Element Financial Corporation announced that the Company has closed the issuance of US$1.0 billion in rated term notes through Chesapeake Funding II LLC (“Chesapeake II”) and closed the renewal of its asset-backed funding facility with the Company’s lending syndicate which was expanded by US$1.25 billion. Together, the two commitments amount to a US$2.25 expansion of Element’s fleet funding capacity.

Strong demand for the notes allowed the Company to double the size of the offering with interest rate spreads that narrowed by 15 to 25 basis points from the Company’s most recent fleet ABS transaction. This brings to US$3.5 billion the total amount of funding completed through Chesapeake II since its inception in December of last year as the new funding platform for Element’s U.S. fleet management business.

“Subsequent to these issuances, the Company has un-drawn commitments of US$4.0 billion under our Chesapeake facilities,” said Michel Beland, Element’s Chief Financial Officer. “Our ABS investors have clearly signaled their appetite for a regular cadence of high quality fleet ABS offerings through Chesapeake that we expect to bring to market every three to four months,” added Mr. Beland.

RBC Capital Markets, BofA Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan acted as joint bookrunners for the term note transaction together with CIBC Capital Markets and TD Securities as Co-Managers.

The expansion and extension of the lending syndicate facility was led by Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan.

With total assets of $23.9 billion, Element Financial Corporation is one of North America’s leading fleet management and equipment finance companies. Element operates across North America in four verticals of the equipment finance market (Fleet Management, Rail Finance, Commercial & Vendor Finance, and Aviation Finance) and in Australia and New Zealand in the Fleet Management business.