Professional Bank to Establish a New England-Based Lending Office

*CORAL GABLES, FL and BEDFORD, NH / ACCESSWIRE / October 23, 2020 / *Professional Bank, a subsidiary of Professional Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:PFHD), will open a New England Loan Production Office in Bedford, New Hampshire specializing in a niche business opportunity associated with M&A lending nationwide. The office will focus on the search fund community and related sponsors that provide equity and seek debt to finance acquisitions of small businesses.

The office will be led by Zach Duprey, Senior Vice President, Director of Search Fund & Sponsor Finance. Duprey joins Professional Bank from BankProv where he was the driving force behind its Search Fund Lending Center. As director of the lending group, he grew the search fund portfolio by financing over 60 acquisitions and $250 million in loan closings.

Duprey has been in commercial banking for more than a decade and has carved out a niche in lower- middle-market acquisition financing. His move to Professional Bank is welcome news to the search fund community, and he plans to build upon his success.

"Professional Bank has the best platform to enable me to continue supporting the search fund community via acquisitions, growth and ongoing service," Duprey said. "I'm excited to continue working with searchers and investors on acquisition opportunities with Professional Bank's ability to provide meaningful capital to this niche market."

Search funds originated in the MBA programs at Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business with the concept of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. Today, a number of elite business schools throughout the country teach the strategy to its students.

Under this model, students who've earned their MBAs look for stable, existing businesses that may be in a state of transition, such as succession issues or inability to scale. The MBAs then bring their acquisition opportunities to investors inside the search community who will support them in buying the business and help them transition into a CEO role. These deals come with a higher level of corporate governance and institutional-grade reporting beyond what is typically found at similarly sized local businesses. Deals are originated nationwide across many industries.

"We are excited about entering the search fund space," stated Daniel R. Sheehan, Professional Bank's Chairman and CEO. "Zach is a great addition to the Professional Bank team, and we look forward to being an active capital provider within this talented community."

*Forward Looking Statements *

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this presentation that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "seek," "project" or "expect," "may," "will," "would," "could" or "should" and similar expressions. Forward looking statements represent the Company's current expectations, plans or forecasts and involve significant risks and uncertainties. Several important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include, without limitation, current and future economic and market conditions, including those that could impact credit quality and the ability to generate loans and gather deposits; the duration, extent and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the governments' responses to the pandemic, on our and our customers' operations, personnel, and business activity (including developments and volatility), as well as COVID-19's impact on the credit quality of our loan portfolio and financial markets and general economic conditions; the effects of our lack of a diversified loan portfolio and concentration in the South Florida market; the impact of current and future interest rates and expectations concerning the actual timing and amount of interest rate movements; competition; our ability to execute business plans; geopolitical developments; legislative and regulatory developments; inflation or deflation; market fluctuations; natural disasters (including pandemics such as COVID-19); potential business uncertainties related to the integration of Marquis Bancorp (MBI), including into our operations critical accounting estimates; and other factors described in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2020, Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2020 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements included herein to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, except as may be required by law.

*About Professional Holding Corp. and Professional Bank:*

Professional Holding Corp. (PFHD: NASDAQ), is the financial holding company for Professional Bank, a Florida state-chartered bank established in 2008. Professional Bank focuses on providing creative, relationship-driven commercial banking products and services designed to meet the needs of small to medium-sized businesses, the owners and operators of these businesses, other professional entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals. Professional Bank currently operates through a network of nine locations in the regional areas of Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. It also has a Digital Innovation Center located in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, visit www.myprobank.com. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

*Media Contacts:*

Todd Templin or Eric Kalis, BoardroomPR
ttemplin@boardroompr.com/ekalis@boardroompr.com
954-290-0810

*SOURCE: *Professional Holding Corp.
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