7 November 2005
On October 18, the Management and the Board of Creditors declined the final offer from the British Photo-Me International Group to take over the insolvent company as a whole. Immediately after the Photo-Me offer was declined, AgfaPhoto stopped the funding of its national sales companies. As a result, several of them, including AgfaPhoto's UK, Germany and Australia companies, also filed for insolvency. Others are expected to follow soon.
During the previous weeks, negotiations with other potential investors had failed, apparently partly due to disagreements over the value of the licence for marketing the AgfaPhoto brand. The owner of the brand rights is still Agfa-Gevaert AG in Belgium, which has licenced the trademark to AgfaPhoto Holding company. AgfaPhoto Holding belongs to NannO Beteiligungsholding GmbH, Munich, Germany (55 percent), headed by Dr. Hartmut Emans, the former AgfaPhoto management (25 percent), and the American holding companies, Abrams Capital and Highfield Capital Management (10 percent each). Early October, Agfa-Gevaert AG terminated the licence agreement with AgfaPhoto Holding, a matter that is still the subject of legal disputes.
Prior to the company's first creditors meeting on October 11, 2005, the Cerberus Finance Group withdrew from the bidding process due to disagreements about the value of the trademark. Shortly after the meeting, the British Photo-Me Group also left the negotiating table, but returned to the talks the following weekend. According to AgfaPhoto Managing Director Hans-Gerd Jauch, Photo-Me's final offer was significantly lower than the previous bid, and, Jauch added, was presented as "not negotiable". Thus the Board of Creditors and the Management had no choice but to decline the offer, said Dr. Andreas Ringstmeier.
The process of winding up the company has already started: The Trustee of the Creditors, Dr. Andreas Ringstmeier, and AgfaPhoto CEO Hans-Gerd Jauch have concluded the first negotiations on the sale of parts of AgfaPhoto.
On October 30, 2005, the Board of Creditors and the Supervisory Board of the insolvent AgfaPhoto GmbH approved the proposal that the a&o Group, Neuss/Potsdam, Germany, take over the service and spare parts business for minilabs as well as the photochemistry operations in Vaihingen/Enz. Imaging Solutions of Regensdorf, Switzerland, has acquired AgfaPhoto's wholesale lab equipment division.
The a&o Group was established October 1, 2002, and is specialized in IT services. The company, which expects total sales of Euro 100 million this year with 1,000 employees, provides a full range of services from a technical hotline and the supply of spare parts to on-site maintenance and repair for several manufacturers. The company will supply spare parts to operators of AgfaPhoto minilabs worldwide and will offer a full service in Europe, the USA and Canada. a&o has taken over the AgfaPhoto service and spare parts department with 15 employees, and the production plant for photochemistry in Vaihingen/Enz with 45 employees. a&o is also considering taking over between 60 and 100 AgfaPhoto service technicians worldwide. The company has the option to buy the finished minilab equipment and the 360 partly finished machines from AgfaPhoto's Peiting facility. "If this turns out, production could be restarted," said a&o Managing Director Michael Mler, who added that the company will make all efforts to ensure the supply of spare parts for AgfaPhoto minilabs worldwide. "Service for AgfaPhoto minilabs will resume very soon indeed," Mler told INTERNATIONAL CONTACT today. "Our service partners from all over the world will fly in today and tomorrow for further instructions, and all operators of AgfaPhoto minilabs will receive a letter on Wednesday with all necessary details, contacts etc." Also on Wednesday, delivery of spare parts for AgfaPhoto minilabs will be resumed.
Imaging Solutions of Regensdorf, Switzerland, is the successor to the central lab equipment division of the collapsed Gretag Imaging Group. After its start in spring 2003, the company has achieved a leading position as a supplier of high-speed digital processing and printing equipment for wholesale labs. According to PMA Newsline International, Photo-Me will pay 6.1 million for the business.
According to Dr. Andreas Ringstmeier, Trustee of the AgfaPhoto Creditors, and AgfaPhoto CEO Hans-Gerd Jauch, there are currently no further negotiations taking place regarding the sale of parts of AgfaPhoto GmbH. At several locations, endeavours are under way to continue smaller segments under the terms of management buyouts, with no detailed plans available at the moment. The phase-out of production at AgfaPhoto's manufacturing plants in Peiting/Munich, Leverkusen and Windhagen will be finished by end of this year and the sale of the goods produced will be completed by summer 2006.
Source: INTERNATIONAL CONTACT