Kekst and Company is promoting a $1.25B unsolicited bid for Chiquita Brands as an alternative to the banana giant's "inversion" plan to merge with Ireland's Fyffes and establish a domicile in that country.
Orange juice producer The Cutrale Group and Brazilian banking and investment firm Safra Group today went public with a $13-per-share offer to Chiquita Brands shareholders, a 29% premium over the proposed Fyffes transaction that was pegged to Chiquita's Aug. 8 share price. The offer includes about $611M for the shares and assumption of debt for a total of about $1.25B.
Kekst managing director Jeremy Fielding is leading PR for Cutrale and Safra regarding the Chiquita offer, while Innisfree M&A is wooing proxies. The parties said they could close the deal by the end of the year, the same timeframe proposed for the Fyffes inversion.
Shareholders of Chiquita and Fyffes are slated to vote on the deal in September.
Chiquita in February hired Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher to bolster PR for the Fyffes deal, which would make the combined entity the world's top banana producer ahead of Dole.
Ogilvy PR and Ireland-based Wilson Hartnell PR work with Fyffes on the PR front, while Chiquita director of corporate communications Ed Lloyd is the primary spokesman for his company.
In a statement, Chiquita said its board and advisors will review and consider the offer to "determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders." It urged shareholders not to take action until that review is completed.
The New York Times suggested the competing bids present a "stark choice" for shareholders: " proceed with Chiquita’s inversion-driven growth plan or cash out now."
Inversion deals are popular of late as US companies look to establish headquarters abroad for favorable tax rates and to bring in cash earned overseas.
Edelman handles Viking Holdings, the river and ocean luxury cruise line that plans to raise $1B via an IPO priced in the $21 to $25 per share range.
Teneo is handling the initial public offering of CVC Capital Partners, one of Europe’s largest private equity firms with nearly $200B in assets under management.
Brunswick Group represents Endeavor Group Holdings as it agrees to go private via its acquisition by Silver Lake technology investment firm, which is handled by Edelman Smithfield.
Tod Donhauser, a nine-year veteran of Edelman, has joined H/Advisors Abernathy as managing director and head of its San Francisco office.
Intelligent Group Ltd, a Hong Kong-based financial PR firm, has priced its initial public offering of 1.9M shares at $4, which is the low end of the $4 to $5 range.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.