(By Balachander) EverBank Financial Corp. (NYSE:EVER) is acquiring Business Property Lending Inc. from GE Capital Real Estate, North America for $2.51 billion in cash.
Business Property provides commercial real estate loans for essential use properties owned or leased by small and midsize companies. The unit of GE Capital originated over $27 billion of high quality loans since 1997.
EverBank said the transaction includes roughly $2.44 billion of performing commercial loans, origination and servicing platforms and servicing rights on $3.1 billion of loans securitized by GE Capital.
Jacksonville, Florida-based EverBank expects the transaction to add "strong" small and midsize business lending capability and add to earnings per share immediately in a low double-digit range.
The provider of banking services also expects the deal to be accretive to return on equity (ROE) by roughly 100 basis points.
The acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the final three months of 2012, will result in pro-forma assets of $16.2 billion.
EVER shares, which have been trading between $10.23 and $12.32 in the 52-week period, rose 3.50 percent to trade at $11.25 on Monday.