Dole contemplates proposed buyout
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Dole Food Co. formed a special committee late last week to consider a buyout offer from billionaire Chief Executive David Murdock that values the world's largest fruit and vegetable producer at about $2.5 billion.
Bloomberg News Service
Five board members who are not current or former employees will act on the company's behalf, Dole said. The committee will be headed by Richard Ferry, the former chairman of executive-search firm Korn/Ferry International.
Dole chief executive David Murdock recently offered $29.50 a share for the 76 percent he didn't own in the country's largest fresh produce business.
Murdock recently offered $29.50 a share for the 76 percent of the company that he and his family don't already own. But shareholders are saying his offer isn't nearly as sweet as the pineapple that has made the company famous.
Murdock is reprising a familiar strategy in his bid for the nation's largest fresh produce business: make a low offer and hope that the combined weight of his holdings in the business and his position as the Dole chairman will muscle the deal through, analysts said.
Dole, which was founded in Hawai'i, still has significant real estate holdings in the Islands.
A similar approach won Murdock control of Hawai'i real estate company Castle & Cooke two years ago. But not before he paid a 13 percent premium over his original bid.
In the current deal, Murdock said he expects to negotiate an agreement by Nov. 6.
The Dole committee hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its financial adviser and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as legal counsel. Deutsche Bank is advising Murdock.
Shares of Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole Food, which had $4.4 billion in fiscal 2001 sales, fell 23 cents to $29.02 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Friday. The shares rose to a 52-week high of $33.99 in May.
