An affiliate of ITE Management, an investment firm specializing in industrial transportation assets and infrastructure, agreed to acquire rail leasing company SMBC Rail Services from SMBC Americas Holdings, a member of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. Following the closing of the acquisition, it is expected that SMBC Railcar Services’ railcars and certain other assets of the company will be transferred to American Industrial Transport (AITX), a railcar services solution provider.
As a railcar platform in North America, AITX provides solutions to the freight shipping market through its leasing offering and railcar repair and maintenance network. The transaction will add more than 50,000 additional railcars to AITX’s fleet.
This divesture also supports Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group’s medium-term management plan and commitment to focus on its U.S. business through the reallocation of capital and resources to core growth business areas, including its corporate investment bank, its sales and trading division and its new digital bank, Jenius Bank.
