ECN Capital Corporation is a Canadian financing company with managed and advised assets of approximately US$29 billion. It provides credit portfolios to 90 U.S. financial institutions and also originates, manages and advises on prime credit assets. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.[1]
ECN was founded in October 2016, through a spin-off of Element Financial's equipment finance division.[2] The spin-off resulted in two separate publicly traded companies: Element Fleet Management, which manages vehicle fleets, and ECN Capital, which provided commercial financing, especially to fleet owners.[3]
In February 2017, ECN sold its US commercial and vendor finance business to PNC Capital for $1.25 billion.[1] The deal caused the company's share price to rise, in part because the sale price was above book value.[4] This deal was part of a larger attempted re-deployment of capital by ECN from vendor and equipment financing to home improvement and construction financing.[5] As part of this re-deployment, in June 2017, the firm purchased Service Finance, an American home improvement lender, for $410 million.[6] It also purchased Triad Financial, a Florida-based home improvement lender, for $100 million, in October 2017.[5] On the other hand, in August 2017, ECN sold some of its rail car financing business for $1.44 billion.[5] It also sold its Canadian vendor financing business for $900 million in October 2017.[5] In December 2021 ECN sold Service Financial for US$2 Billion and used the proceeds to declare a $7.50/share special dividend that was paid out to shareholders on Dec. 22, 2021.
