Dole Food Company, Inc. (DOLE) said Monday that it has completed the sale of its worldwide packaged foods and Asia fresh businesses to ITOCHU Corp. for $1.685 billion cash, resulting in a major portion of Dole's operations and assets being sold, including exclusive rights to the DOLE brand on certain packaged food products worldwide and on certain fresh produce in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
The deal was originally announced in September 2012.
The new Dole will have a smaller footprint as a commodity produce company with overall revenue in the $4.2 billion range with two lines of business: fresh fruit and fresh vegetables.
Dole said it has put in place a new capital structure which, together with the proceeds from the sale deal, was used to pay off its existing indebtedness of about $1.7 billion, to pay transaction-related taxes, costs and expenses, and to pay for the extinguishment of all of its long-term Japanese yen hedges and the European Commission's fine of €45.6 million; and provides funding for the anticipated right-sizing of the new Dole and other post-closing restructuring expenses, and the possible resolution of the previously disclosed Honduras tax case and the DBCP cases.
Dole recently announced plans to appeal to the EU Court of Justice the decision by the EU General Court affirming the European Commission's fine of €45.6 million, for alleged anticompetitive information exchanges involving Dole Fresh Fruit Europe OHG and other EU banana importers in Germany 10 years ago.
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