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Dole Returns to Market Via IPO at Bottom of Lowered Range

Dole Returns to Market Via IPO at Bottom of Lowered Range

Dole Plc, the world’s largest produce company, priced a smaller version of its U.S. initial public offering at the bottom of a lowered range, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Dole sold its shares for $16 each on Thursday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public yet. The Dublin-based company planned to sell about 30 million shares in the listing, which would raise $485 million and give Dole a market value of $1.57 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its prospectus.

The company’s return to the market for its third run as a public company was a bumpy one. Dole and its existing shareholders earlier planned to sell 26 million shares for $20 to $23 on Tuesday. Dole instead lowered the price range to $16 to $17, altered the size of the share sale and delayed the listing.

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Dole was formed from the combination of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Dole Food Co. and Ireland’s Total Produce, a transaction that was completed in February.

The combined company had $58 million in net income on revenue of $2.3 billion in the first quarter of this year, according to its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dole plans to use the IPO proceeds to pay some of the cost of that transaction, as well as to reduce debt and for general corporate purposes.

David H. Murdock took Dole private for the first time in 2003 after rescuing it from bankruptcy. He re-listed the company in 2009 before taking it private again in 2013 as chairman, chief executive officer and the biggest shareholder. Dole filed in 2017 to again go public but withdrew its application the following year.

The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Davy Group. Dole is expected to begin trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DOLE.

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