巴西財團攪局香蕉業收購交易
The banana wars are back on. The merger of Chiquita and Fyffes to create the world’s biggest banana company was gatecrashed yesterday by two of Brazil’s wealthiest families.
香蕉大戰正再次打響。奇基塔(Chiquita)與Fyffes締造全球最大香蕉企業的合併計劃，昨日遭遇巴西兩個最富有家族的攪局。Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra and Cutrale, the family-owned orange juice maker, offered to acquire US group Chiquita in a $610.5m cash deal that rivals a previous all-stock agreement with Ireland’s Fyffes.
巴西億萬富翁約瑟夫•薩福拉(Joseph Safra)和家族所有的橙汁製造商Cutrale，提出以6.105億美元現金收購美國公司奇基塔，這與此前愛爾蘭Fyffes的全股票併購協議形成競爭。
Cutrale and Mr Safra’s investment group offered $13 per share to Chiquita shareholders, a 29 per cent premium to Chiquita’s closing price on Friday. The Brazilians hope the offer will be accepted this week.
Cutrale和薩福拉的投資集團提出向奇基塔股東支付每股13美元，較奇基塔上週五收盤價存在29%的溢價。他們希望奇基塔將在本週接受這一出價。
The offer comes just as Chiquita and Fyffes are closing the merger they announced in March in a move to become the top grower of the world’s most widely-produced fruit.
奇基塔和Fyffes正要敲定雙方於今年3月宣佈的合併交易，締造全球最大香蕉種植企業，香蕉是全球種植最廣的水果。Together, the market value of Chiquita and Fyffes would be close to $1bn. The deal would be structured as a so-called tax inversion, allowing Chiquita to take advantage of Ireland’s lower tax rates.
奇基塔和Fyffes合併後的市值將接近10億美元。這筆交易在結構上將採用所謂的稅收倒置(tax inversion)，使奇基塔能夠利用愛爾蘭較低的稅率。In a letter to Chiquita’s chief executive and chairman, Cutrale and Safra said they would complete the deal within the same timeframe as the Fyffes transaction “without the execution risk and uncertainty inherent in that transaction”.
在寫給奇基塔首席執行官和董事長的一封信中，Cutrale和薩福拉表示，他們將在與Fyffes交易相同的時間框架內完成交易，同時“不會出現那筆交易內在的執行風險和不確定性”。Mr Safra, one of Brazil’s wealthiest bankers, and the Cutrale family have been eyeing the deal for a while but had been waiting for lawsuits against Chiquita over militia killings to be dropped, people close to the deal said. Over 4,000 Colombians had tried to sue Chiquita for funding a paramilitary group that tortured and killed their relatives during the country’s bloody civil war. But a US court dismissed the lawsuit two weeks ago, saying it did not have jurisdiction over the case.
薩福拉是巴西最富有銀行家之一。知情人士表示，薩福拉和Cutrale家族關注這筆交易已有一段時間，但此前一直等待針對奇基塔的涉及民兵組織殺戮的訴訟被撤銷。逾4000名哥倫比亞人試圖起訴奇基塔，罪名是該公司爲一個準軍事組織提供資金，而該組織在哥倫比亞血腥的內戰期間折磨並殺害他們的親戚。但一家美國法庭兩週前駁回這一訴訟，稱其對該案沒有司法管轄權。Chiquita has pleaded guilty to making payments to a rightwing paramilitary group but says it was a victim of extortion.
奇基塔承認向右翼民兵組織提供資金，但表示該公司是勒索的受害者。Shares of Chiquita surged 30.9 per cent, while Fyffes, which declined to comment, lost more than 14.1 per cent.
奇基塔股價飆升30.9%，而Fyffes股價下跌逾14.1%，Fyffes拒絕置評。For Cutrale, the acquisition of Chiquita would help turn the Brazilian group into a global fruits leader. “Cutrale is huge in the orange business but [the Cutrale family] are also in lemons, peaches, apples and soyabeans so this is one more fruit for them,” one person close to the deal said.
對於Cutrale而言，收購奇基塔將幫助這家巴西企業變成一家全球領先水果企業。一位瞭解這筆交易的人士表示：“Cutrale是橙子行業的巨擘，但（Cutrale家族）還經營檸檬、桃、蘋果和大豆，因此這筆交易將爲他們增添又一種水果。”
