(Reuters) -Dole Plc shares fell more than 6% in their New York Stock Exchange debut on Friday, giving the fruit and vegetable grower a valuation of nearly $1.4 billion.
The company’s stock opened at $15, below the initial public offering (IPO) price of $16. It sold 25 million shares in the IPO to raise about $400 million.
Dole, formed through the merger of Ireland’s Total Produce PLC and Dole Food Company Inc, had earlier planned to sell about 30.3 million shares.
The company slashed its target price range earlier this week, a move that reduced its valuation by over $400 million.
Dole’s IPO is one of the final pieces of the merger, which also led to the departure of its 98-year-old billionaire owner David Murdock who had been at the helm since the 1980s.
Murdock took Dole private in 2003, only to float it publicly in 2009 and then buy it out again four years later.
Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank Securities and Davy are the lead underwriters for the offering.
(Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
