EDEN PRAIRIE, MN., November 15, 2002 -- GE Fleet Services announced today it has signed an agreement to purchase Wells Fargo Fleet Services based in Minneapolis. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. Completion of the deal is expected in late November subject to final approvals.
Wells Fargo Fleet Services is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company and represents approximately $65.5 million in assets, with more than 5500 commercial vehicles under lease and service management.
Wells Fargo Fleet Services has an excellent base of customers and represents a growing small fleet market segment that we have been serving for a number of years, said Kathy Marinello, president and chief executive officer of GE Fleet Services. Our focus will be on delivering the highest quality of service and web-based solutions to meet the productivity challenges our customers face today.
Rich Chenitz, senior vice president for business development at
Fleet Services, added This purchase reflects our on-going interest in looking at acquisition opportunities in our markets as part of our growth strategy.
We have a great team that enjoys serving the customers who utilize this niche service, said Jerome Fons, president of Wells Fargo Fleet Services. To maintain our position as a premier service organization would require us to make significant investments in web-based technology.
That, combined with recent economic conditions, led us to conclude that it would not be economically feasible for
Wells Fargo to continue offering this service.
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $334 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance from more than 5,600 stores and the Internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and elsewhere internationally.
GE Fleet Services, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., is a global fleet management company with operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand GE Fleet Services is a business unit of GE Equipment Management.
GE Equipment Management helps customers manage, finance and operate a wide variety of business equipment, which enables them to drive growth and productivity worldwide. With assets of more than $26 billion, GE Equipment Management provides leases, loans, sales and asset management services for portfolios of commercial and transportation equipment, including trucks, trailers, auto fleets modular space units, railroad rolling stock and data processing equipment.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of General Electric Company, GE Equipment Management, is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. GE is a diversified services, technology and manufacturing company with operations worldwide.
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CONTACT: GE Fleet Services
Bob Cochrane
(952) 828-2916 (office)
(612) 670-2597 (cell)
or
Wells Fargo Company
Robert Strickland, (415) 396-0523 (investor relations)
or
Wells Fargo Company
Teresa Morrow, (612) 667-0148 (media)