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Castle & Cooke
is nearly in
Murdock’s pocket
The billionaire chairman
By Russ Lynch
merely awaits more stock
to be tendered to him
Star-BulletinCalifornia financier David H. Murdock is well on the way toward personal ownership of Castle & Cooke Inc. and its thousands of acres of land in Hawaii, including 98 percent of Lanai and its two luxury resort hotels.
Although Murdock did not receive all the shares he sought in his offer of $19.25 a share by yesterday's deadline, he declared a victory today and said he is looking forward to completing the purchase and taking the company private.
Murdock, who is the company's chairman, owned 27 percent of its stock when he announced at the end of March that he wanted to buy the rest. In his final offer June 22, he said it was conditional on receiving 75 percent of the shares he did not already own.
By the close of business yesterday, some 7.2 million shares had been turned in -- about 58 percent of the shares not already held by Murdock's personally owned Flexi-Van Leasing Inc.
But Castle & Cooke said today that a system failure and communications problems clouded the result, and the deadline was extended to midnight tonight, New York time (6 p.m. Hawaii time). The company said it expects the count of shares tendered will rise during that extension.
Dean Estrada, a spokesman at Castle & Cooke's Los Angeles headquarters, said Murdock has the option of going ahead with the buyout even if he does not get all the shares he sought, and he has decided to do so.
After the tendered shares have been counted, the Castle & Cooke board of directors is expected to approve Murdock's takeover.
The shares he does not own will be converted to rights, each exchangeable for $19.25 cash, and the business will cease to be a public stockholder company.
The Castle & Cooke board is scheduled to meet on Lanai next week.
The company's shares closed today at $19.19, down 6 cents from yesterday. But they have risen 59 percent since Murdock's initial offer and are now up 14 percent for the year to date.
The company has 17.055 million shares outstanding, of which Murdock already owned 4.644 million, or 27 percent.
Murdock, a California real estate developer and now a billionaire, entered the Hawaii scene in 1985 when the original Castle & Cooke Inc. was heading for bankruptcy.
Murdock arranged new financing in return for control of the company.
One of his biggest moves in Hawaii was to press ahead with the long-stalled development of Lanai, building the Lodge at Koele and later the Manele Bay Hotel and more recently marketing town houses at about $1 million each.
In 1990 he changed the company's name to Dole Food Co., to reflect its main role as the world's largest grower, packer and shipper of fresh produce.
In 1995 he spun off the home building, commercial real estate and resort side of the business into Castle & Cooke Inc. as a separate stockholder company.
He continues to be chairman and the largest single stockholder of both companies.
"It is gratifying to see that so many shareholders have tendered," Murdock said in a statement today. "We look forward to completing the tender offer and merger and to working with Castle & Cooke Inc. employees to continue to build the company as a private entity."
Castle & Cooke Inc.
Chairman, CEO: David H. Murdock
Sources: Bloomberg News, State of Hawaii, Star-Bulletin staff
