Dole Food In Merger Talks With Ireland’s Total Produce

The US fruit and vegetable producer Dole Food is to merge with Ireland-based Total Produce to create a US-listed group that will be the world’s largest fresh produce company, reported Financial Times.

Total Produce, which has owned 45% of the US group since 2018, on Wednesday, February 17, announced that it had reached a deal with Castle & Cooke, a real estate company that owns a majority stake in Dole’s parent company Dole Holdings, to combine the two and form a company with about US$9.7 billion of annual revenues.

Dole will list on a big US exchange as a condition of the transaction and to raise US$500 million to US$700 million, mainly to be used on cutting debt; Total Produce will delist from the London Stock Exchange and Euronext.  

The new group will be headed by Rory Byrne, chief executive of Total Produce, while Dole chief executive Johan Lindén will become chief operating officer.

The European Commission stated, “The General Court found that the French and Swedish schemes approved by the Commission were necessary, appropriate and proportionate and do not constitute a breach of the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality, nor do they involve an unjustified restriction on the freedom to provide services.”

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