ECN Capital Corp announced it has closed the previously announced sale of substantially all of its remaining rail finance assets to GATX Corporation.

ECN Capital in November 2018 announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell the remaining railcar assets to GATX for proceeds of approximately $229 million. The company recorded a total after-tax loss of $38.5 million in the third quarter of 2018 on this sale.

Combined with the earlier railcar assets sold on Oct. 17, ECN recorded a total after-tax loss of approximately $67.2 million in the third quarter of 2018 for these two transactions, reflecting a combined 0.90x book value of assets.

"The 2018 Railcar Dispositions were completed on an accelerated basis to execute the wind-down of our legacy rail assets," said Jim Nikopoulos, ECN Capital's President, in the November announcement. "These transactions have resulted in the sale of substantially all of our rail portfolio and will release approximately $140 million in equity capital for deployment. Including these transactions, ECN's total legacy assets have been reduced from approximately $5 billion at year-end 2016 to approximately $450 million, while preserving book value through the process."

As the leading global railcar lessor, GATX has been providing railcars and services to its customers for 120 years. GATX has been headquartered in Chicago since its founding in 1898.

Robert C. Lyons, executive vice president and president, Rail North America said in November, “This transaction furthers our growth strategy of acquiring high quality railcars at an attractive cost.” The fleet consists predominantly of freight cars with an average age of 7 years.”