[Leica] Ilford's situation

[kenlass at gate.net (Ken Lassiter)]

Today, the item below was posted on the Photo Marketing Newsline web site:

Photo film maker Ilford set to split UK and Swiss businesses

Ilford Imaging, <http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/homeng.html> the 
world's biggest black-and-white film maker, is set to split its UK and 
Swiss businesses and sell them separately after filing for insolvency, 
administrators said on Tuesday. Ilford, weighed down by more than ?40 
million of debt, bowed to pressure from booming digital camera sales and 
called in accountancy firm Grant Thornton on Monday to oversee its sale, 
Reuters reported.

  Mark Byers, Malcolm Shierson and Les Ross, partners at Grant Thornton, 
have been appointed joint administrators of Ilford Imaging, parent of a 
group employing 1,500 staff. They have also been appointed joint 
receivers of Ilford Imaging UK, according to FT.com.

  As part of that process, the 125-year-old group is likely to separate 
its two businesses: the declining black-and-white films and photographic 
paper division, employing 740 people, and the profitable Swiss inkjet 
printing business, Reuters reported.

  "The Swiss business will continue and is trading normally," said 
Byers, joint administrator and receiver at Ilford and head of recovery 
and reorganization services at accountants Grant Thornton.

  "We have control over the business and in due course we'll be 
marketing it for sale," he added, saying that no sale timetable had been 
set.

  But the British unit's outlook is less certain. The principal 
objective is to identify a buyer for the brand name and its assets, 
Byers said.

  "Otherwise, there'll be an orderly wind-down of the operation," he added.

  Byers did not rule out a sale of the entire business intact, but said 
this would be a more complex option. The inkjet business -- which is a 
major world supplier of dyes for inkjet photo printers -- is likely to 
attract several bidders, given its profitability, said Reuters.

  "The underlying business without gearing is good. If you could target 
additional print business, it would be interesting," said Dominic 
Collier, board member of photographic retailer Jessops and a director at 
private equity firm ABN AMRO Capital, which bought Jessops in October 2002.

  Collier declined to comment whether ABN AMRO Capital would be interested.

  The appointment of Grant Thornton at Ilford comes a week after 
Belgium's Agfa-Gevaert, one of the best-known names in camera film, sold 
off its consumer unit to managers, due to pressure from digital cameras.

  Ilford's insolvency is also a blow to Doughty Hanson, the British 
private equity firm that owns the company. Doughty, which declined to 
comment, acquired the company in December 1997 for Euro 70.3 million. A 
source close to the situation said the business was part provisioned, or 
written off, by Doughty in 1999, with the remainder written off in 2000.

...Ken Lassiter