NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT), cit.com, a leading provider of commercial lending and leasing services, today announced that it has completed the sale of its Canadian equipment finance and corporate finance businesses (CIT Canada), with assets of approximately US $700 million, to Laurentian Bank of Canada. As part of the sale, CIT will transfer approximately 135 employees of CIT Canada to the Laurentian Bank team.

“We are pleased to have successfully completed this transaction,” said Ellen R. Alemany, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer, CIT Group. “Since our strategic update in March, we have significantly improved our focus on our core businesses, and the completion of the sale of CIT Canada represents another important step toward becoming a leading national middle-market bank. We remain focused on executing on our strategic and financial initiatives to improve profitability, return excess capital to shareholders and maintain strong risk management.”

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to CIT Group for this transaction.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable federal securities laws that are based upon our current expectations and assumptions concerning future events, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The words “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “initiative,” “objective,” “plan,” “goal,” “project,” “outlook,” “priorities,” “target,” “intend,” “evaluate,” “pursue,” “commence,” “seek,” “may,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” or the negative of any of those words or similar expressions is intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, statements about our plans, strategies, prospects and expectations regarding future events and our financial performance, are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties. While these statements represent our current judgment on what the future may hold, and we believe these judgments are reasonable, these statements are not guarantees of any events or financial results, and our actual results may differ materially. Important factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from our expectations include, among others, the risk that CIT is unsuccessful in implementing its strategy and business plan, the risk that CIT is unable to react to and address key business and regulatory issues, the risk that CIT is unable to achieve the projected revenue growth from its new business initiatives or the projected expense reductions from efficiency improvements, and the risk that CIT becomes subject to liquidity constraints and higher funding costs. We describe these and other risks that could affect our results in Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” of our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. CIT undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, except where expressly required by law.

About CIT

Founded in 1908, CIT (NYSE:CIT) is a financial holding company with more than $65 billion in assets. Its principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank, N.A., (Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender) has more than $30 billion of deposits and more than $40 billion of assets. It provides financing, leasing and advisory services principally to middle-market companies across a wide variety of industries primarily in North America, and equipment financing and leasing solutions to the transportation sector. It also offers products and services to consumers through its Internet bank franchise and a network of retail branches in Southern California, operating as OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank, N.A. cit.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161003005483/en/