General Motors Financial Company, Inc., GM’s captive lender, announced today it will purchase FinanciaLinx Corporation to expand its auto lease offerings in Canada.
"We are excited about the opportunity to leverage FinanciaLinx’s expertise in the Canadian lease market to increase financing options for GM dealers over time while maintaining FinanciaLinx’s relationships with non-GM dealers," GM Financial President and CEO Dan Berce said in a statement.
FinanciaLinx is an independent leasing company based in Toronto, Canada and founded in 1999 that provides auto lease financing to Canadian car shoppers.
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"We are very pleased to join the GM Financial team and to serve as the cornerstone of their Canadian growth strategy," said Mike Jan, FinanciaLinx CEO. "We look forward to working with GM Financial to expand the product offerings available to GM dealers while continuing to provide leasing options to our current dealer base throughout Canada. Our new relationship with GM Financial provides tremendous opportunities for our employees as we expand and help more customers finance new vehicle purchases."
GM purchased AmeriCredit Corp. in October 2010 and renamed it GM Financial, in an effort to expand auto financing to shoppers with a broader range of credit scores. A little more than a month ago, GM Financial announced it was considering expanding its prime auto lease program to near-prime and subprime customers.
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"We recently launched our prime lease program for GM dealers in December 2010, and it was very well-received by dealers," Caitlin DeYoung, VP of investor relations, said in February. "We have since made the program available to GM dealers in 15 additional states and look for the lease program to be available nationally by this summer. We are looking to expand our prime lease program to near-prime and subprime customers and plan to expand the program to Canada this year. We are committed to providing dealers more financing options and will continue to look to develop other programs and products to help dealers sell more vehicles."
