SAO PAULO: The world’s largest meat supplier, JBS NV, will be led once again by a member of Brazil’s Batista family, a pivotal move for a global food powerhouse that’s increasingly focused on the United States.
Wesley Batista Filho, 34, will take over as global chief executive officer (CEO) starting January, after spending the past three years leading the company’s US division, according to a Monday filing with regulators.
He is the grandson of JBS founder, Jose Batista Sobrinho, and son of former top executive, Wesley Batista.
“It’s a natural transition, and we are carrying on the legacy,” Batista Filho said in an interview on Monday, before JBS announced results for the second quarter, which included a net loss on one-time charges and some improvement in the company’s unprofitable US beef operations.
JBS shares fell as much as 6.8%, the most since May.
The move returns a member of the Batista clan back to the top spot for the first time in about eight years.
The family has gained global prominence over the last two decades, transforming their Brazilian slaughterhouse business into an empire spanning meatpacking and energy to mining, finance and consumer goods.
Batista Filho will replace Gilberto Tomazoni, who in 2018 became JBS’s first CEO from outside the Batista family after a corruption scandal ensnared the two most high-profile family members: the billionaire brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista.
The transition was planned for years, said Tomazoni, who will remain at the company as a vice-chairman. JBS hasn’t announced details on the future of leadership at the US operation.
Batista Filho is part of a younger generation who has taken on a more prominent role as the family grows its investments.
In the United States, he has led the division through a period of market turmoil when a slow rebuild of the American cattle herd has kept supplies tight.
He’ll now take over a company that’s expanding globally, having recently made deals to grow operations in the Middle East and South-East Asia.
Batista Filho’s experience in the United States may be an asset as the country remains a key focus, with a recent listing of shares in New York bringing the company closer to investors there.
Still, JBS has faced several challenges in the United States. Its listing occured despite concerns from environmentalists for the company’s alleged role in deforestation.
More recently, JBS and other top meatpacking groups have become the target of an US Justice Department investigation on potential antitrust violations, as the Trump administration seeks to bring down record beef prices.
JBS is also struggling to turn around its US beef operations.
JBS posted a net loss of US$102mil for the second quarter, missing analysts’ estimates after a series of one-time expenses.
Charges included US$133mil for settlements related to a probe on price fixing allegations in the US chicken market and US$172mil paid in premiums and other costs related to a sale of bonds and local Brazilian notes.
Lingering impacts of a massive cattle shortage continued to hit margins in JBS’s North America beef unit.
The business posted a US$78mil loss before items such as interest and taxes. That’s better than the same period last year, when the unit posted a US$233mil loss.
“We are experiencing natural shifts in cycles, we are managing that and the business remains strong,” Tomazoni said.
A resumption of the US cattle trade with Mexico should aid the industry by next year, Batista Filho said.
He estimated Mexico had some supply of heavier animals that could be ready for slaughter in the United States by the first quarter of next year. — Bloomberg
