Kodak Explores Sale of Flexible-Packaging Division

By Dana Mattioli 

Film pioneer Eastman Kodak Co. is exploring a sale of its flexible-packaging division, according to people familiar with the matter.

The business, which makes labeling and packaging equipment, could fetch more than $400 million in a sale, one of the people said. The value of the business is more than Kodak's current market capitalization of $258 million. The company also has $403 million of debt, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The sales process is at an early stage and there is no guarantee there will be a deal.

The business that is being sold makes printing plates that are used to label packaging for consumer goods. It competes with companies such as Platform Specialty Products Corp. and Fujifilm Holdings Corp. of Japan.

It had more than $145 million in revenue and $31 million in profit in 2017.

Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak is a shell of the company it once was. For generations, Kodak reaped profits from one high-margin product: film. But it was too slow to adapt as digital technologies emerged, and the company, which at its peak employed 145,000 people world-wide and once had $14 billion in annual revenue, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. It emerged the next year a leaner company focused on commercial imaging and printing.

Private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP's GSO Capital Partners LP credit-investment arm currently owns more than 20% of Kodak shares and has board representation.

Write to Dana Mattioli at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 26, 2018 12:39 ET (16:39 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.