Dole Plc is coming back to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The vegetable and fruit grower filed paperwork last Friday, July 2, with regulators to come back to the US stock market.
We find this news in the financial markets interesting. Since Dole is among the world’s largest fresh food distributors and producers, we believe this development is important for our readers to learn about.
According to the report posted online by European Supermarket Magazine, Europe’s dedicated news magazine for the European grocery and supermarket sector, Dole sealed a merger with its Irish peer, Total Produce, earlier this year.
The company’s upcoming stock market launch is among the final pieces of the agreement that commenced with the Irish firm purchasing 45 percent of Dole for US$300 million three years ago. Total Produce reported a 1.7-percent revenue surge for the year 2020 to €6.26 billion or US$7.44 billion.
The Dundalk, Ireland-headquartered producer of fresh produce described this increase as “very strong performance” despite the unprecedented dilemmas posed by the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. In its filing, Dole did not reveal the number of shares it intends to offer.
Additionally, the document did not indicate the company’s target price range. Dole’s shares are expected to trade on the NYSE under the trade symbol ‘DOLE.’ The lead underwriters for the offering are Davy, Deutsche Bank Securities, and Goldman Sachs.
Besides Dole’s forthcoming NYSE launch, a key feature of the event is David Murdock finally giving up the company’s reins. Dole’s 98-year-old billionaire owner was originally a real estate investor.
In the 1980s, the American industrialist took over Dole by buying its parent firm Castle & Cooke. Murdock then took Dole private in 2003, only to float it publicly six years later, and then purchase it again in 2013.
The former owner of Dole built what was originally a Hawaiian pineapple growing enterprise into one of the world’s biggest fresh food distributors and producers. Murdock stepped down earlier this year as a component of a merger with Total Produce.
Furthermore, a company representative pointed out that the American billionaire would not hold a leadership or board position with Dole after the NYSE launch. Earlier this year, Carl McCann, Total Produce’s chairman, replaced Murdock.
Meanwhile, Johan Lindén, Dole’s chief executive officer, will serve as the chief operating officer. We learned that, since the middle of the 1800s, Dole has provided consumers with the best fresh produce in the world. We believe that its comeback to the NYSE will further the company’s earnings and growth worldwide in the coming years.