Dole selling resources before IPO

Dole Food Co. is planning to sell its sprawling corporate headquarters and uproot its strawberry operations in Southern California as it seeks to sweeten its books ahead of yet another public stock offering. The world’s largest fresh fruit and vegetable company, owned by Los Angeles billionaire David H. Murdock, is nearly $1.3 billion in debt and operates with low margins and declining revenue. That makes the sale of some of its vast real estate holdings in Hawaii and the U.S. mainland a near imperative, according to regulatory filings and analysts.Dole reported $4.5 billion in revenue last year, a decline of nearly 3% from the previous year, and a net loss of $23 million. “They don’t want to do these things after the IPO,” said Kathleen Smith, principal of Renaissance Capital, an initial public offering investment advisor. The company has pledged in its prospectus to redraw its multinational real estate footprint by “rationalizing” its patchwork of facilities and selling off unproductive land, including nearly 15,000 acres in Hawaii. The company also has been mum about whether it can close a deal to sell its 10-acre headquarters complex in Westlake Village in exchange for an ersatz Hawaiian plantation theme park, which tells the 166-year-old company’s foundation story.