certain SKUs may be out of stock.

In April 2022, JMB commercially launched the CyberMetals online platform, where customers can purchase and sell fractional shares of digital gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars in a range of denominations. CyberMetals’ customers have the option to convert their digital holdings to fabricated precious metals products via an integrated redemption flow with JMB. These products may be designated by the customer for storage by the Company or shipped directly to the customer.

Goldline, Inc.

The Company acquired Goldline in August 2017 through an asset purchase transaction with Goldline, LLC, which had been in operation since 1960. Goldline is a direct retailer of precious metals to the investor community, and markets its precious metal products on television, radio, and the internet, as well as through customer service outreach. Goldline’s subsidiary AMIP manages its intellectual property. PMPP was formed in fiscal 2019 pursuant to terms of a joint venture agreement with SGB, for the purpose of purchasing precious metals from the partners' retail customers, and then reselling the acquired products back to affiliates of the partners. PMPP commenced its operations in fiscal 2020.

Silver Gold Bull, Inc.

In 2014, the Company acquired its initial ownership interest in SGB, a leading e-commerce precious metals retailer in Canada. Through its website, SilverGoldBull.com, SGB offers a variety of products from gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars, coins and rounds, as well as certified coins from mints around the world. In 2018 and 2022, the Company made incremental investments to increase its ownership interest in SGB to 47.4% as of June 2022. Also in June 2022, the Company acquired an option to purchase an additional 27.6% of the outstanding equity of SGB to bring the Company's ownership interest up to 75%. In June 2024, the Company exercised part of its option and acquired an additional 8% ownership interest in SGB for $9.6 million, increasing its ownership interest to 55.4%, at which point SGB became a consolidated subsidiary of the Company. The increased investment in SGB allows the Company to continue its strategy to further expand internationally, particularly in Canada.

In connection with the exercise of its option in June 2024, the Company modified certain terms and conditions of its option to acquire additional ownership interest in SGB, including extending the term of the remaining unexercised option to September 2025 as well as reducing the option to increase its ownership from 75% to 70%. In accordance with ASC 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity, the resulting modified option was not determined to be separately exercisable from the remaining shares of SGB, and therefore the value is embedded within the noncontrolling interest of SGB.

In June 2024, SGB declared a $15.9 million dividend to existing shareholders based on certain levels of working capital. $9.2 million of the dividend was paid to certain shareholders in September 2024. The dividend paid to the Company from SGB in September 2024 was $7.5 million.

Secured Lending

The Company operates its Secured Lending segment through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Collateral Finance Corporation, LLC, including its wholly-owned subsidiary, CFC Alternative Investments (“CAI”) (collectively “CFC”).

CFC is a California licensed finance lender that originates and acquires commercial loans secured primarily by bullion and numismatic coins. CFC's customers include coin and precious metal dealers, investors, and collectors.

CAI is a holding company that has a 50%-ownership stake in Collectible Card Partners, LLC ("CCP"). CCP provides capital to fund commercial loans secured by graded sports cards. (See Note 14.)