TORONTO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Element Financial Corp EFN.TO
said on Wednesday it plans to sell its Canadian commercial and
vendor (C&V) operations that help finance everything from trucks
to printers, as it accelerates its transformation into North
America's leading fleet management and services enterprise.
The Toronto-based company, which acquired General Electric (N:GE)'s
GE.N fleet management business in the U.S., Mexico, Australia
and New Zealand for $6.9 billion in June, said it will reinvest
proceeds from the sale of the C&V business into organic growth
and acquisition opportunities in its fleet management business.
The company said it has retained Barclays (L:BARC) Capital to act as
its advisor in the development of strategic alternatives for its
Canadian C&V business. Element said it plans to be in a position
to act on any offers or recommendations in the first-quarter of
2016.
"We have already achieved unprecedented scale in the North
American fleet management industry," said Chief Executive Steven
Hudson, in a statement.
Hudson added that given the consolidation and organic growth
opportunities and returns it sees in the fleet management space,
it believes its shareholders will be best served by rebalancing
the company's allocation of capital in favor of that business.
Element's deal with GE transformed the Canadian company into
North America's largest fleet provider. The business finances
and manages vehicles of companies that own vast fleets for sales
staff, technicians and others on the move. GE sold its Canadian
fleet unit to Element in 2013.
Its Canadian C&V business, which has over 100 employees,
oversees a diversified portfolio of about C$1 billion in finance
assets.