MINDEN, Nev., April 16, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Kingdom Ventures, Inc. (OTCBB:KDMV), a rapidly growing church development company, announced today it is has launched its Church Financing Services division. These services are produced by Security Church Finance, Inc. (SCF), a NASD registered broker/dealer. SCF has assisted over 2,900 churches in the issuance and sale of church bonds to provide funds for the purchase of property, construction of facilities and the refinancing of indebtedness. Church financing is a highly specialized niche that leading investment banks such as Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) and Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE:MER) have almost completely overlooked.
More information on Kingdom Ventures' Church Financing Services is now available at www.kdmvcorp.com/di_finance.htm.
Church financing is one of the key challenges for growing churches. Most small and medium sized churches find it very difficult to obtain financing from traditional financial institutions.
"Most banks do not want to loan money to churches. What if the church couldn't pay back the loan? Would you foreclose on 'God's house'? Even if you were to accept the bad press, what would you do with a 'good, used church'? Church financing is clearly one of the most challenging segments of the financial industry. Security Church Finance has already helped 2,900 churches secure almost a billion dollars of financing," says Gene Jackson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kingdom Ventures, Inc.
"We have seamlessly integrated Security Church Finance's capabilities into our church development programs, providing yet another valuable service for our client churches. Church financing could also become a significant new profit center for Kingdom Ventures," says Jackson.
Kingdom Ventures helps faith-based organizations streamline their operations, raise additional money through various fund-raising activities or simply provide technological solutions that transform small and medium-sized churches into state-of-the-art presentation centers. The company helps churches focus on their core mission -- reaching people for God -- by focusing on its core business: helping churches and their people to grow.
There are approximately 400,000 Protestant churches in the U.S. alone. 94% of them have fewer than 1,000 active members, and therefore limited financial resources to effectively manage the business side of their operations. Christian organizations' total budgets are measured in billions of dollars. 89% of American households give to charities an average of $1,600+ a year, and religious organizations receive 60% of it. In addition, religious and inspirational products are selling at a pace of $5.6 billion annually (source: Christian Retailing Magazine).
Within less than three years, Kingdom Ventures has built a distribution network for Christian products, consisting of 2,100+ retail stores; 1,200 Christian bookstores and 900 gift stores. It has also established strong business relationships with hundreds of Christian organizations and performed over 750 fundraising events -- helping churches and other Christian organizations grow.
In April 2002, Kingdom acquired a majority interest in Xtreme Notebooks, Inc. Xtreme utilizes the same business model that has made Dell Computers (Nasdaq:DELL) the leading computer retailer in the country. Xtreme sells laptop computers, tablet-PCs and projection equipment to the Christian and tech community through its online e-commerce site.
For more information, visit www.kdmvcorp.com. To sign up for shareholder alerts, visit http://www.kdmvcorp.com/ir_shareholderalerts.htm.
All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are "forward-looking statements." The forward-looking statements, including statements about the company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other forward-looking statements (i.e., future operational results and sales) are subject to assumptions and beliefs based on current information known to the company and factors that are subject to uncertainties, risk and other influences, which are outside the company's control, and may yield results differing materially from those anticipated.