Textron Financial Corporation Announces Formation of Technology Finance Division

    PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Jan. 30, 2001--Textron Financial Corporation announced today that it has established a new lending group, Technology Finance Division, as a result of its purchase of certain assets of the Distribution & Channel Finance Division of FINOVA Capital Corporation in December 2000. The Technology Finance Division offers various forms of financing to the telecommunications industry, including leasing, short-term and working capital financing, term loans, and private label financing.
    John C. Reed will lead the Technology Finance Division as senior vice president and division manager. Reed joins Textron Financial along with a small group of employees from Finova Capital as part of this portfolio acquisition. "We are excited to have John and his outstanding team join our company, and look forward to building new relationships with the telecommunications customers in this portfolio," stated Jerry Britton, group president at Textron Financial.
    "Our goal is to use our unique finance platform, augmented by a state-of the-art Internet product, to become the premier lending source for telecommunications equipment manufacturers, distributors and end-users," explained Reed.

    About Textron Financial Corporation

    Textron Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of Textron Inc., is a diversified commercial finance company with over $7 billion in managed receivables. Textron Financial is a premier lender to the aviation, golf, vacation interval resort, franchise finance and telecommunications industries offering term loans, leasing, revolving credit and specialty finance products. Textron Financial also provides additional services in the areas of distribution and end-user financing for syndication, equipment appraisal and disposition, portfolio services and insurance brokerage.

    About Textron Inc.

    Textron Inc. is a $13 billion, global, multi-industry company with market-leading businesses in Aircraft, Automotive, Fastening Systems, Industrial Products, and Finance. Textron has a workforce of over 70,000 employees and major manufacturing facilities in 30 countries. Textron is among Fortune magazine's "Global Most Admired Companies." Additional information is available on www.textron.com.