CHARLOTTE, NC - The Cutrale Group, one of the leading global agribusiness and juice companies, and the Safra investment group extended a $610.5 million buyout offer to Chiquita Brands Monday morning, throwing question marks into its proposed merger with Fyffes. According to a press release, the official offer would involve a purchase of 100% of Chiquita's outstanding stock at a price of $13.00 per share in cash to stockholders.
In a letter to Chiquita executives, Cutrale and Safra spoke confidently about the strength of their offer.
"This proposal represents a highly compelling premium of 29% to the market's valuation of the proposed transaction with Fyffes plc ("Fyffes"), based on Chiquita's closing share price of $10.06 as of August 8, 2014,” the statement read. “Moreover, if we are able to proceed on a timely basis with due diligence and discussions, we will be in a position to close the Transaction before the end of the year, within the same timeframe you have indicated for the Fyffes transaction, without the execution risk and uncertainty inherent in that transaction.”
If Chiquita were to accept this offer it would mean the end of its plans to merge with its Irish rival Fyffes, plans which AndNowUKnow reported on in a previous article here. That transaction, valued at $1.07 billion, would have given ChiquitaFyffes 14% of the global banana market share.
Cutrale and Safra are confident however that their proposal more than exceeds what Chiquita would gain from a merger with Fyffes, stating “... the Chiquita board of directors, in our opinion, must and will conclude in good faith that our proposal constitutes a "Chiquita Superior Proposal" because it is clearly more favorable to the Chiquita shareholders than the proposed merger with Fyffes, taking into account all financial, regulatory, legal and other aspects of our proposal.”
Chiquita's stock boomed in the wake of the news, rising 31.11% to $13.19 during Monday morning trading (as of 9:34am on August 11th, 2014).
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for any further updates on Chiquita's future merger or acquisition plans.
