GM Financial

General Motors Financial Company

Company type	Subsidiary of GM
Industry	Diversified financial
Founded	1992 (1992) as AmeriCredit
Headquarters	Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Area served	United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America
Key people	Daniel Berce (CEO)
Products	Automobile financing
Revenue	US$ 4.854 billion (2014)
Operating income	US$ 815 million (2014)
Net income	US$ 537 million (2014)
Total assets	US$ 47.724 billion (2014)
Total equity	US$ 7.392 billion (2014)
Owner	General Motors
Website	gmfinancial.com

General Motors Financial Company, Inc. is a financial services arm of General Motors. The company is a global provider of auto finance, with operations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America. The company is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

Founded in 1992 as AmeriCredit Corp., the company was acquired by GM in October 2010 and renamed General Motors Financial Company, Inc. The company provides retail loan and lease programs through auto dealers for customers across the credit spectrum. They also offer commercial lending products, such as retail floorplan, construction and real estate loans, or insurance for car dealerships.

Before its acquisition by GM, the company ranked at 768 on the Fortune 1000. AmeriCredit's loan parameters would originally provide financing at an interest rate of between 10% and 23% APR to clients with credit scores around 500 who can prove employment and residency, though the company has become increasingly more stringent over the past few years.

Acquisition by General Motors

In July 2010, General Motors entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AmeriCredit in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion. The deal provided GM with a new financial arm to replace the loss of GMAC in 2006. Following the approval of the deal by AmeriCredit shareholders, GM renamed the company "GM Financial" on Oct. 1, 2010.

On Sept. 4, 2014, GM and GM Financial announced they entered into a support agreement providing for leverage limits and liquidity support to GM Financial if needed, as well as other general terms of support. Under the terms of the agreement, as GM Financial expands its product portfolio and grows its business, GM committed to provide funding to GM Financial if its earning assets leverage ratio rises above pre-determined thresholds. GM extended an intercompany revolving credit facility to GM Financial to provide up to $1 billion of liquidity if needed. This facility, which is subordinate to GM Financial’s senior unsecured and secured debt, will replace an existing $600 million line of credit from GM. The agreement also provides that GM will use its commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that GM Financial will continue to be designated as a subsidiary borrower on up to $4 billion of GM’s corporate revolving line of credit.

Since being acquired by GM in 2010, GM Financial has significantly increased its share of GM’s business which now represents 75 percent of GM Financial’s consumer loan and lease originations.

On Sept. 25, 2014, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded the credit ratings of both GM and GM Financial to investment grade with a stable outlook. The new GM corporate and GM Financial credit rating is BBB-.

International Operations

In April 2011, GM Financial acquired FinanciaLinx, one of the largest independent leasing companies in Canada, to expand product offerings into Canada. FinanciaLinx operates as a subsidiary of GM Financial.

In November 2012, GM Financial announced the acquisition of Ally Financial's international assets. The transaction includes operations in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria. It also includes Ally’s 40-percent interest in its Chinese joint venture GMAC-SAIC Motor. The majority of those assets were closed in 2013, with the remaining portion, an equity interest in a joint venture in China, completed Jan. 5, 2015.