The Dublin family-owned fruit firm Keelings has been valued at a minimum of €188 million under a restructuring at the company, according to documents recently filed at the Companies' Office. Laura Slatteryreports.
The Keeling family have transferred the entire issued share capital of Borling Investments, the unlimited holding company that controls the various business units within Keelings, to a new holding company called Gundagai Limited with a value of €169.2 million attached to the shares. The entire issued share capital of Kakadu, the ultimate owner of Borling, was also transferred to Gundagai, with the value of the consideration noted as €18.8 million, the documents show.
Group managing director Caroline Keeling said the move was purely a structuring exercise that "made sense" for Keelings and did not indicate that the company was gearing up for a sale.
"It is the intention that it will stay in the family," she said.
There are four shareholders in Gundagai; chief executive and chairman Joseph Keeling; the managing director of the UK business, William Keeling; David Keeling, who is managing director of Keelings Farms and Caroline Keeling.
Ms Keeling said the value of the share transfers did not necessarily indicate the value of the company.
Keelings has 11 business units based in Ireland, Britain, Spain and The Netherlands, including B-Prepared and IVG White, the two British companies that it acquired this summer.
The fresh produce growers, importers and distributors had a turnover of around €241 million and pretax profits of almost €2.9 million in 2003, the last year for which it filed accounts.
In 2004, it changed its status to an unlimited company, meaning it does not have to file accounts at the Companies' Office.
Keelings, which has been wholly owned by the family since Chiquita sold back its minority stake in 2003, employs around 1,500 people across the group.
The company's main customers in the Republic are Dunnes Stores and Tesco, with which it recently signed a new contract to supply peppers as part of Tesco's carbon reduction programme.
