Perella Weinberg Partners Asset Based Value Strategy, a unit of Perella Weinberg Partners, announced the sale of its portfolio company, Flagship Rail Services to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, in a transaction valued at $1.1 billion. Flagship Rail was founded in 2006 as AIG Rail Services.

Subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.

Flagship Rail is a full service lessor of long-lived rolling stock, offering comprehensive rail leasing solutions in North America. It is the ninth-largest railcar lessor in North America by number of railcars, with a fleet of approximately 15,000 railcars that are positioned to carry a wide variety of commodities and serve a broad range of industries, including energy, steel, agriculture, petrochemical and consumer goods.

Perella Weinberg Partners Asset Based Value Strategy acquired Flagship Rail in May 2011, with a view to transition the company to a standalone business, cultivate a fixed income and bank investor base and grow the size and diversity of the portfolio to optimize the stability of cash flows. Since purchasing the company, Flagship Rail has increased its fleet by more than 50% and has an active debt capital market investor base of more than 50 institutions.

Macquarie Capital, Perella Weinberg Partners and Wells Fargo Securities acted as financial advisors and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP acted as legal advisor to Perella Weinberg Partners Asset Based Value Strategy.