New managing director at CIT Equipment Finance

CIT Group has appointed Michael Jones as managing director of CIT Equipment Finance with effect from September 25.

Jones was previously senior vice president and managing director of Vendor Equipment Finance at EverBank Commercial Finance, with responsibility for the division, which consisted of four discrete business verticals. He successfully transformed the organization’s go-to-market strategy and increased pre-tax income.

Prior to that role, he served within EverBank Equipment Finance as chief originations officer for a variety of industry verticals. Before joining EverBank, Jones served as executive director of the Office Products Group at US Bank Equipment Finance.

In his new job Jones will be based in Jacksonville, Florida and will report to Steve Solk, president, CIT Business Capital.

“I’m excited to welcome Michael to CIT. He’s a high-performing executive with over 20 years of experience in equipment finance across a wide variety of industry verticals,” said Solk. “Michael’s finance, leadership, operations and sales expertise will all help support CIT Equipment Finance’s future growth and the evolution of our business strategy. Further, he will continue to provide the high level of service that our vendor finance customers have come to expect from CIT.”

Jones said, “It’s a great privilege to join the equipment finance team at CIT, which is respected as a leader in the equipment finance industry and has an excellent reputation as a financial partner in the vendor community. I look forward to applying my experiences in senior equipment finance roles to my position at CIT.”

Healthy deal

CIT Healthcare Finance has acted as co-lead arranger for a $138.5 million senior secured credit facility to Continuum Healthcare, which owns and operates skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The financing will support the refinancing of existing debt and provide working capital, among other uses.

Eugene Ehrenfeld, principal, Continuum Healthcare, said: “This financing will support the ongoing delivery of skilled nursing to our residents and continued investment in our facilities. We sought out a finance partner that has a solid knowledge base and track record of success in the healthcare sector and could provide a timely execution of the financing. We appreciated CIT’s responsiveness as well as its industry depth, which was evident throughout the transaction. This was a complicated transaction, and CIT was able to execute for us.”

Michael Coiley, managing director, CIT Healthcare Finance, said: “We worked closely with Continuum to better understand their wants and needs and developed a flexible and creative financing solution that supported their goals.”