Kodak Bankruptcy Engineered by JP Morgan, Wall Street?
For the investor in silver, the recent Kodak chapter 11 bankruptcy is big news, for Kodak is among the largest consumers of silver. The photography industry is the second largest consumer of silver behind industry, using annually about 50 million ounces of silver. According to Bloomberg, the 131-year-old company consumes about 8.5 million ounces or $300 million worth of silver each year for its manufactured goods and supplies.
According to Bloomberg News, Eastman Kodak consumes approximately 8.5 million ounces or $300 million worth of silver each year for its manufactured goods and supplies. This is a sufficient amount of silver to put pressure on the silver market considering inventories at the COMEX are purported to be around 35 million ounces of unallocated silver.
Sprott Asset Management had communicated with investors just days before the Kodak bankruptcy informing them Sprott’s Fund has raised enough money to take delivery of ten million ounces of silver. The big question is, from where would they take this silver delivery?
The Kodak bankruptcy will be handled by a specialist from FTI consulting, Dominic Di Napoli, who has worked for JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
The silver investor understands the irony in a former JP Morgan employee handling the bankruptcy of a company who not only demands many ounces of silver for their products on a annually basis, but also one which very likely has stockpiles of the metal considering ten years + of rising prices.
Could JPMorgan get lucky again, in the wake of MF Global, by inheriting Kodak’s silver? The firm is already lucky to be alleviated of Kodak’s silver demand, to be sure.