Citigroup to Buy Associates In $31.1 Billion Stock Deal

September 13, 2000 10:54 AM, EDT

Associates First Capital Corp., one of the nation’s largest suppliers of credit for trucking equipment purchases, will become a subsidiary of financial titan Citigroup, the two companies announced Sept. 6.

The deal is a stock swap valued at $31.1 billion. Shareholders of Dallas-based Associates will end up owning about 10% of the newly configured Citigroup, which was created in 1998 when Citicorp, a bank holding company, merged with Travelers Group, an insurance company.

Associates started in 1918 as a way to finance Ford vehicles; its dedicated truck financing program started in 1974.

Currently the company has a trucking loan portfolio worth almost $13 billion, according to Doug Spencer, an Associates executive vice president. He estimated the company finances about one-third of the new and used trucks run by the nation’s owner-operators through more than 30 Associates branches dedicated to trucking.

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