CIT aquires factoring assets from GE
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, September 22, 2003
Livingston, N.J. — Factoring services provider CIT said it has acquired "a substantial portion" of the U.S. factoring assets of competitor GE Commercial Services.
Both companies are active in the furniture industry. Even before the deal, CIT Commercial Services was believed to be the largest provider of factoring, a type of asset-based financing.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. CIT said it acquired assets with $446 million in accounts receivable outstanding at the time of the deal, although that doesn't represent factoring volume.
CIT did not acquire offices or hire staff from GE and will take on the additional clients through its existing offices. Many of the GE clients are in the Southeast and will be handled by CIT's regional office in Charlotte, N.C., the company said.
The acquired assets include the factoring portfolio that GE had acquired when it purchased High Point-based First Factors in 1998.
"We have provided factoring services since the 1920s and look forward to welcoming a host of new clients to CIT," said John Daly, president of CIT Commercial Services. "This addition to our existing portfolio reinforces CIT's commitment to the factoring business and broadens our scope in the many industries that sell into retail channels of distribution including furniture, apparel and consumer electronics."
CIT Group, the parent company of CIT Commercial Services, is a Fortune 500 company with nearly $50 billion in assets under management.
