<p>Dole Food Company, Inc. has announced that it is initiating an offering, subject to market and other conditions, of $275,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its Senior Secured Notes due 2019. Dole intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to finance a portion of the consideration for the proposed merger with DFC Merger Corp., a Delaware corporation, and refinance Dole’s existing amended and restated credit agreement, dated as of May 2, 2013, among Dole, Solvest, Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch, as administrative agent, and the other parties thereto, according to a press release.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Last August, Dole announced that the company and David H. Murdock, Dole’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, jointly entered into a definitive merger agreement, to which Murdock will acquire for cash all of the outstanding shares of Dole common stock not currently beneficially held by him. Dole stockholders will receive $13.50 in cash for each share of Dole common stock that they hold, in a transaction which places the total enterprise value of Dole at nearly $1.6 billion, according to a press release. A special meeting between stockholders to approve the merger will be held on October 31, 2013. Dole expects to close the transaction later that day or the next day, assuming receipt of the requisite shareholder vote.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Although the Senior Secured Notes from today’s offering will be sold to qualified institutional buyers in the U.S., they will not be registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the U.S. absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more news on Dole’s merger.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://investors.dole.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=231558&p=irol-irhome" target="_new"> Dole Food Company</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
