BEIJING (Reuters) – China-based Ninestar Corp plans to sell printer and printing software maker Lexmark International II to Xerox in a deal estimated at up to $150 million, a fraction of the price Xerox disclosed in December.
Ninestar said in an exchange filing on Wednesday that it has estimated the transaction price to range from $75 million to $150 million, based on Lexmark’s latest operational status.
Xerox said last December it had agreed to buy Lexmark in a deal valued at $1.5 billion, including assumed liabilities from Ninestar, private equity firm PAG and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre, to expand its presence in Asian markets.
Reuters could not immediately determine why the deal value Ninestar disclosed is different from Xerox’s December announcement.
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 and Jan Harvey)
