Kodak Reports Improved Profits; Inkjet Businesses Show Revenue Growth

“Our third-quarter performance was marked by continued acceleration in our strategic digital growth businesses, positive cash generation, improved profit margins, and continued operational improvements across the company,” said Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and CEO. “I am particularly pleased with the performance of our core growth businesses—Consumer Inkjet, Commercial Inkjet, Packaging Solutions, and Workflow Software and Services. Revenue growth in these businesses continues to accelerate and in the third-quarter grew by a combined 23 percent. We also enjoyed growth in equipment unit placements, which will drive future consumable sales. All of these factors give me increased confidence that we are on track for a strong fourth-quarter performance, and continued improvement as we move forward.”

Other third-quarter 2010 details:

• Earnings from continuing operations, before interest expense, other income (charges) and income taxes were $58 million, a $139 million improvement as compared to an $81 million loss in the year-ago quarter. This earnings improvement was driven by operational improvements, including cost and efficiency gains, and the impact of a non-recurring intellectual property transaction.

• Gross Profit improved to 27.1 percent of sales, as compared to 20.3 percent in the year-ago period. This increase in margin was driven by both a non-recurring intellectual property licensing agreement and continued operational improvements.

• Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses were $314 million in the third quarter, down 1%, from $318 million in the year-ago quarter.

• Third-quarter 2010 cash generation, before restructuring payments, was $123 million, a $94 million improvement from the year-ago quarter. This corresponds to net cash provided by continuing operations on a GAAP basis of $140 million in the third quarter, compared with net cash used in continuing operations on a GAAP basis of $16 million in the third quarter of 2009.

• Kodak held $1.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30, 2010, compared with $1.1 billion as of Sept. 30, 2009.