Canada’s Element Financial Purchasing Parts of GE Capital
TORONTO – The Canadian fleet management and equipment finance company Element Financial Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire GE Capital’s remaining North American fleet management operations in the U.S. and Mexico, along with as GE Capital’s fleet management operations in Australia and New Zealand.
The $8.6 billion transaction follows Element purchasing the Canadian operations of GE Capital’s North American fleet management business in June of 2013.
“Adding these very high quality businesses to our existing fleet operations firmly establishes Element as a leader in the North American fleet management industry,” said Steven Hudson, Element’s CEO. “But more importantly, by combining these businesses we’re being given an unprecedented opportunity to bring together the systems, technologies, products and people that have helped to define excellence in the fleet management industry in North America for more than five decades.”
The North American-based portion of the GE portfolio represents $5.3 billion of the net earning assets acquired by Element while the Australia and New Zealand-based portions represents $1.8 billion.
The U.S. and Mexico purchase is expected to close in the third quarter of this year while the Australia and New Zealand deal is expected to close in the final quarter of 2015.
In April, GE announced plans to sell off its fleet management and commercial lending and leasing businesses over the next two years to allow it to focus on continued investment and growth in its industrial businesses.
In a related transaction, Element confirmed today that Paris-based Arval, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNP Paribas and Element’s founding partner in the Element-Arval Global Alliance, has entered into an agreement to acquire GE Capital’s European fleet operations.
Together, these two transactions signal a new level of collaboration between Element and Arval in serving the global fleet management needs of international customers, according to Element.
On closing of the two transactions, the Element-Arval Global Alliance will be capable of managing customer fleets in more than 40 countries.
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