Eastman Kodak Co. has agreed to sell its health-imaging group to Onex Healthcare Holdings Inc. for up to $2.55 billion.
The deal, expected to close in the first half of the year, includes a significant portion of Kodak’s plant in Windsor as well as facilities in other cities.
Kodak, based in Rochester, N.Y., has about 1,600 employees in Windsor, which is the company’s primary X-ray film manufacturing facility, company spokeswoman Lucille Mantelli said.
Under the deal, a significant portion of those employees will join Onex Healthcare Holdings, a division of Toronto-based investment firm Onex Corp., but the specific number has not been determined.
“It won’t affect operations in any disruptive way,” Mantelli said. “The individuals who have been working in the health area for Kodak will be working the same jobs and the same equipment but just with a different company. At the present time, there is no concern over cuts. The health business has been very careful in the way they’ve staffed their areas.”
Aggregate revenues for the businesses being acquired were about $2.54 billion for the 12 months ended Sept. 30.
“This is a great opportunity to acquire and grow a business that has established an extraordinary record in delivering innovative solutions to customers around the world,” Robert Le Blanc, an Onex managing director, said in a statement. “We are very impressed with the health group’s world-class products in every sector: medical, dental, molecular imaging and nondestructive testing.”
Other businesses Kodak operates in Windsor that are not included in the deal include its entertainment-imaging unit, color paper for the North Americas and thermal media.
“We like being able to say Kodak is located in Weld County,” said Larry Burkhardt, president and chief executive of the Upstate Colorado Economic Development Council. “Clearly, they’re one of our major employers in Weld County. In terms of economic impact, they’re very significant.”
It’s not the first acquisition Onex has made that includes facilities in northern Colorado. Among its other businesses is Celestica Inc. Onex and Celestica management acquired the company from IBM in 1996 in a transaction valued at $700 million.
The company shut down Celestica’s technology plant in Fort Collins in 2005, costing 500 jobs. Onex manages third-party private-equity investments through Onex Partners and the Oncap family of funds. It also manages a real-estate fund and a public market fund. The company has annual consolidated revenue of about $17 billion.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
