Ford to Sell USL Capital Unit To Bankers Trust New York
May 05, 2011
Ford Motor Co. said it sold the real-estate financing operations of its USL Capital unit to Bankers Trust New York Corp., the nation's eighth-largest bank, for $575 million. The all-cash transaction is expected to close in September. Ford said the deal ``essentially completes'' its sale of USL Capital's six business units, which the car company put on the block late last year as part of an effort to sell undervalued assets and reduce debt in its financial-services group. USL Capital, based in San Francisco, is a diversified commercial financing and leasing company that manages assets of $9.7 billion. Ford bought the unit -- which reported pretax earnings of $300 million last year -- for $512 million in 1987. The auto maker said it expects to receive proceeds of more than $1 billion, after taxes, from the sale of USL Capital's units, which it said will be reported in the third or fourth quarter, depending on when the various deals close. USL Capital's real-estate financing division, which has assets of about $700 million, provides financing for apartment complexes, retail centers, light industrial properties and office buildings. Bankers Trust, which has been a major acquirer of mortgage assets over the past four years, said the purchase would ``fit strategically'' with its existing portfolio of those assets, most of which have been securitized and are traded in secondary markets. The bank, which has total assets in excess of $108 billion, doesn't break out the size of its mortgage asset portfolio. Shares of Ford gained 50 cents to $34 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Thursday, while Bankers Trust rose 87.5 cents to $80.25.
