Dole Food reduces net debt by $880 million from peak in 2008

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Portland, Ore., Nov. 19 - Dole Food Co., Inc. has now reduced net debt by $880 million from its peak in the first quarter of 2008, David DeLorenzo, chief executive officer of Dole, said Thursday during the company's earnings conference call for the third quarter.

DeLorenzo said Dole used cash flow from operations, the proceeds from its October IPO and asset sale proceeds, some of which closed after the end of the third quarter, to repay debt over the past six quarters.

Taking into account the IPO proceeds and assets sales that closed after the end of the third quarter, Dole's leverage ratio of net debt to last-12-months adjusted EBITDA is now 3.3 times, he said.

Accounting for the same factors, Dole's net debt is approximately $1.5 billion, Joseph Tesoriero, chief financial officer of the company, said later in the call.

For the first nine months of 2009, Dole's cash flow from operations was $283 million, compared to negative $27 million of cash flow from operations in the prior-year third quarter.

The improvement was due to better working capital management and higher earnings, Tesoriero said. Working capital improvements came from better collection of receivables and lower levels of inventory.

Dole reported third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $85 million, up 18% from $71 million in the third quarter of 2008.

"We could not be more pleased with the many achievements of the quarter and look forward to future profitable growth as a public company," Tesoriero said.

Dole Food is a Westlake Village, Calif.-based fruit and vegetables company.

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