CIT Group to Sell European Rail Business for up to US$1.05 Billion

Dechert LLP advised CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) on the sale of its Paris-based European rail leasing business NACCO to Hamburg-based VTG Aktiengesellschaft (VTG) for approximately US$1.05 billion. The agreement includes a purchase price of €780 million (US$890 million) for NACCO’s operations and assets including approximately 14,000 rail freight cars, plus all investments in freight cars between Jan. 1, 2017 and the closing date (expected to be approximately €140 million or US$160 million). The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017.

CIT is a financial holding company with $63 billion in assets (as of March 31, 2017) that provides financing, leasing, and advisory services principally to middle-market companies and small businesses across a wide variety of industries. NACCO was CIT's last ongoing business outside of North America.

The cross-border Dechert team advising CIT Group on this transaction was led by London-based corporate partner Douglas Getter, and the team included finance partner Philip Butler, tax partner Mark Stapleton and labor partner Charles Wynn-Evans in London; corporate partner Ermine Bolot, labor partner Philippe Thomas and competition partner MélanieThill-Tayara in Paris; and corporate partner Giovanni Russo in Munich. In London, associates Ross Montgomery, Tony Brown, Kenny MacLeod, Daniel Hawthorne, Nicolas Kokkinos, Kate Norman, Alexis Westwood, Emma Byford, Emma Zarb and Madeleine White contributed to the team. Associates Laudine Daniel, Romain Maulin, Sophie Montagne contributed from Paris, and Dr. Karl von Rumohr made contributions from Munich.

Read the full press release “CIT Announces Agreement to Sell its European Rail Business.”

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