Ninestar says sale of Lexmark worth up to $150 million in equity value

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BEIJING (Reuters) – China-based Ninestar Corp plans to sell printer and printing software maker Lexmark International II to Xerox in a deal with an equity value of up to $150 million.

Ninestar said in an exchange filing on Wednesday that it has estimated the transaction price, using the equity value, to range from $75 million to $150 million, based on Lexmark’s latest operational status.

The company, in an emailed statement to Reuters late on Thursday, clarified the price disclosed on Wednesday was the net equity price to shareholders after the net debt and all the transaction-related fees or debt-like items.

Xerox said last December it had agreed to buy Lexmark in a deal with an enterprise value of $1.5 billion, including assumed liabilities from Ninestar, private equity firm PAG and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre, to expand its presence in Asian markets.

A spokesperson for Xerox said on Thursday the deal value has not changed since their initial announcement.

In a December stock exchange filing, Ninestar said that the transaction price was calculated based on the $1.5 billion base figure, the company’s adjusted net operating capital, and estimated cash on the transaction day, with Lexmark’s debt and transaction fees deducted from the total amount.

Formed out of IBM in 1991, Lexmark was sold to a group of Chinese investors in a $3.6 billion deal in 2016. The deal would bring Lexmark back to U.S. ownership.

Xerox had expected the deal to immediately aid profit and deliver more than $200 million in annual cost savings, including by helping cut marketing and real estate expenses, the December announcement showed.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Jan Harvey, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Christian Schmollinger)