Subsidiaries of Kodak in the Asia-Pacific are unlikely to be affected by the filing of the parent company and US subsidiaries for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.

The 131-year-old Eastman Kodak Company, headquartered in Rochester, New York, filed voluntary petitions in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday, after securing $950 million of debtor-in-possession finance. The facility from Citigroup lasts for the next 18 months.

The move follows the failure of attempts to raise funds by selling non-core digital imaging patents… efforts apparently thwarted by ongoing rumours about the company.

Kodak says the business restructuring is needed to "bolster liquidity in the US and abroad, monetise non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities, and enable the company to focus on its most valuable business lines".

It says pioneering investments in digital and materials deposition technologies have led to about three quarters of its revenue coming from digital businesses last year.

Kodak chief executive Antonio Perez says Kodak is taking “a significant step” toward enabling the completion of the company’s transformation.

“At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets.

“We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.”

"After considering the advantages of Chapter 11 at this time, the board of directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak. Our goal is to maximize value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees. We are also committed to working with our valued customers.

"Chapter 11 gives us the best opportunities to maximise the value in two critical parts of our technology portfolio: our digital capture patents, which are essential for a wide range of mobile and other consumer electronic devices that capture digital images and have generated over $3 billion of licensing revenues since 2003; and our breakthrough printing and deposition technologies, which give Kodak a competitive advantage in our growing digital businesses.”

Kodak is being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting and Sullivan & Cromwell, and FTI vice chairman Dominic DiNapoli is to serve as chief restructuring officer to support the management team as to restructuring matters during the Chapter 11 case.

A Kodak website at www.kodaktransforms.com has been set up to update suppliers and customers.

See the Antonio Perez video