Jump to content

KODK - Eastman Kodak


Hubris

Recommended Posts

Kodak recently emerged from bankruptcy and is in the search for a new CEO. The company has completely disposed of the consumer side of the business and has a limited cap of its liabilities at Eastman Business park. It trades at a forward FCF of around ~10 and management sees great potential for earnings expansion from its digital printing technologies. There should also be a significant expense reductions since the burden of the bankruptcy proceeding will no long be included in next years financial statements while they were included for nine months of the current year.

 

There are two businesses one is basically in run-off which would be print cartridges which are high margin as well as films for the studios. The other is their printing solutions and technologies in businesses and software solutions and applications. So its a combination of a declining business with a higher growth business.

 

The company also has issued warrants at two different strike prices which are 14.95 and 16.12 which expire during September 2018. Currently the warrants trade on thin volume however the warrants also trade at a discount to the strike price + exercise price implying a negative time value or an arbitrage opportunity.

 

The company has debt of about 700M and cash of 900M. Therefore it has an excess cash position however there might be some capital allocation risk.

 

The float is also very small since about 4 hedge funds own about 80% of the shares outstanding and warrants. So this could be quite volatile.

Excepts_from__Lender_Presentation2013.pdf

kodak_warrants.pdf

Kodak_Lender_Presentation_December_2013_120213_1915.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I see here there are major issues.  First, management is the same the put EK into bankruptcy with more goodies on the way out for Perez.  The business they want to enter grow in is very competitive and they have tried to do this before the BK.  I see a chapter 22 here.  One of my relatives got a distribution from the BK and I advised to get out before the second BK.

 

Packer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes I am unhappy with Perez's compensation scheme and its far too generous. However, they have turned cash flow positive and do have excess cash so I would say maybe chapter 22 is a bit farfetched at least right now? They do have 200M over their current obligations and the environmental ones are capped at 50M. They have fired and downsized an spun off many of the less attractive parts of the business. There could be more changes to come so far management has been pretty tight lipped and investor relations have been impossible to get a hold of. Which could be a positive or a negative.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The business they are entering is the most competitive segment of printing with companies like Xerox having a better position (and this is not one of Xerox's best businesses).  The supplies business is the good part of this business.  This is an innovator's dilemma market with huge overcapacity in both printing and printer vendors.  This market is analogous to the supercomputer market in that less expensive machines provide good enough capabilities.  I would not take much stock in excess cash as they will blow through that if they focus on the large printer segment.  Just my observations from living here in Rochester, NY.

 

Packer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • 6 months later...

Kodak $14.93 September 2018 Warrants

 

Kodak continued to progress on our thesis of unlocking the value of its many segments. On March 15, 2016,the company announced that it was in the process of selling its PROSPER inkjetcommercial printing system to a strategic buyer.While we are sad to see the company part with such a great asset, Kodak’s management is right to sell it to someone with a bigger  sales  force  and  ability  to  provide  customer  financing  for  the $3 millionpiece of equipment.

 

While Kodak is a$12.00 stock,we expect the company to receive over $5.00 per share (or over $200 million)  for  the sale of  this  business.  Just  as  importantly,  post-bankruptcy Kodak  was  saddled  with $670 million in very high cost debt that is costing it $64 million a year or $1.60 per share in interest expenses. While Kodak has $550 million in cash on its balance sheet, currently only $300 million is available in the United States.

 

However, with the upcoming sale of PROSPER,the company will finally pay down most of this unnecessary debt and generate an additional $1.00-$1.60 of annual Free Cash Flow  to  the  shareholders.  Since  this  is  a  volatile  warrant  position,we’ve taken advantage of the occasional price dips to add an additional 1% to our stake and to lower our cost basis throughout the quarter.

 

 

https://www.hvst.com/posts/61068-artko-capital-lp-1q-2016-investor-letter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...