GATX Buys Over 18,500 Railcars From GE Capital Rail Services For About $340 Mln

(RTTNews) - Railcar leasing company GATX Corp. (GMT) said Monday that it has agreed to buy the North American per diem boxcar fleet of GE Capital Rail Services, a unit of diversified conglomerate General Electric Co. (GE), for about $340 million. The boxcar fleet consists of more than 18,500 boxcars.

Brian Kenney, president and chief executive officer of GATX said, "This fleet acquisition establishes GATX as the leader in the boxcar leasing market and adds a significant number of railcars to our fleet that are critical-use assets for certain important sectors of the North American economy."

According to Chicago, Illinois-based GATX, many of the customers utilizing this fleet are its existing customers and the acquisition will enable the company to meet the broad rail transportation needs of those customers.

GATX expects the acquired fleet to generate annual revenue of about $70 million. The company noted that the average age of the fleet is 34 years, relative to the statutory life of 50 years.

GMT closed Friday's trading at $66.00, up $0.85 or 1.30 percent on a volume of 294,630 shares.

GE closed Friday's trading at $25.40. In Monday's pre-market trades, the stock is up $0.14 or 0.56 percent to $25.54.