ColourCare sold for nominal sum

LONDON International Group is in effect paying the management of its troubled ColourCare International photoprocessing arm to take the business off its hands.

The condoms and rubber gloves company, which diversified into photoprocessing in the 1980s, has been trying to sell ColourCare since December. The sale was a prerequisite for an imminent rights issue and refinancing for the heavily indebted group.

ColourCare's management, under the name Nexus Photo, is acquiring the business - with the exception of 257 minilab operations in the stores of Boots Group - for a nominal sum. But it will be transferred free of debt and leasing commitments and LIG will lend Nexus pounds 6m for 18 months interes-free for the first year.

The Boots operations, which account for around 850 employees out of about 3,500 in the ColourCare arm as a whole, are the subject of separate negotiations.

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