Acquisition of Landa Corporation by FIMI Opportunity Funds has now been approved as the better of two remaining options.
A Centra District Court judge favoured the “relatively complex” USD$80m debt restructuring plan as preferable to liquidation which “would likely have only yielded minimal proceeds, given that the company’s customers are primarily overseas and its only real assets in Israel are machinery,” industry publication WideformatOnline reported.
Judge Hana Kitsis noted that the restructuring arrangement “ensures the company’s continued operations and safeguards the employment of most of its employees.”
The deal comes after the second of two companies behind visionary Benny Landa’s revolutionary print technologies hit snags and was offered for sale. HP – which bought Landa’s Indigo earlier – as well as Agfa, Brother, Canon, Epson, Fujifilm, Koenig & Bauer and Xerox were considered possible buyers of the Landa Digital Printing business for a “firesale” price.
Problems are reported to have arisen when major shareholder and BMW heiress Susanne Klatten gave control to her children, who were put off by a review saying that Landa would not break even until 2030, and would need US$300 million (A$458 million) to get there.
WideformatOnline’s Andy McCourt had earlier reported that FIMI’s proposed USD$80 million (A$122.4 million) purchase of the business hit “a potential speed-hump” over claims of added costs.
Pictured: Landa with the nanographic press he launched in 2012; the liquid-toner Indigo was first shown at Ipex in 1993