Kodak Selling Plant for $40M

Eastman Kodak Co. will sell its plant and public-utility equipment in Xiamen, China, for approximately $40 million, the company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing.

Kodak said it will sell the buildings, equipment and land-use rights associated with its Haicang site to Xiamen Land Development Co. (XLDC). Kodak is leasing back several buildings and some utility equipment from XLDC in order to continue operations at the site, according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The plant in Haicang was part of Kodak's $1.2 billion investment project in China announced in March 1998. In November 1999, at about the time the first phase of the project was completed, the factory finished a variety of consumer and professional film and paper products and Kodak said it would be its largest photographic film and paper manufacturing site in Asia when completed in mid-2000.

Kodak said in Wednesday's filing it expects the transaction will close by June 30 and will result in the company recording a non-cash charge of approximately $200 million in the second quarter of 2007.

The company said the sale is part of its restructuring program first announced in 2004, under which Kodak has been working to cut 25,000 jobs and close one-third of its facilities by mid-2007 as it makes the transition from traditional film to digital photography.

For more information, visit: www.kodak.com