KARACHI: Mitchell’s Fruit Farms Ltd on Thursday announced that it has shortlisted two firms for a strategic sale of shares along with transfer of management control.

“The board of directors was informed of the bidding process and firm intentions received from Waves Singer Pakistan Ltd and Bioexyte Foods Pvt Ltd,” the company said in a filing with the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

“The board considered the key recommendations from the management and authorised Najam Aziz Sethi, Syed Manzar Hassan and Nauman Munawar to negotiate and finalise terms of documentation with preferred bidder,” the notice said.

Both companies began their due diligence of the food giant in early August. Bioexyte has bid to acquire 30 per cent of issued and paid-up capital through rights shares along with management control.

A source with knowledge of the transaction told Dawn that Mitchells has been running growing losses for almost four years now and in the last 18 months the directors of the company have had to loan it up to Rs150 million to keep it afloat. In 2018, the company declared a loss of Rs 292.61m, which was Rs30m in 2017.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2019