OREANDA-NEWS. DLL, a Rabobank subsidiary and global provider of asset-based financial solutions, has reached an agreement to sell its mobility solutions entity Athlon Car Lease International B.V. including all its subsidiaries to Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Nederland B.V., a part of the Daimler Financial Services global network. A Sale and Purchase Agreement has been signed by both parties as of June 30, 2016.

The sale transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, once all required approvals and consents have been obtained from the necessary regulatory authorities and other relevant bodies. The consideration for the shares amounts to €1.1 billion. As a result of the transaction, the Rabobank CET1 ratio is estimated to improve with approximately 40 basispoints.

BofA Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor to Rabobank Group on this sale.

A part of DLL since 2006, Athlon is an international provider of vehicle leasing and mobility solutions, active in eleven countries throughout Europe, and managing a fleet of more than 250,000 vehicles. Mercedes Benz Financial Services Nederland BV is part of Daimler Financial Services, a worldwide provider of financial services in over 40 countries, and managing a fleet of more than 3.7 million vehicles. The future business of the consolidated fleet operations between Daimler Fleet Management and Athlon will operate under the Athlon brand.

“For over 10 years, Athlon has been an important and profitable business line for DLL. However, as the mobility/car leasing industry continues to evolve, it became clear that future success would be based on expanded international coverage and a wider range of products and online propositions. With that in mind, we have found a shareholder in Daimler Financial Services that possesses the aspiration and drive to fuel Athlon’s future growth and success. This is the right step for Athlon and the right step for DLL, who can now wholly focus all of its resources, investments and innovation toward our core business of vendor finance, and create greater synergies with our parent, Rabobank”, said Bill Stephenson, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of DLL.

Frans Janssen, CEO of Athlon International adds: “Our ten years with DLL brought tremendous growth and expansion to our brand. To get to the next level, both parties spent significant time considering the future prospects for Athlon and of course the best interests of our customers, suppliers and employees. As such, we are very satisfied about our future direction with Daimler Financial Services. They are a renowned international organization and clearly aiming for growth.”

Rabobank has reaffirmed its strong commitment to their market leading global vendor finance company DLL as an important contributor to the strategy of Rabobank. DLL is the world’s largest vendor finance company, delivering global financial services programs and sales and marketing tools to Fortune 500 manufacturers and distribution partners in 36 countries.

Wiebe Draijer, CEO of Rabobank commented: ”DLL will continue to fulfill an important role in our overall product portfolio and also to service key international customers of the bank, particularly in the Food and Agricultural sector. They are guided by a strong leadership team and continue to be an impressive and significant contributor to Rabobank. We are proud of their contributions to the Rabobank Group, and we are committed to creating further synergies between DLL and Rabobank, particularly if this creates more value for our customers.”

Bill Stephenson, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of DLL, added: “With a mandate to grow our market leading vendor finance business, we look forward to enhancing our many long-standing relationships with top manufacturers, distributors and dealers across all of our key industries sectors. Our global value proposition remains unchanged. We will continue to focus on the business of our partners, specializing in their markets and helping them sell more products and services with finance and leasing. That has been the key to our success for over 40 years and will continue to be for decades to come.”

Merrill Lynch International (“BofA Merrill Lynch”), a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, is acting exclusively for Rabobank Group in connection with the sale of Athlon and for no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Rabobank Group for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to the sale of Athlon.