n amalgamation of competing banana brands Fyffes and Chiquita has made significant progress in the United States. The waiting period for US antitrust review of the deal expired on Monday, effectively satisfying one condition required to finalise the transaction.The deal, which is still dependent other regulatory clearances, and on approval by shareholders of the two companies, will generate a new entity named ChiquitaFyffes.
The new merged firm will be floated on the New York Stock Exchange but domiciled in Ireland, and will have combined annual revenues of about $4.6 billion (€3.3 billion).
ChiquitaFyffes intends to do business in more than 70 countries, and possess a workforce of approximately 32,000 people around the world. It will also have, what they call themselves, a "significant presence" in the world market for packaged salads, melons and pineapples.
The two companies amended the particulars of their proposed merger in April in order to reflect mandatory jurisdiction of the European Commission. The original conditions meant the merger would not have met the obligatory thresholds under the EC merger regulation law.
Chiquita describes itself as an international marketer and distributor of bananas, salads, other fruits and healthy snacks. It is headquartered in North Carolina in the United States, and has annual revenues of over $3 billion. It employs about 20,000 people worldwide and has operations in almost 70 countries.
Fyffes is an international importer and distributor of tropical produce. It has annual revenues of $1.5 billion and has operations in Europe, the US, Central and South America, while it also recently begun operations in Asia. It has a global workforce of over 12,000.
