Element Financial Corporation announced that it has closed its previously announced acquisitions comprised of approximately US$348 million worth of helicopter and railcar finance assets from GE Capital and Trinity Industries, Inc. respectively.

Further to the December 9th announcement that Element had entered into a strategic alliance agreement with Dallas-based Trinity Industries, Inc. (“Trinity”) to provide lease financing for up to US$2 billion worth of railcars over the next two years, the Company confirmed today that it has closed the acquisition of the first tranche of assets under this agreement comprised of approximately US$105 million of existing railcar assets currently under lease to a diversified Trinity customer base.

The Company also confirmed today that it has closed the previously announced acquisition from GE Capital of a portfolio of finance assets secured by individual helicopters for approximately US$243 million. The acquired portfolio of assets consists of 57 individual helicopters operated by 12 customers in various commercial lift applications including oil and gas resource development and medevac services.

“These two transactions add further scale and scope to Element’s position as one of North America’s leading providers of equipment financing with an established presence in five key business verticals – Commercial Finance, Vendor Finance, Aviation Finance, Railcar Finance and Fleet Management,” said Steven K. Hudson, Element’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We have focused on building Element around these core verticals because we see them as offering very strong growth opportunities over the next several years combined with attractive yields and high quality credit attributes,” added Mr. Hudson.