Element Closes Rated ABS Notes Offered Through New US$4.8 Billion Chesapeake Funding II LLC Conduit to Fund U.S. Fleet Assets

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Dec. 16, 2015) - Element Financial Corporation (TSX:EFN) ("Element" or the "Company"), one of North America's leading fleet management and equipment finance companies, today announced that the Company has closed Chesapeake Funding II LLC, the new US$4.8 billion rated asset backed security ("ABS") funding conduit that Element has established as the permanent funding platform for its U.S. fleet management business.

In conjunction with the establishment of this new ABS conduit, the Company today issued US$1.5 billion in variable funding notes and is expected to close an additional US$1.8 billion in term notes on December 31, 2015. Subsequent to these issuances, the Company will have un-drawn commitments of US$1.5 billion from Chesapeake Funding II LLC to fund future growth in fleet assets. Interest rate spreads for these notes were in line with previously funded fleet ABS transactions. Proceeds from the notes will be used to repay a portion of Element's three-year term senior secured credit facility.

Element is one of the world's largest fleet management companies serving more than 5,000 commercial and industrial business customers with equipment financing and servicing solutions for more than 1.6 million cars and light duty trucks in operation across North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Chesapeake Funding II LLC was established on the same structuring principles as Element's initial fleet ABS conduit, Chesapeake Funding LLC, which has closed more than 17 offerings in the term market since 1999 and has issued more than US$7.7 billion in ABS securities to private and public investors since 2003 including four offerings totaling more than US$2.2 billion in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis.

"By gaining early access to our new rated Chesapeake ABS conduit to permanently fund the U.S. fleet assets that we recently acquired from GE, we are ahead of schedule in bringing the funding costs attributable to these assets in line with the US$90 million to US$95 million in integration cost savings that we had earmarked for the GE fleet acquisition," noted Steven K. Hudson, Element's Chief Executive Officer.

"I'm particularly pleased that in the context of the current market, the response to the offering that we closed today was very strong with orders exceeding supply by a factor of almost two to one," said Michel Beland, Element's Chief Financial Officer.

JP Morgan Securities LLC acted as the sole structuring agent and lead arranger for these transactions together with a syndicate of 14 lenders.

About Element Financial Corporation

With total assets in excess of $23.5 billion, Element Financial Corporation is one of North America's leading fleet management and equipment finance companies. Element operates across North America in four verticals of the equipment finance market - Fleet Management, Rail Finance, Commercial & Vendor Finance, and Aviation Finance.

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Element and its business. Such statements are based on the current expectations and views of future events of Element's management. In some cases the forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements, including, among others, statements regarding the completion of additional term note issuances under the Chesapeake ABS conduit and the integration and financial impact of the acquisition of various fleet management businesses from GE Capital. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Element, including risks regarding the equipment finance industry, economic factors, risks related to completion of the proposed purchases of portfolios of finance assets, and many other factors beyond the control of Element. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements or information. A discussion of the material risks and assumptions associated with this outlook can be found in Element's 2014 MD&A, and 2014 Annual Information Form, all of which have been filed on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements or information. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Element undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.