Kodak Could Leave Bankruptcy Within Six Months

Kodak could exit bankruptcy protection within six months after a US judge approved a new $843.7 million financing deal for the company.

Judge Allan L Gropper of the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan agreed with Kodak that the loan was in the best interests of the company and will be used to pay off an existing $950 million bankruptcy loan from a group led by CitiGroup.

More than $640 million of the money can be used for financing that will support Kodak’s eventual exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and pave the way for it to emerge as a streamlined company selling printing equipment and services to business customers – or so Kodak hopes.

Kodak bankruptcy deal

Its new business will apparently revolve around its Prosper Press printers, which cost several million dollars each and print high-speed output for companies like book publishers and direct mail companies.

Kodak has hoped to raise more than $2 billion from the sale of around 1,100 of its digital imaging patents, but once it emerged that the portfolio was not attracting bids anywhere near that amount, it decided to offload some of its assets while it tried to find a buyer.

Since it filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2012, Kodak has sold many of its businesses, cut thousands of jobs and signed a brand licensing agreement with JK Imaging, allowing it to make digital cameras and projectors bearing the Kodak name.

The company had agreed a deal with its creditors on the condition that it raised $500 million for the patents and, after 18 months on the market, eventually sold them for $525 million last month.

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