Transamerica Business Credit Acquires Emergent Business Capital

Business Wire, Nov 16, 1998

ROSEMONT, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1998--Transamerica Business Credit Corporation announced today that it has completed the acquisition of certain assets of the SBA commercial lending division of Home Gold Financial Inc.

The SBA commercial lending division ("Emergent") has operated primarily as Emergent Business Capital, Inc., Emergent Commercial Mortgage, Inc. and Emergent Business Capital Equity Group, Inc.

Emergent, based in Greenville, S.C., specializes in small business lending and mezzanine financing. The assets acquired will be part of Transamerica Small Business Services, Inc. and Transamerica Growth Capital, Inc.

Commenting on the acquisition, Steven Read, Transamerica Business Credit president and chief executive officer, said: "This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of entering attractive commercial finance niches. It puts us in new segments which are attractive for their fundamentals and growth prospects. Emergent is one of the top ten nonbank Small Business Administration loan originators and servicers in the country, and its mezzanine business is a disciplined and responsive provider of capital to small and middle market companies nationwide. With Transamerica's access to capital and brand recognition, we expect these business to provide a growing range of services to customers in the markets they serve."

Transamerica Business Credit makes loans to many types of businesses for a variety of needs, including working capital, refinancing, restructuring, equipment financing and leveraged acquisitions. The company is a unit of Transamerica Commercial Finance Corporation, which is a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Transamerica Corporation, one of the world's largest financial services companies with assets of more than $50 billion.