TORONTO, Sept. 30, 2013 /CNW/ - Element Financial Corporation (TSX: EFN)
("Element" or the "Company"), one of North America's leading
independent equipment finance companies, today announced that it has
entered into a North American vendor finance agreement (the "Agreement)
with Lion Buses Inc. ("Lion") of St. Jerome, Quebec, one of North
America's leading manufacturers of the most innovative school buses in
the industry.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Element will act as a preferred
provider of manufacturer-sponsored financing for Lion's customers in
Canada. The demand in North America for Type C buses is comprised of
regional and local school boards that contract with bus operators to
provide transportation services for their students. Annual expenditures
by these customers for new and used equipment amount to approximately
$300 million in Canada and US$2.7 billion in the United States.
"All of the criteria that we look for in a manufacturing partner -
established market presence, financial durability, competitive product
advantage and strong management - were easy to check off as we
developed this Agreement with Lion Bus," said Todd Hudson, Element
Financial's Executive Vice President. "We look forward to working with
Lion to provide comprehensive financing solutions for their customers
as they continue to penetrate the North American market with their
industry leading innovative products."
In the school segment of the Type C bus market, both the manufacturers
and operators are consolidating as school boards look to find ways to
reduce costs and manufacturers look to add scale to leverage technology
innovations that improve operating efficiency and increase safety.
"Lion Bus was founded in 2008 to capitalize on these converging market
forces," said Marc Bedard, President of Lion Bus. "Using composite
materials, Lion manufactures buses that are more durable, less
expensive to operate and offer added safety features over the legacy
equipment that operators are retiring from service."
About Element Financial Corporation
With total assets of approximately C$2.5 billion, Element Financial
Corporation is one of North America's leading independent equipment
finance companies. Element operates across North America in three
verticals of the equipment finance market - Element Capital provides
large ticket equipment leasing, Element Finance serves the mid-ticket
equipment finance market and Element Fleet provides vehicle fleet
leasing and management solutions.
This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Element and
its business. Such statements are based on the current expectations and
views of future events of Element's management. In some cases the
forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such
as "may", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "intend",
"potential", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or
other similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking
statements. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in
this release, including reference to the issuance of subsequent
tranches of notes, the availability of third party ratings on the notes
and/or the sale of notes to additional institutional investors may not
occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk
factors and uncertainties affecting the company. No forward-looking
statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements and
information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our
actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be
materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or
information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on
any forward-looking statements or information. Except as required by
applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of
the date on which they are made and Element undertakes no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
SOURCE Element Financial Corporation
