Ireland’s fruit and vegetable producer Dole files for U.S. IPO

(Reuters) -Fruit and vegetable grower Dole Plc filed paperwork on Friday with regulators to return to the U.S. stock market as part of a deal in which its 98-year-old billionaire owner David Murdock finally gave up the reins of the company.

Murdock, who built what was originally a Hawaiian pineapple growing business into one of the world’s biggest fresh food producers and distributors, stepped down from the board earlier this year as part of a merger with Irish peer Total Produce.

The stock market launch is one of the final pieces of a deal that began with the Irish company buying 45% of Dole for $300 million three years ago.

Originally a real estate investor, the American billionaire took over Dole in the 1980s by purchasing its parent company Castle & Cooke. He took Dole private in 2003, only to float it publicly in 2009 and then buy it out again four years later.