At the height of summer, the name Landa Digital Printing was still circulating in the design offices of the world's leading automakers. According to the Israeli newspaper CTech canon, Xerox, Agfa, Fujifilm, Epson, Brother and Koenig & Bauer, led by HP, were among the manufacturers interested in buying the Israeli company, which had just applied for a temporary stay of legal proceedings following the dismissal of over 100 employees. The court had granted the company, founded by Benny Landa, a six-month reprieve to negotiate with strategic partners.
The situation was already critical: a stock of parts valued at 170 million shekels (43 million euros) and a cumulative debt of 1.74 billion shekels (450 million euros), 82% of which was financed by its own shareholders. The latter had agreed to a final injection of 11 million euros in June, before halting all support.
A single takeover bid on the table at ?20 million
Two months later, the prospects have dimmed considerably. During a ten-hour meeting with its creditors, Landa Digital Printing received only one offer: that of the Israeli investment fund FIMI, the largest in the region, for 80 million shekels (20 million euros). Most creditors support this plan, but some are opposed to it, notably Vitania, to whom Landa owes 220 million shekels (55 million euros) in future rental payments.
At this highly charged meeting, Dagesh, a manufacturer of digital printing system components and a creditor of 25 million shekels (6.3 million euros), denounced a last-minute rider exempting its executives, including Benny Landa, from legal proceedings. Dagesh's lawyer pointed out that FIMI had not made its offer conditional on this clause, and that the company already had insurance covering up to one million dollars in litigation.
Massive losses but a three-year turnaround plan
During this meeting, according to CTech, FIMI partner Gillon Beck revealed for the first time the scale of the losses: around 500 million shekels a year (125 million euros), or 40 million a month, for a total of 6 billion shekels (1.65 billion euros). He presented a three-year recovery plan and stressed Landa's total dependence on its suppliers: "The company has no production equipment and relies entirely on service providers."
