CHICAGO: Smithfield Foods is targeting a valuation of up to US$10.73bil in its New York flotation, the biggest US pork processor says, moving closer to its US stock market return after more than a decade.
Hong Kong-based WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer, is spinning off Smithfield into a listed company as it looks to create a separate fundraising platform for its US and Mexico businesses.
The IPO is set to be the largest US listing by a food company since Swedish oat milk maker Oatly Group AB’s US$1.6bil flotation in 2021, according to data compiled by LSEG.
“As the first major consumer IPO this year, Smithfield will be closely watched”, IPOX chief executive officer Josef Schuster said. “Success of the deal could pave the way for other IPOs across industries, in particular if the deal performs well initially.”
The valuation target is roughly double Smithfield’s US$5.38bil net asset value as of Sept 30.
Smithfield and WH Group are each offering 17.4 million shares, priced between US$23 and US$27 each, to raise up to US$939.6mil.
Smithfield, which competes with Tyson Foods and Hormel Foods, slaughters pigs and produces pork products under brands including Farmland and Eckrich.
The company, which is known for producing about half of the pigs it processes, is now reducing its herd by selling animals to reduce its capital investment.
It plans to rear 11.5 million pigs this year, down 21% from 2024, and buy more pigs from partners instead, according to a securities filing.
The firm, which carved out its European business last year, traded in New York from 1999 until 2013, when WH Group acquired it for US$4.7bil – then the biggest Chinese takeover of a US firm. — Reuters
