Dole, in Debt Trouble, Sells Land but Holds Line on Prices

Here’s how scary things are at Dole Food: it’s relying on the real estate market to get it out of trouble. To avoid defaulting on $350 million worth of bonds, the company is planning to sell land in Hawaii and California.

Dole, the world’s largest purveyor of fresh fruits and vegetables, is facing the same problems as the rest of the food industry: soaring costs and cost-conscious customers. But last month, with the news that Standard & Poor’s would slash its credit rating, the company’s biggest problem came into sharp relief: its ridiculously high debt load.

The situation might not have been so bad if Dole had raised prices on its bananas to pass along the cost of Europe’s tariffs, which were raised in 2006. But Dole has stubbornly insisted on trying to gain market share from its rival, Chiquita Brands International. Now, it’s paying for that stubbornness.

It could be that Dole figures it can afford to be stubborn. If all else failed, David Murdock, the 84-year-old billionaire chairman and former chief executive, would likely have pumped some of his own money into Dole, according to Bloomberg news.

But Murdock’s wealth means little to Standard & Poor’s, which lowered the ratings on Dole’s unsecured debt from B- to CCC+. S&P cited the volatility of the produce market and the company’s financial position as reasons for the downgrade. Murdock took the company private in 2003 in a leveraged buyout financed by, you guessed it, bond debt.

The bonds that are in danger of default, set to mature in 2009, represent just a third of Dole’s debt load — which surpasses $1 billion.