Kodak Alaris Sale

[Ted Striker]

For whatever reason yesterday I recalled the huge story at the beginning of the year when Kodak Alaris announced that they were shopping around the film/paper part of their business, trying to sell it. Google searches show many dozens of stories all dated in early February of this year. Kodak Alaris stated that the income that they were producing was not capable of funding the UK pension requirements that they owe the former Kodak employees so they were going to wind down their operations and turn over the pensions to the UK government.

Since then there has been absolutely no news that I can see. Any of our UK fellows know what is going on with Alaris? It's hard to see that the facts of this story could turn positive in any substantial way.

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Ted - I found this in the Pension Protection Fund's annual report published July 2019. Page 48 of https://www.ppf.co.uk/sites/default/files/file-2019-07/annual_report_2018-2019_2.pdf

So no sale as yet and it's possible that when the PPF finally absorbs the remains of the UK Kodak pension fund it could keep ownership of Alaris. As a note, all of this will take a lot of time and I doubt Alaris is being seriously marketed.

Kodak Pension Plan (No. 2)
On 25 March 2019 the Kodak
Pension Plan (No. 2) (KPP2)
entered PPF assessment and is
the largest claim on the PPF to
date. In 2013, after Eastman
Kodak Inc. filed for bankruptcy
protection in the United States,
the PPF and TPR gave
permission for a new scheme,
KPP2, to be created. The
scheme bought a number of
Eastman Kodak businesses
through a new entity called
Kodak Alaris. It became clear
that while Kodak Alaris is
profitable and cash generative,
it would not be able to generate
sufficient income to support
KPP2’s liabilities in the long
term. Accordingly the decision
was made to bring the scheme
into the PPF.
The solution we supported in 2013
was not without risks, but it was
the right thing to do at the time.
The risks that we foresaw have
been closely monitored since then
by the trustees and TPR. The
controls that were put in place at
the time to review performance
and, if necessary, wind up the
scheme have worked as intended.
While we often have little
forewarning of assessment periods
being triggered, we have known for
some time that KPP2 was likely to
enter assessment. Most
assessment periods are triggered
by uncontrolled insolvency events.
However, in the case of KPP2 we
have been actively working behind
the scenes with the scheme
trustees, Kodak Alaris, our panel
firms and TPR to ensure an orderly
transition into PPF assessment
ahead of the employer insolvency
event. Our two aims have been to
protect stakeholders and to
provide reassurance, confidence
and clarity to the 11,000 scheme
members who will in due course
become PPF members.
During the assessment period we
will continue the work of the KPP2
trustees to dispose of the Kodak
Alaris business for fair value.
However should this not be
achieved through the sales
process, the PPF is prepared to
retain ownership of all or part of
Kodak Alaris. While KPP2 presents
the largest claim on the PPF to
date, we remain financially strong
and able to absorb a claim of this
size. This is the reason we have
reserves, and it is what we are
here to do.

 

[Ted Striker]

Thank you very much for the updated information. It sounds like much as gone on behind the scenes and will continue for the near future.


On another note, I love the British English use of the word scheme. It is totally missing the negative connotation of the US use of the word.

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

You're welcome. One of those lovely words that has so many different meanings.

What I do find interesting is that the pension fund from the remnants of a largely dead industry of many years ago is the largest the PPF has taken on. It shows how rapidly the mighty fell!

 

[raydm6]

There was nothing in their SEC filings (latest 10-Q and such) that I could see other than alluding to the pension liability.

http://investor.kodak.com/sec-filings/sec-filing/10-q/0001564590-19-030788

GOING CONCERN
"...Kodak is facing liquidity challenges due to operating losses and negative cash flow. Kodak has eliminated current debt service requirements by paying down the Senior Secured First Lien Term Credit Agreement (the “Term Credit Agreement”) using proceeds from the sale of Kodak’s Flexographic Packaging business (“FPD”) and refinancing the remaining balance through the issuance of convertible debt which does not require any debt service until conversion or maturity on November 1, 2021. However, Kodak has significant cash requirements to fund ongoing operations, restructuring programs, pension and other postretirement obligations, and other obligations. Kodak’s plans to return to positive cash flow include growing revenues profitably, reducing operating expenses, simplifying the organizational structure, generating cash from additional asset sales and paring investment in new technology by eliminating or delaying product development programs. The current cash balance outside of China, recent trend of negative cash flow and lack of certainty regarding the return to positive cash flow raise substantial doubt about Kodak’s ability to continue as a going concern."

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

That's Eastman Kodak raydm6 - it's a separate company from Kodak Alaris (one of the more confusing things about an already difficult to understand situation!).

 

[raydm6]

Oh my! So sorry! Geesh. Thanks for that Charles. Well, looks like Kodak is having issues as well. Lol Thanks for the correction. No wonder why I couldn't find a reference to Alaris in the reports.🙄

 

[Ted Striker]

It shows how rapidly the mighty fell!

Yes, very true. It's almost hard to imagine but not that long ago Eastman Kodak was a Dow 30 component and had a market cap in the billions of dollars. Today, EK has long ago been dropped as a Dow 30 stock and has a market cap of all of 0.1 billion dollars.


Who would would have predicted at the height of EK's power that it would have fallen so far? Not me.

