Ireland’s Dole Brand Files US IPO To Pay Down Debt

Dole is seeking an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker DOLE in order to pay down debt and cover merger costs, Bloomberg reported on Friday (July 2).

Incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, the fruit and vegetable company merged with Total Produce Plc earlier this year and indicated it had plans to go public. Davy, Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters.

Total Produce investors expect to receive 82.5 percent of Dole Plc shares under the merger, with investment company Castle & Cooke receiving the balance. Castle & Cooke owns 55 percent of Dole’s parent DFC Holdings, according to the article. Per the article, this distribution of shares is based on a U.S. IPO.

Dole indicated that it had generated net income of $101 million in 2020 on revenue of $8.97 billion. Of that figure, 72 percent was due to its fruit business. Europe accounted for 45 percent of revenue and North America accounted for 49 percent of revenue.

The number of new IPOs filed this year, in addition to mergers and acquisitions (M&A), are now tracking to break records long before 2021 closes. China’s Didi — the country’s biggest ride-hailing service — closed its first day of trading at $14.14, which is 1 percent above its IPO price.

The online investment platform Robinhood is looking to close an IPO this summer with a valuation of $40 billion with revenues hitting $959 million last year compared to $278 million in 2019. The filing follows the levy of a record-high $70 million penalty handed down by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in the U.S.