Skyline Champion's Strategic Leap: Analyst Eyes Positive Turn With ECN Investment And Triad Integration

Wedbush analyst Jay McCanless reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares of Skyline Champion Corporation SKY with a price target of $78.

Yesterday, Skyline announced the closing of about $138 million investment into the Canadian company ECN Capital.

The investment comprises 33.55 million ECN common shares and 27.45 million convertible preferred Series E shares, representing about 19.9% of ECN’s common shares.

The analyst believes the primary goal of this transaction was to provide Skyline access to ECN's subsidiary Triad Financial Services (TFS). 

TFS is an established competitor in consumer manufactured home finance and in floorplan lending to retail MH dealers.

ECN Capital and SKY are forming a new entity called Champion Financing LLC, a captive finance company that is 51% owned by an affiliate of Skyline Champion and 49% owned by Triad (Champion Financing).

Champion Financing's offerings will include a consumer retail finance program for customers and a branded floor plan offering for SKY's owned stores and independent retailers with the services provided by Triad.

The analyst believes the addition of Triad and the new Champion Financing entity should be catalysts for both companies.

Price Action: SKY shares are trading lower by 0.32% at $62.47 on the last check Wednesday.