巴西财团搅局香蕉业收购交易
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.
香蕉大战正再次打响。奇基塔(Chiquita)与Fyffes缔造全球最大香蕉企业的合并计划，昨日遭遇巴西两个最富有家族的搅局。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.
巴西亿万富翁约瑟夫•萨福拉(Joseph Safra)和家族所有的橙汁制造商Cutrale，提出以6.105亿美元现金收购美国公司奇基塔，这与此前爱尔兰Fyffes的全股票并购协议形成竞争。
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和萨福拉的投资集团提出向奇基塔股东支付每股13美元，较奇基塔上周五收盘价存在29%的溢价。他们希望奇基塔将在本周接受这一出价。
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正要敲定双方于今年3月宣布的合并交易，缔造全球最大香蕉种植企业，香蕉是全球种植最广的水果。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合并后的市值将接近10亿美元。这笔交易在结构上将采用所谓的税收倒置(tax inversion)，使奇基塔能够利用爱尔兰较低的税率。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”.
在写给奇基塔首席执行官和董事长的一封信中，Cutrale和萨福拉表示，他们将在与Fyffes交易相同的时间框架内完成交易，同时“不会出现那笔交易内在的执行风险和不确定性”。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.
萨福拉是巴西最富有银行家之一。知情人士表示，萨福拉和Cutrale家族关注这笔交易已有一段时间，但此前一直等待针对奇基塔的涉及民兵组织杀戮的诉讼被撤销。逾4000名哥伦比亚人试图起诉奇基塔，罪名是该公司为一个准军事组织提供资金，而该组织在哥伦比亚血腥的内战期间折磨并杀害他们的亲戚。但一家美国法庭两周前驳回这一诉讼，称其对该案没有司法管辖权。Chiquita has pleaded guilty to making payments to a rightwing paramilitary group but says it was a victim of extortion.
奇基塔承认向右翼民兵组织提供资金，但表示该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.
奇基塔股价飙升30.9%，而Fyffes股价下跌逾14.1%，Fyffes拒绝置评。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.
对于Cutrale而言，收购奇基塔将帮助这家巴西企业变成一家全球领先水果企业。一位了解这笔交易的人士表示：“Cutrale是橙子行业的巨擘，但（Cutrale家族）还经营柠檬、桃、苹果和大豆，因此这笔交易将为他们增添又一种水果。”
