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Wells Fargo To Buy GE Capital’s Vendor Finance Businesses

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Even if you’ve financed the purchase of a motorcycle recently, we doubt you noticed that GE Capital has removed itself from the vehicle lending business, but it was a big deal for dealers and manufacturers.

A major player in financing not only the inventory and flooring for dealers, lending money to smaller OEMs to create product and inventory, as well as helping consumers finance their expensive play toys, GE Capital has been one of the larger lenders in the motorcycle space for the past decade or so, and likely has helped you save a fraction of a percent or two on your lending rate.

That fraction of a percent though means that GE’s decision to get out of the automotive lending game has had serious ramifications in the two-wheeled world, even if it’s not the sexiest subject to talk about on a moto-news site.

This is why it’s a pretty big deal that Wells Fargo is poised to acquire GE Capital’s commercial distribution finance and vendor finance businesses, as well as some of GE’s corporate finance business, as it means another major lending body will service the motorcycle industry.

The acquisition includes total assets of approximately $32 billion, as well as businesses employing approximately 3,000 employees. Wells Fargo and GE Capital hope to close the deal in the first quarter of 2016.

“This acquisition is an outstanding opportunity for Wells Fargo to deepen relationships and strengthen our presence in key commercial lending markets,” said Tim Sloan, Head of Wells Fargo Wholesale Banking.

“GE Capital’s businesses are industry leaders with proven business models and capabilities backed by exceptionally talented and experienced teams. These advantages, in addition to portfolios that are diversified geographically and by industry, will allow Wells Fargo to continue to grow our business in order to better serve the needs of new and existing Wholesale Banking customers.”

That business-school bingo lingo is code for the fact that one of America’s largest banks is getting into the motorcycle industry lending game.

This means dealers will have another substantial option in financing their inventories, manufacturers will have another lender capable of financing their production runs and other business operations, and consumers will have another top-tier lender to choose from when buying a motorcycle.

Source: Wells Fargo

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