Billionaire David Murdock to take Dole Food public :: Editor’s Blog at Local Tech Wire

Updated Aug. 17, 2009 at 5:57 a.m.

Billionaire David Murdock to take Dole Food public

On The Web

Site Search

Get the latest news alerts: Follow LTW at Twitter.

Local Tech Wire

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – David Murdock, the billionaire owner of Dole Food who is building the $1.5 billion N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, is taking Dole public and hopes to raise $500 million.

Murdock acquired a majority interest in Dole, one of the world's largest producers of fresh fruit and vegetables, in 2003 and took the company private in a deal valued at some $2.5 billion.

Murdock's investment in the Research Campus did not necessitate the sale of Dole Food, Lynne Scott Safrit, president of campus developer Castle & Cooke North Carolina, told the Salisbury Post.

"His investment in the North Carolina Research Campus has nothing to do with it," Safrit wrote in an e-mail, "and Dole is a totally separate company."

Murdock also owns Castle & Cook.

Dole will have a research and development laboratory at the Research Campus.

Dole filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed offering, and said it will be comprised of newly issued shares as well as shares to be sold by its lone shareholder. The shareholder is Murdock, who took control of Dole and its parent firm Castle & Cook in 1985. Castle & Cook is the developer of the Research Campus project.

Dole plans to apply to list the shares on the New York Stock Exchange under a "DOLE" ticker.

The company hopes to raise $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Dole plans to use the offering's proceeds to pay off some debt, with any remaining funds used for general corporate purposes. The firm has more than $2 billion in debt even after paying off $145 million in the quarter ending June 30 and $480 million over the past five quarters, Dole said in a quarterly financial report issued Aug. 4.

Dole has been selling assets to pay down debt. Earlier this month, Dole said it plans to sell certain operating properties in Latin America for about $68 million to help pay down debt. The deal is expected to close in its fiscal third quarter. Dole said cash flow generated from operations jumped sharply in the second quarter ended June 20, to $170 million compared with $60 million the same period a year ago.

The company reported a net profit of just over $20 million.

Dole had 2008 revenue of $7.6 billion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.