São Paulo Brazil’s Cutrale and Safra families have appealed directly to Chiquita shareholders to choose their $1.25 billion takeover offer over the US banana company’s proposed merger with Ireland’s Fyffes.
In the latest episode of the banana wars saga, billionaire banker Joseph Safra and the orange juice producer Cutrale submitted a preliminary proxy filing on Friday night, calling on Chiquita’s shareholders to vote against the Fyffes merger and accept their $13 per share offer instead.
The move comes after Chiquita rejected the Brazilians’ proposal on Thursday — an offer of $611 million in cash and the promise to assume all of the US company’s debts.
“[The Chiquita board’s] decision to reject the superior Cutrale-Safra proposal is simply a continuation of their record of failed strategic decisions and shareholder value destruction,” the families said.
While Chiquita’s shareholders have shown limited enthusiasm for the Fyffes merger, analysts say the Brazilians may have to raise their offer to $15 per share to clinch the deal.
Up until Monday morning this week, the merger between Chiquita and Fyffes was presumed to be a done deal. The companies announced the merger in March this year and had been in the final stages of closing the transaction.
However, that all changed when Safra, the world’s second-richest banker, and the Cutrale family launched a bold takeover bid for the US company, taking the banana industry by surprise.
The world’s most widely grown fruit has been at the centre of trade disputes and political intrigue for centuries, but more recently the industry has faced a crisis due to disease and a bitter price war between supermarkets.
In the Brazilians’ filing on Friday, the families also urged shareholders to vote to adjourn the Chiquita shareholders meeting in September.
This “will give the Chiquita board time to consider other alternatives for the company, including the Cutrale-Safra proposal”, they said.
— Financial Times
