Dole Food Co. filed for an initial public offering, about four years after the fruit and vegetable producer was taken private by its 94-year-old owner, David H. Murdock.
The company filed with an initial offering amount of $100 million, which is a placeholder number used to calculate fees and will change. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG are leading the offering, according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dole, founded in 1851, had a net loss of $23 million in fiscal 2016, on revenue of about $4.5 billion. It is the number-one producer of bananas in North America by market share, and the number-two producer of pineapples in that market, according to the prospectus.
The company plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to pay down debt, and for general corporate purposes.
Murdock, who is now Dole’s chairman, took the company private in 2013, in a deal valuing the Westlake Village, California-based company at about $1.6 billion.
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