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A surprising report has revealed that Kodak Alaris, specifically its film unit responsible for bringing back Ektachrome 35mm film products, is up for sale. The business move was revealed by Inside Imaging, which reports that at least part of Kodak Alaris may be split off and sold as soon as next month.
Though the company had not publicly revealed its plans, some details emerged from a recently discovered financial report lodged with the UK’s Companies House in December 2018. According to the report, which covers a time period of January 1 to March 31, 2017, Kodak Alaris’ Paper, Photochemicals and Film (PPF) unit has been up for sale since January 2018 following the board’s decision to ‘actively divest the business to a buyer with greater market synergies.’
The report indicates the unit has a conservatively estimated value of $ 34 million and that ‘advanced discussions with a bidder’ for the PPF unit are currently underway. Kodak Alaris, at least based on the financial report, anticipates the sale will happen by March 31, 2019, but with the potential for spilling over to a later date.
Kodak Alaris’ sole shareholder is the Kodak Pension Plan, a UK pension fund referred to as KPP2 that acquired Kodak Alaris from Eastman Kodak for $ 325 million in 2013. With Kodak Alaris came £1.5 billion / $ 2.7b in debt, and though Kodak Alaris is a profitable business, its bottom line after taxes has seen huge losses.
Kodak Alaris CEO Marc Jourlait confirmed to Inside Imaging that the company has ‘privately briefed’ potential customers on its intention to ‘explore sale of some or all of our assets.’ The PPF unit is already ‘at an advanced stage of negotiations with a potential buyers [sic].’
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)