JBS of Brazil Agrees to Buy Swift for $1.4 Billion, People Say
BRAZIL - JBS SA, Latin America's biggest meat producer, agreed to buy Swift & Co., the third-largest U.S. beef and pork producer, for $1.4 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
29 May 2007
1 minute read
JBS, the Sao Paulo-based owner of Brazil's Friboi meat brand, will acquire all of Swift's assets in the U.S. and Australia, the people said. The transaction may be announced today, they said.
Swift, owned by Dallas-based HM Capital Partners LLC, formerly Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., said Jan. 22 it was considering a sale after receiving unsolicited inquiries. Greeley, Colorado-based Swift had a net loss of $48.6 million in the quarter ended Feb. 25 as beef sales fell, and the company hasn't been profitable since 2004.
``Swift has had a rough few years,'' Elaine Francolino, an analyst who tracks Swifts $523 million in bonds for Moody's Investors Service, said in a May 10 interview.
JBS spokeswoman Vanessa Esteves couldn't be reached by Bloomberg News for comment yesterday evening. Sean McHugh, a spokesman for Swift, declined to comment.
Shares of JBS rose 26 centavos, or 3.7 percent, to 7.31 reais in Sao Paulo stock exchange composite trading yesterday. The stock has gained 4.4 percent since the company raised 1.6 billion reais ($820 million) in an initial public offering in March.
Swift has four U.S. beef plants and can slaughter about 15,850 head of cattle a day. The company had sales of $9.35 billion in the year ended May 28, 2006. Beef sales were $5.58 billion.
Source: Bloomberg
