Element Financial said it has entered into a North American vendor finance agreement with school bus manufacturer Lion Buses of St. Jerome, Quebec.

Under the terms of the agreement, Element will act as a preferred provider of manufacturer-sponsored financing for Lion’s customers in Canada. The demand in North America for Type C buses is comprised of regional and local school boards that contract with bus operators to provide transportation services for their students. Annual expenditures by these customers for new and used equipment amount to approximately $300 million in Canada and US$2.7 billion in the United States.

“All of the criteria that we look for in a manufacturing partner – established market presence, financial durability, competitive product advantage and strong management – were easy to check off as we developed this Agreement with Lion Bus,” said Todd Hudson, Element Financial’s executive vice president. “We look forward to working with Lion to provide comprehensive financing solutions for their customers as they continue to penetrate the North American market with their industry leading innovative products.”

In the school segment of the Type C bus market, both the manufacturers and operators are consolidating as school boards look to find ways to reduce costs and manufacturers look to add scale to leverage technology innovations that improve operating efficiency and increase safety.

“Lion Bus was founded in 2008 to capitalize on these converging market forces,” said Marc Bedard, president of Lion Bus. “Using composite materials, Lion manufactures buses that are more durable, less expensive to operate and offer added safety features over the legacy equipment that operators are retiring from service.”