Element Fleet Management and Blackstone Announce Strategic Funding Relationship

Initial transaction includes approximately CAD $500 million portfolio

TORONTO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Element Fleet Management Corp. (TSX:EFN) ("Element"), the largest publicly traded, pure-play automotive fleet manager in the world, and funds managed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance, through its Infrastructure & Asset-Based Credit group (“Blackstone”), today announced the establishment of a strategic funding relationship involving a portfolio of Canadian fleet lease receivables valued at approximately CAD $500 million.

Through this strategic arrangement, Element benefits from substantial off-balance sheet treatment, diversifying and optimizing its funding profile while validating the high quality of its asset origination platform and supporting the company’s continued growth.

“Element is committed to optimizing our funding strategies to support our growth objectives,” said Heath Valkenburg, Incoming EVP & Chief Financial Officer at Element. “This strategic relationship with Blackstone enhances our ability to serve our clients and capitalize on emerging opportunities in the market.”

“We are pleased to provide Element with capital that helps them better support their client base with a valuable financing tool for companies around the globe,” said Aneek Mamik, Head of Financial Services for Asset Based Finance at Blackstone Credit & Insurance. “This transaction shows how we can support diverse sectors of the real economy through our asset-based finance efforts – where we have strong momentum and a unique platform.”

About Blackstone Credit & Insurance

Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”) is one of the world’s leading credit investors. Our investments span the credit markets, including private investment grade, asset-based lending, public investment grade and high yield, sustainable resources, infrastructure debt, collateralized loan obligations, direct lending, and opportunistic credit. We seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for institutional and individual investors by providing companies with the capital needed to strengthen and grow their businesses.

About Element Fleet Management

Element Fleet Management (TSX: EFN) is the largest publicly traded pure-play automotive fleet manager in the world. As a Purpose-driven company, we provide a full range of sustainable and intelligent mobility solutions to optimize and enhance fleet performance for our clients across North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Our services address every aspect of our clients’ fleet requirements, from vehicle acquisition, maintenance, route optimization, risk management, and remarketing, to advising on decarbonization efforts, integration of electric vehicles and managing the complexity of gradual fleet electrification. Clients benefit from Element's expertise as one of the largest fleet solutions providers in its markets, offering economies of scale and insight used to reduce operating costs and enhance efficiency and performance. At Element, we maximize our clients’ fleet so they can focus on growing their business.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information regarding Element, its business and the fleet industry, which are based upon Element’s current expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs. In some cases, words such as “plan”, “expect”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “could”, “predict”, “project”, “model”, “forecast”, “will”, “potential”, “target, “by”, “proposed” and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur are intended to identify forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements and information in this news release may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to, among other things, Element’s expectations regarding its future relationship with Blackstone and Element’s expectations regarding its growth and its ability to fund such growth. By their nature, these statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct. External factors outside of Element’s reasonable control may impact our ability to achieve our goals and expectations, including industry dynamics, economic conditions, legislation and regulatory actions, the failure of third parties to comply with their obligations to us and our affiliates or associates, and client decisions and preferences. These and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements and may require Element to adjust its initiatives and activities. The forward-looking statements in this news release speak only as of the date hereof and are presented for the purpose of assisting our stakeholders and others in understanding our objectives and strategic priorities and may not be appropriate for other purposes. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement except as required by law. In addition, a discussion of some of the material risks affecting Element and its business appears under the heading “Risk Management & Risk Factors” in Element’s Management Discussion and Analysis for the twelve-month period ended December 31, 2024 and under the heading “Risk Factors” in Element’s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as Element’s other filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which have been filed on SEDAR+ and can be accessed on Element’s profile on www.sedarplus.ca.