Dole Executives Ordered to Pay $148 Million in Buyout Lawsuit

By Liz Hoffman 

A Delaware judge ordered Dole Food Co.'s chief executive and a former official to pay shareholders $148 million, ruling that CEO David Murdock's 2013 buyout undervalued the fruit grower.

Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster found that Dole was worth $16.24 a share when Mr. Murdock bought it for $13.50 a share two years ago. He ordered Mr. Murdock and Michael Carter, the company's former chief operating officer, to pay the difference to investors.

Dole and Messrs. Murdock and Carter couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The plaintiffs, a group of former Dole shareholders, had sought more than $25 a share.

Mr. Laster said the Dole executives drove down the stock price by lowballing potential cost savings and canceling a previously announced stock buyback in the spring of 2013. Mr. Murdock made his proposal soon after.

"These actions primed the market for the freeze-out by driving down Dole's stock price and undermining its validity as a measure of value," Mr. Laster wrote in the decision, which followed a nine-day trial in February. He added the damages award was "conservative relative to what the evidence could support."

He found other Dole board members and Deutsche Bank AG, the company's financial adviser, not liable for any damages.

Write to Liz Hoffman at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2015 10:57 ET (14:57 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.