Frank Costa set to float his horticulture company

The Frank Costa family will retain 10.5% of Australia's biggest horticulture company, which is expected to list on the ASX with an $840 market value in August.

The Australian Financial Review report the IPO is priced at $2.20 to $2.70 a share, which is 14.9 to 17.6 times Costa's forecast net profit for the 2016 financial year.

The pricing has implied a dividend yield of between 3.4% and 4.1% for the same period.

The AFR's Street Talk column suggests based on the mid-range price of $2.45, the Costa family will make $158 million from selling down their stake in the 127-year-old company

Costa has been pitching the company to investors as an industrial technology company rather than purely an agriculture company following its move into protected cropping, which accounts for about 75% of its earnings now.

Costa owns five blueberry farms in Morocco in a joint venture with three minor shareholders and has also partnered with US berry company Driscoll's to build a farm in China.