Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD) has announced that it plans to acquire Wells Fargo‘s (NYSE:WFC) Canadian direct equipment-finance business for an undisclosed amount.
The unit has assets of roughly 1.5 billion Canadian dollars ($1.18 billion) and over 120 employees.
TD Bank expects the purchase to add scale to its existing Canadian equipment financing business and gain share in some of its big markets. The deal is expected to close in the first half of the year.
Image source: Wells Fargo.
David Marks, head of Wells Fargo Commercial Capital, issued a statement saying, “This group of talented Canada-based employees and their equipment finance customers will benefit from TD’s strong franchise and allow us to focus our efforts on our U.S. equipment finance capabilities while continuing to serve our asset-based lending and distribution finance customers in Canada.”
The deal comes as Wells Fargo continues to shed business lines that aren’t core to its existing U.S. operations.
So far, the bank has sold its $10 billion student loan portfolio and now the Canadian equipment finance business. Other units it may sell include its asset management arm and private-label credit card division.
Wells Fargo will report earnings from the fourth quarter of 2020 tomorrow, and potentially reveal plans for huge cost savings. Shares of the bank were up more than 3% around late morning.
