TAL International Group announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, TAL International Container, closed an add-on financing to its existing term loan with various lenders, with SunTrust Bank as administrative agent and collateral agent, thereby increasing the commitment of the loan from $307 million to $407 million. All other terms and conditions of the facility remain the same.

Additionally, and as disclosed on January 20, 2016, TAL International’s indirect wholly owned subsidiary, TAL Advantage III, successfully expanded its asset backed warehouse credit facility from $650 million to $750 million, with no changes to the existing terms and conditions. The proceeds from these financings will be used for general corporate purposes, including the repayment of debt and making capital contributions to subsidiaries to enable the repayment of their debt. To that effect, an indirect subsidiary of TAL International, TAL Advantage I, has issued notices to investors that it intends to repay in full the TAL Advantage I Series 2005-1 Notes ($55 million outstanding) and TAL Advantage I Series 2006-1 Notes ($14 million outstanding) on February 11, 2016 and February 22, 2016, respectively.

The company also provided an update on its planned merger with Triton Container International. On February 5, 2016, Triton International filed a revised registration statement on Form S-4/A (“S-4”), which includes a preliminary proxy statement of TAL International and a preliminary prospectus of Holdco, the combined, post-merger entity. The information contained in the S-4 is subject, in its entirety, to completion and amendment as described within the document. The integration planning process has passed multiple key milestones, including the formation of integration planning teams co-led by senior leaders of both companies, and the identification of a senior commercial management team for the combined company. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016.

“We are very pleased to start 2016 on a positive note by improving our financial flexibility and making considerable progress towards our planned merger with Triton,” said Brian Sondey, president and CEO of TAL International. “Through this highly complementary, all-stock combination, we continue to expect the combined company will realize 30% net income accretion and $40 million in annual SG&A savings, while also substantially improving our geographic footprint, product offerings and customer service capabilities. As we continue working to bring together these two industry leaders, we believe that our increased scale and efficiency as the world’s largest intermodal container leasing company will provide substantial benefits in the current soft operating environment and valuable operating leverage when the market recovers.”

As previously announced, on November 9, 2015, TAL International and Triton entered into a definitive agreement under which the companies will combine in an all-stock merger of equals transaction creating a market leading position as the largest lessor of intermodal freight containers with an estimated 25% market share and revenue earning assets of $8.7 billion.

At this time, both companies have now obtained all required antitrust clearances for the proposed combination. The combined entity, to be named Triton International Limited, will be domiciled in Bermuda and is expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.