Fleetwood Credit to Become BankAmerica Subsidiary

Fleetwood Credit Corp. in Yorba Linda, the nation’s largest lender to recreational-vehicle buyers and dealers, will be sold to a unit of BankAmerica Corp., the companies said Thursday.

Details of the all-cash deal were not disclosed.

BankAmerica, which recently merged with NationsBank, saw the Fleetwood acquisition as the logical way to expand its presence in the expanding recreational-vehicle, or RV, market, a spokeswoman said.

RV sales have been growing rapidly in the past year, spurred by cheap gasoline and improved mileage and handling of the vehicles. Moreover, the customer base is growing as aging baby boomers begin considering the RVs--vacation homes on wheels--to take advantage of their increasing leisure time.

Fleetwood, which has 165 employees in 10 offices, will continue operating under its own name with its present management, said a spokeswoman for the NationsBank unit of Bank of America. It had been a unit of Dallas-based Associates First Capital Corp. since 1996.

Fleetwood said its customer base includes 1,150 dealers and 62,000 RV buyers. It provides financing under the Fleetwood Credit and Associates RV names.

After the sale it will operate as part of the NationsBank distribution finance and specialty lending unit, headquartered in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga.

NationsBank had operated its own recreational-vehicle financing unit, the nation’s fourth largest, with about 10% of the market. The addition of Fleetwood will create an industry giant with a 25% share of the market and more than $2 billion in assets.

Neither company would divulge annual sales or profit figures.

Fleetwood was started by Corona-based RV maker Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. as a captive financial arm to provide its dealers with consumer financing plans.

Associates First Capital, moving to expand its reach, acquired Fleetwood Credit three years ago. Fleetwood now provides financing services for dealers and retail customers of 10 of the nation’s 20 largest RV makers, an Associates spokesman said.

Directors of Associates and BankAmerica have approved the sale, the companies said.