Danka Collects $7 Mil in Headquarters Sale

AUSTIN-Austin’s Sage Land Co. has picked up a north Austin building from a distressed company, paying $7 million to St. Petersburg, FL-based Danka Business Systems Inc. Sage’s new buy is located at 9715 Burnet Rd. in the city’s north submarket.

Danka, which makes and sells copy machines, has been selling business and properties to reduce its debt. It will use the money from the Austin sale to pay off part of its tax retention operating lease credit facility. Representatives from Sage could not be reached and a Danka spokesman did not return phone calls.

Danka had set up the headquarters of its Danka Omnifax division in Austin in 1994. At one point the division, which sold and leased fax machines, had employed as many as 600 in Austin. The company sold the business to Xerox Corp. in 1999 for $45 million and leased the property to Xerox.

In fiscal 2001, Danka lost $220.6 million on revenues of $2.06 billion. The losses include a $15.7 million restructuring charge and a write off of $25.6 million in goodwill.