Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) to Acquire Macquarie Equipment Finance

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN) announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Huntington National Bank to purchase Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based Macquarie Equipment Finance, Inc. (MEF-US). With approximately $500 million of annual originations, MEF-US is the largest standalone, vendor independent provider of specialized technology financing with customer-centric asset management services in the United States.

Huntington will acquire Macquarie Equipment Finance’s U.S. business from its ultimate parent company, Sydney, Australia-based Macquarie Group Ltd. Under the terms of the agreement, Huntington will acquire approximately $900 million of assets and assume approximately $630 million of debt, securitizations, and other liabilities. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Huntington’s earnings in the first year and is anticipated to be completed by March 31, 2015.

“The acquisition of Macquarie Equipment Finance is an important expansion of Huntington’s current capabilities, adding a national technology and healthcare platform to help drive our ongoing growth,” said Stephen D. Steinour, Huntington Bancshares chairman, president and CEO. “We will be able to now provide broader credit solutions helping corporate and middle market businesses to grow. Importantly, we will also extend our asset finance capabilities to small businesses throughout our region as a result of the acquisition.”

The transition will be seamless for customers who will continue to interface within the converting Macquarie Equipment Finance workforce, under the same executive management team leadership. The acquisition will add more than 165 jobs to Huntington’s colleague base.

“Huntington’s proven track record as a leading equipment finance solutions provider will integrate well with Macquarie Equipment Finance’s similar high standards of service,” said Rick Remiker, commercial banking director for Huntington and the company’s senior executive overseeing the equipment finance function. “We have organically grown Huntington Equipment Finance by more than 200 percent over the past five years. We look forward to further growth opportunities in partnership with our new executive leaders following successful completion of the acquisition.”

“We are very enthusiastic to join Huntington and are excited about what this acquisition means for our customers and partners,” said Gregory Goldstein, president of Macquarie Equipment Finance.

Huntington’s purchase of Macquarie Equipment Finance is the company’s latest investment within Michigan, following the September completion of a 24-branch, $750 million deposit acquisition from Bank of America. Huntington is a longtime partner to the Michigan public sector with a series of partnerships with the state of Michigan and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) contributing in excess of $2 billion in statewide corporate lending, and engineering statewide microlending opportunities via the Pure Michigan Micro Lending Initiative in Detroit and further pending in additional Michigan communities.

Huntington is also in the process of successfully concluding a $100 million Michigan affordable housing investment statewide commitment, and continues to grow in Michigan by adding branches within Meijer stores. As a Michigan business lender, Huntington maintains the No. 1 ranking as the top Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the state, currently making more SBA 7(a) loans in Michigan than all other lenders combined.

Huntington was advised by Guggenheim Securities and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Macquarie Group was advised by Macquarie Capital, Mayer Brown LLP and KPMG LLP.

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