Kodak Alaris for Sale?

[OzJohn]

I post without comment a link to an Australian industry newsletter that arrived in my inbox just a little while ago.

https://www.insideimaging.com.au/2019/exclusive-kodak-up-for-sale/

 

[BrianShaw]

Interesting. No further comment at this time.

 

[AgX]

A pension fund owning a production firm already was a weird thing. And splitting such asset before is not unusual at all.

If so, who then would buy it (PPF) ...? There was no one queuing for a few years ago and it was the best of worse the pension could get. What a sale would mean to us? One at best could speculate on, and speculations are being loved at Apug....

 

[removed account4]

It probably has to do with "Building 38" ...

 

[Lachlan Young]

It probably has to do with "Building 38" ...

Quite likely - & given how much Kodak Professional have been talking on social media about exploring other products to bring back/ re-manufacture, it suggests there's potentially some investment available too.

 

[BrianShaw]

Let’s hope that there is both hope and potential.

But if I read it correctly, there’s not much money being made to date.

 

[Lachlan Young]

But if I read it correctly, there’s not much money being made to date.

Only relative to what the pension fund needs. And I think they need to divest themselves of solvent business parts to qualify for the pension protection fund. So in other words, they're selling Alaris because it's not paying out enough to keep the pension fund afloat, but it's a solvent, profitable business which must be sold to qualify for the protection fund.

 

[wahiba]

Euromillions win tonight would provide enough to buy it! Must admit i had no idea it was a UK company, even if is part of the old kodaks pension obligation.

 

[Chan Tran]

would the APUGER'S buy it? So we can make film, chemicals and paper. That's what we need right?

 

[AgX]

We had chances to buy whole plants since about 15 years ago... likely all the years we were speculating on falling prices. The same time scrap metal prices increased however...

 

[BrianShaw]

would the APUGER'S buy it? So we can make film, chemicals and paper. That's what we need right?

There are a lot of opinions here about how to run this kind of business, but who actually has experience with that kind of scale... nobody I imagine.

 

[Eric Rose]

Ahhh to dream.....

 

[Vincent Peri]

I post without comment a link to an Australian industry newsletter that arrived in my inbox just a little while ago.

https://www.insideimaging.com.au/2019/exclusive-kodak-up-for-sale/

I found this statement in the above report:

"The KPP2 pension fund currently has a deficit of £1.5bil ($2.7 bil)..."

Well, as of today, 1.5 billion English pounds is worth less than $2 billion dollars. I wonder what else they got wrong.

 

[Chan Tran]

There are a lot of opinions here about how to run this kind of business, but who actually has experience with that kind of scale... nobody I imagine.

I agree with you there! We know we need the film but we also know no company can make profit making film only for us APUGERS. Let alone many of us want to pay next to nothing for film. So I do understand it's hard to have a business making film.

 

[peoplemerge]

I want to start a private equity fund whose whole mission is to keep analog photo methods alive. Using my fancy web browser, I learned all I need to know to do this by googling https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100515/how-start-your-own-private-equity-fund.asp ... Invest your 401ks and IRAs with me and you might not beat the returns on an index fund, you might - nay - you probably will lose money, but you'll have a hand preserving a great medium. Who's in and for how much?

 

[BrianShaw]

I want to start a private equity fund whose whole mission is to keep analog photo methods alive. Using my fancy web browser, I learned all I need to know to do this by googling https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100515/how-start-your-own-private-equity-fund.asp ... Invest your 401ks and IRAs with me and you might not beat the returns on an index fund, you might - nay - you probably will lose money, but you'll have a hand preserving a great medium. Who's in and for how much?

How much are you in?

 

[peoplemerge]

How much are you in?

How about very reasonable 2% management fee?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Another film manufacturer might be the right kind of company to buy it. At the right price, not the US$34 million they CEO claims it's worth.

 

[MattKing]

I found this statement in the above report:

"The KPP2 pension fund currently has a deficit of £1.5bil ($2.7 bil)..."

Well, as of today, 1.5 billion English pounds is worth less than $2 billion dollars. I wonder what else they got wrong.

Thee are some other strange references in that article. The cash amount that the UK pension plan paid was wrong (what the article has as a dollar amount may very well have been the amount in Euros or pounds). The article also refers to Eastman Kodak doing the manufacturing of colour paper for Kodak Alaris - Eastman Kodak doesn't make paper, but the old Eastman Kodak plant now owned by Caresteam (or co-owned by Carestream and Kodak Alaris - it isn't clear) does.
According to the article, the photographic part of Kodak Alaris had sales of approximately $175 million - one quarter of total sales of $700 million - in 2017.
A business with that level of sales is probably worth more than $34 million.

 

[Peter Schrager]

Oy vey as my mother would say!!

 

[Agulliver]

The £1.5 $2.7 is probably Australian dollars....

And yes, maybe between us alll we could buy it....and run it into the ground within 18 months by spending a fortune on researching Kodachrome, making Ektachrome 400, old Tri-X and Panatomic X....and advertising them all the the superbowl!

 

[removed account4]

There are a lot of opinions here about how to run this kind of business, but who actually has experience with that kind of scale... nobody I imagine.

There is that guy with that wooden contraption he uses to make his own film in his garage, other than that I don't know of anyone.
==
I think its like 2007 and 1907 all over again.

 

[Vincent Peri]

I want to start a private equity fund whose whole mission is to keep analog photo methods alive... Who's in and for how much?

Hmm... I'm in for 100
bananas... literally, 100
bananas...

 

[NB23]

would the APUGER'S buy it? So we can make film, chemicals and paper. That's what we need right?

Noooooo!

We want someone else to make it for us.

And we want it CHEAP.
And we want it GOOD.
And we want to BITCH about it.
And we want it to LAST FOREVER.
And we don’t have anything to do with it.

That’s what we want.

 

[Chan Tran]

Noooooo!

We want someone else to make it for us.

And we want it CHEAP.
And we want it GOOD.
And we want to BITCH about it.
And we want it to LAST FOREVER.
And we don’t have anything to do with it.

That’s what we want.

I agree with you and with that I doubt that anyone can run it as a successful business.