13th Aug 2014 05:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - The proposed merger of Irish banana distributor Fyffes PLC with Chiquita is under threat after Brazilian orange producer Cutrale made a cash counter-offer for the US company, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
The all-share merger proposed by Fyffes would create a global fruit operator with combined sales of around USD4.5 billion. Cutrale's cash bid of USD611 million throws that deal into doubt and could force Fyffes to reconsider its strategy.
The merger of Chiquita and Fyffes, unveiled in March, would allow the pair to battle against narrowing profit margins for fruit distributors, caused by price wars among supermarkets. The collapse of the tie-up would force Fyffes to reconsider its plans.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/95c15862-2236-11e4-a828-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=crm/email/2014813/nbe/UKBusiness/product#axzz3ABA7ptlv
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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