 

[Ccoppola82]

I live about 40 minutes from Kodak Rochester and have a lot of clients who have had family work there for their entire lives. What’s happened to the entire city since Kodak’s demise is shocking. The rise in poverty and crime is monumental and as they put it “the city has gone to ****”. So, there’s real consequences to a company like Kodak failing. It hurts not only employees, but the entire economic system of a city they inhabit. It IS still a larger operation that spans city blocks. Maybe I should try to take a tour sooner than later.

 

[Ted Striker]

I live about 40 minutes from Kodak Rochester and have a lot of clients who have had family work there for their entire lives. What’s happened to the entire city since Kodak’s demise is shocking. The rise in poverty and crime is monumental and as they put it “the city has gone to ****”. So, there’s real consequences to a company like Kodak failing. It hurts not only employees, but the entire economic system of a city they inhabit. It IS still a larger operation that spans city blocks. Maybe I should try to take a tour sooner than later.

Sounds like Detroit, which was annihilated by the decline of the auto industry. Cities should work night and day to be as diverse as possible to avoid consequences like this. No one thought that GM and Kodak would implode the way they did, and yet it happened all the same. Good thoughts do no sustain a company. Competent management is what does and both of those companies are legends when it comes to mismanagement, especially Kodak. Just look at the difference in outcomes between Fujifilm and Kodak. Two more start outcomes are harder to imagine!

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Indeed, Ted. Of the top 100 quoted companies when I started work in the City of London back in 1988, I can only think of the banks and the oil companies still there 31 years later. Retailers, manufacturers, publishing firms etc all gone.

Let's hope at least Kodak Alaris get long term ownership. Ilford seems to be doing well, freed of all its legacy issues but in private hands, and the PPF is a long term investor.

 

[BillBingham2]

I grew up in Greece, a northern suburb of Rochester and my father worked at the Park and then the Office all of his life. I'd love to go back but I'm afraid it would break my heart.

B2 (;-<

 

[Ronald M]

Does this tell you to forget pensions and control your own money. Social Security in USA is the worlds largest Ponzi scheme. My General Motors Pension was turned over to Prudential before bankruptcy. Retired 15 years now and have not tapped 401K.
If you are dependent on some company or union or government making retirement possible, you are just not reasonable.
Go back to what President Regan said, government is not the solution, government is the problem.

 

[farlymac]

Does this tell you to forget pensions and control your own money. Social Security in USA is the worlds largest Ponzi scheme. My General Motors Pension was turned over to Prudential before bankruptcy. Retired 15 years now and have not tapped 401K.
If you are dependent on some company or union or government making retirement possible, you are just not reasonable.
Go back to what President Regan said, government is not the solution, government is the problem.

You know, if the greedy fund managers didn't rape the Corporations for all the cash they can get out of them, a lot of companies would still be in business with healthy pension funds for their employees.

Or the managers that flat out stole the pensions. Where I used to work (before retirement) we had a supplier (Union Switch and Signal, US&S)that had two vary large manufacturing facilities because of the regional way they did business. One handled everything east of the Mississippi, the other one west of it. Now the eastern plant was a union shop, while the western one was in a "right-to-work" state. At one point there was a large turnover of employees at the eastern facility due to retirements, so the work force generally had been with the company for the same amount of time. Two months before this large group of employees would have been vested in the retirement plan, the eastern plant was shut down, all the work was sent to the western plant, and the company managers split up and pocketed the retirement fund that should have gone to the union employees. We called the company Union Switch and Swindle after that.

And the government did nothing about it. Reaganomics in action. I see that as the big problem.

PF

 

[james.liam]

Does this tell you to forget pensions and control your own money. Social Security in USA is the worlds largest Ponzi scheme. My General Motors Pension was turned over to Prudential before bankruptcy. Retired 15 years now and have not tapped 401K.
If you are dependent on some company or union or government making retirement possible, you are just not reasonable.
Go back to what President Regan said, government is not the solution, government is the problem.

Amen, brother.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

If you are dependent on some company or union or government making retirement possible, you are just not reasonable.

Yes, as we all know private investment firms are all rock-solid reliable.
They never go bust or steal investor funds... 🙄

Chris

 

[RObert Budding]

Does this tell you to forget pensions and control your own money. Social Security in USA is the worlds largest Ponzi scheme. My General Motors Pension was turned over to Prudential before bankruptcy. Retired 15 years now and have not tapped 401K.
If you are dependent on some company or union or government making retirement possible, you are just not reasonable.
Go back to what President Regan said, government is not the solution, government is the problem.

No, Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. It's a transfer from today's workers to retirees. And, no, the system will not be bankrupt when the surplus from prior years is consumed. Worse case would be a 20% drop in benefits.

 

[Ted Striker]

No, Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. It's a transfer from today's workers to retirees.

WHat? That's the very definition of a Ponzi scheme!



A Ponzi scheme (/ˈpɒnzi/, Italian: [ˈpontsi]; also a Ponzi game)[1] is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.[2] The scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from product sales or other means, and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds.

And, no, the system will not be bankrupt when the surplus from prior years is consumed. Worse case would be a 20% drop in benefits.

A 20% drop in benefits would send tens of millions of people into irreparable poverty.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

I have resigned myself to the fact that by the time I reach retirement age, social security will be all but non-existent and I will work until I die. I have faith in this, growing up in the age of monetary mismanagement, the increasing gap between the wealthy and other-than, and the shrinking of virtually all industry in the US. I'm currently changing careers to one which will give me some job security in the future decades but I am not so optimistic that I am blind to what is happening, as many who either grow up with means or have financial security can be.
Phil Forrest

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Social Security facts

Chris