Came across this today. Thought it was interesting. From the press release:
"HARMAN technology, manufacturers of the famous ILFORD Photo range of Monochrome Photographic products, have been purchased by Pemberstone Ventures Ltd for an undisclosed amount."
Full press release: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/pressroom/article.asp?n=211
Is this good or bad? Can anybody with investing experience explain it to us?
My advice, stock up on Ilford film.
GemSinger
Octogenarian
My gut tells me wait three years then stock up the moment the price is about to jump..
I have been worried about this for a very long time, the five guys running it were old school, now the reins may change.
Originally Posted by gemsinger
Article in the British Journal of Photography: http://www.bjp-online.com/2015/09/ha...ed-pemberstone
From the article:
"Whiles Pemberstone’s plans for the storied photographic company remain to be seen, their comments suggest that the famous brand will continue to endure for the time being."
Some investment firms buy with the eye to eventually taking a company apart and selling it by bits or selling off valuable assets and dumping the rest. I guess in this case it depends on what there is of Harman that could be sold off by bits or if there is anything valuable to sell separate from the company as a whole. If I recall correctly from the discussions during the Ilford bankruptcy era, they rent the factory, or at least the land. It looks like Pemberton has a variety of companies in its portfolio. Hard to find what the firm's history is on what happens to its purchases from a quick web search.
Funny thing, I purchased a bunch of 100 sheet boxes of 4x5 Arista 400 from Freestyle when Ilford went into bankruptcy and froze them. (This was repackaged HP5+.) A friend from Texas once sent me a box of HP5+ as well. I just finished off my stash this summer. As a result, I have never purchased a sheet of 4x5 from Harman! I have purchased 5x7 and 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 film from them though.
I don't like the looks of the company. It incorporated under its current name within the past three years, and while the top Director seems stable under one appointment to Bdo LLP (but no longer), the rest of his activity is only about two years old and largely within related companies most at the same address; his next under (an accountant) has hopped through appointments like crazy. They don't have much cash, but supposedly has assets greater than liabilities.
Impossible to tell.
I think we'll probably be fine though. The only doom and gloom scenario is if the new owners dumped all of the assets into the market to break it up and sell it. But who wants to buy film manufacturing equipment?
More likely is the PE firm thinks that Ilford is a good investment and that they can run it better and make more money. Usually these firms will cut out less profitable products and focus on the main ones that actually make money.
I don't think it's a great thing for us unless they want to introduce more products into the market, which they will if there's money to be made. But I doubt it.
Tin Can
Pemberstone is involved in Real Estate too.
Of couse, we are all just speculating. One track that investment companies sometimes follow is to do what JChrome said. It may depend on what they paid for the company. If the investor thinks that money can be made without lots of investment, we may see Harman continue as is for as long as it is profitable to do so, without any new product development or other "unnecessary" costs. This might not be a bad thing, as the Ilford black and white products are very good.
Or it could be the end.
All we can do is buy Harman product.
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