The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire the U.S.-based commercial and vendor finance business  of ECN Capital Corp., one of the leading non-bank vendor finance businesses in the United States.

PNC will purchase for cash ECN Capital’s U.S. C&V business which includes a $1.1 billion portfolio of construction, transportation, industrial, franchise and technology loans and leases. Based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, ECN Capital’s U.S. C&V business is complementary to that of the PNC Equipment Finance business, serving industries and a client size that have not historically been the focus of PNC. 

“The acquisition of ECN Capital’s U.S. C&V business significantly enhances our existing vendor franchise, adding a national platform supporting leading vendors in several growing industries,” said Mike Lyons, executive vice president and head of Corporate & Institutional Banking at PNC. “Moving forward, we will be able to help these vendors and their clients by leveraging PNC’s strong capital and liquidity position to offer an expanded range of financing.”

As a recognized leader of equipment financing solutions for clients throughout the United States and Canada, PNC provides vendor financing to manufacturers and dealers to offer their end-user customers an alternative to in-house financing. Upon completion of the transaction, all employees of the acquired business will be employed by PNC Bank, N.A., and the acquired loans and leases will be included in the PNC Equipment Finance business of the Corporate & Institutional Banking segment. PNC expects the transaction to be seamless for ECN Capital’s clients and vendors, who will continue to work with the existing ECN Capital team.

The acquisition is expected to be modestly accretive to 2017 earnings per share. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is currently expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2017. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is serving as financial advisor and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal advisor to PNC.