Chesswood Group sells Acura Sherway for $22M

Chesswood Group will now be solely focused on transforming into a North-American specialty finance company after the sale of Toronto’s Acura Sherway.

Though the buyers haven’t been revealed, Chesswood did disclose the $22-million purchase price, though manufacturer approval is still pending.

The company said this is the final transaction following a number of moves that started in late 2014 aimed at turing itself into a finance firm. It has added a new corporate banking facility, divested its legal finance business and acquired a Canadian specialty finance businesses in March.

Its North American platform now includes Pawnee Leasing and Windset Capital, providers of equipment financing and working capital loans, respectively, to small business in the United States, and Blue Chip Leasing and EcoHome Financial, providers of equipment financing to businesses and consumers, respectively, in Canada.

Chesswood's portfolio consists of more than 35,000 loans and leases with gross receivables of more than $500 million.

“This transaction allows Chesswood to be solely focused on the growth and development of our specialty finance companies,” explained chief Barry Shafran.

“We are thankful to our team at Acura Sherway for providing Chesswood with an incredibly consistent level of strong financial performance over the sixteen years we have been together.”

Acura Sherway is adjacent to Sherway Gardens in the southwest end of Toronto. Additional dealership information was not released.