AlixPartners was honored by the Turnaround Management Association, receiving the Turnaround of the Year-Mega Company award for its work on behalf of Eastman Kodak. The AlixPartners team was led by James A. Mesterharm, managing director at AlixPartners and co-head of the firm’s Turnaround & Restructuring Services group in North America, who served as chief restructuring officer at Kodak, and Becky Roof, managing director in AlixPartners’ Turnaround & Restructuring Services group, who served as Kodak’s chief financial officer.

AlixPartners worked in tandem with company management and advisers from Sullivan & Cromwell and Lazard Frères & Co. on a consensual resolution that restructured Kodak’s businesses, transforming the company into a business-to-business firm focused on commercial, packaging and functional printing, while also engineering an unprecedented, win-win spin-off of Kodak’s consumer and document-imaging businesses to the company’s U.K. pension fund, creating a new company called Kodak Alaris Holdings.

Mesterharm said, “When AlixPartners was first engaged by Kodak, we hoped that the sale of the company’s landmark patents would be enough to pay the company’s debts in full. But when bids for the portfolio came in lower than anticipated, the management team, with guidance from AlixPartners and Lazard, had to revert to ‘Plan B,’ which was a total restructuring of the company. The results, however, have been remarkable a Kodak today that is focused, technology-driven and driving growth in revenue and profitability. The restructuring provided the company with the opportunity to pursue game-changing technologies in new and developing markets. On behalf of everyone at AlixPartners who worked on the Kodak engagement, I’d like to thank the TMA for recognizing our contributions to this success story.”

Roof said, “Working hand in hand with management and other advisors, we were able to shed approximately $3 billion in legacy liabilities and improve operational EBITDA by over $300 million from 2012 to 2013. By working closely with the U.K. pension fund and their advisors to spin-off Kodak Alaris, we were also able to help preserve thousands of jobs and help save an iconic company, something we’re all very proud of and happy about.”

The award to AlixPartners will be presented at the TMA Annual Conference, held Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.

To read the entire news release, click here.

Previously on abfjournal: McMullen Named Kodak Chief Financial Officer, May 27, 2014

Editor’s Note: In a feature story scheduled for the upcoming October Turnaround Management issue of the ABF Journal, AlixPartners Managing Director James A. Mesterharm will provide an in-depth look at the Kodak case. The issue is expected to reach our subscribers the week of September 22.