The latest twist in the bid battle for banana group Chiquita today saw Irish banana group Fyffes agree to a better deal for Chiquita’s shareholders to fend off the $611 million offered by Brazilian rivals Grupo Cutrale and Safra Group.
The Brazilian consortium believe the Fyffes merger is bad for shareholders in the US giant and has spoken out on numerous occasions against the proposed deal.
Fyffes and Chiquita already tried to appease shareholders by issuing a statement last month which revealed it had earmarked an additional $20 million of savings that could be made through their merger, bringing the total expected synergies to $60 million.
Now today the new proposal will see Chiquita’s share in the merged €976 million company with Fyffes increase to 59.6% from 50.7%.
The merged Chiquita-Fyffes, along with the number two and three exporters in the world - Fresh Del Monte and Hawaii-founded Dole Food Company, have around 80% of the market share of the global banana export industry.
But Reuters reported it is close to securing conditional EU approval for the tie-up.
