First Citizens Bank and Sixth Street Partner on Equipment Financing

First Citizens Bank and global investment firm Sixth Street have launched a new platform designed to provide flexible capital equipment financing solutions to middle market companies.

Dubbed Sixty-First Commercial Finance, the platform is a joint venture between Sixth Street’s Asset Based Finance platform and First Citizens Bank, the companies said in a Wednesday (Feb. 5) press release.

It will be managed by First Citizens Institutional Asset Management, according to the release. Bank of America is structuring and arranging a bilateral $300 million warehouse finance facility to fund the joint venture.

“With the launch of Sixty-First Commercial Finance, we’re providing the equipment finance industry with market differentiating financing capabilities,” Kevin Ronan, head of Capital Equipment Finance at First Citizens Bank, said in the release. “Our clients now have access to even more attractive financing alternatives with greater flexibility and greater certainty of execution through the combined capabilities of First Citizens Bank and Sixth Street.”

The new platform will provide capital equipment financing ranging from $5 million to $100 million, according to the release.

It will have diverse coverage across equipment asset types and industries, including transportation, construction, Jones Act marine, discrete and process manufacturing, material handling, air medical helicopters, warehouse distribution, and furniture and fixtures, the release said.

The platform’s product offering includes tax leases, loans, capital leases and progress payment financing, per the release.

“This is a great example of how institutions like ours can work together to create new capital solutions that expand capacity for the bank’s clients and grow new financing activity,” Michael Dryden, partner and head of Asset Based Finance at Sixth Street, said in the release.

In another recent move, Sixth Street said in December that it formed a long-term capital partnership with payment network Affirm in which Sixth Street will invest up to $4 billion by purchasing Affirm loans in a three-year forward flow agreement.

In January, Sixth Street announced a strategic partnership with insurance and wealth products provider Northwestern Mutual in which Sixth Street will manage $13 billion of assets for Northwestern Mutual to support the company’s long-term, diversified investment strategy for its institutional investment portfolios.

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