Difficult times for Kodak

The company that popularized photography, according to The Wall Street Journal, could be preparing a suspension of payments.

After registering financial losses of 647 million dollars, between January and September 2011, an accumulated depreciation of its shares of 91.53 percent in the last 12 months and a failed operation to sell 1,100 patents to increase its capital, Kodak could go into suspension of payments in the coming weeks.

The company leaked this Wednesday to the economic newspaper The Wall Street Journal which could declare a suspension of payments if it fails to sell its digital image patents before the end of January.

According to this economic newspaper, Eastman Kodak, which registered a quarterly growth of minus 16.7 percent in November 2011, according to Capital IQ, would default at the end of this month, or at the latest at the beginning of February, as long as it fails to recover capital to remain afloat.

According to the analysis of the firm carried out by Capital IQ, Kodak had a debt of 1.5 billion dollars, as of September 30, 2011.

If the sale of patents cannot be completed to increase capital within the firm, it would be negotiating a loan for one billion dollars to stay afloat, or it would file for Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Law, under which it could still continue operating but under the supervision of the courts.

Stock Market Fall

The company's shares fell 28.19% during yesterday's trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Kodak shares closed the last trading day with a price per unit of 0.47 dollars, which according to the stock market operations regulations indicates that it has a maximum of six months to re-list, at least, with a price per unit of one dollar or it must cease its operations in the market.

En Nueva York, Ulysses Yannas, corredor de Buckman & Reid, ha señalado que “es posible que Kodak solicite la protección por bancarrota. Pero no considero eso probable, principalmente porque no tienen una necesidad inminente de efectivo”.