Chinese packer to buy U.S. pork giant Smithfield

China’s Shuanghui International agreed on Wednesday to buy Smithfield Foods for US$4.7 billion in cash, in a deal that will increase the flow of U.S.-made pork to the world’s largest consumer of the meat.

The agreement comes after Smithfield’s largest shareholder agitated for change at the company, including a call to break up the Virginia-based pork producer, which is billed as the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer.

The deal will be subject to review by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, Smithfield said in a statement, which will come at a time of testy relations between the U.S and China on matters of cross-border transactions.

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China is also the third-largest market for U.S. pork — a brand of meat in high demand lately, as China suffers through another series of embarrassing food safety scandals, involving everything from rats to pigs.

The price of Shuanghui’s offer is $34 per share, a 31 per cent premium to Smithfield’s stock price. Shuanghui will assume $2.4 billion of Smithfield’s debt (all figures US$).

Shuanghui has promised to maintain Smithfield’s operations, staff and management. The thrust of the deal is to send the U.S. made pork to China, a factor that one person familiar with the matter said would help during Shuanghui’s CFIUS review.

Privately-owned Shuanghui plans to fund the acquisition using debt, the person added, with both Chinese and foreign banks providing loans.

Continental Grain, which owns a 5.8 per cent stake in Smithfield Foods, has been agitating for change. Last month it sent management a letter, urging the company to break itself up into three independent companies, to unlock shareholder value.

Continental, Smithfield’s biggest shareholder, said in an April presentation that Smithfield should split into three companies, use the proceeds to buy back shares, restructure its business, and institute a dividend in line with peers.

Smithfield’s direct interest in Canadian meat packing ended in 2004, when the company sold its controlling stake in Schneider Corp. to Maple Leaf Foods for about C$515 million. Smithfield had owned Kitchener-based Schneider since 1997.

Food anxiety

According to Wednesday’s statement, Shuanghui International is the majority shareholder of Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co., which is China’s largest meat processing enterprise and China’s largest publicly-traded meat products company as measured by market capitalization.

Food safety and environmental pollution are chronic problems in China and public anxiety over cases of fake or toxic food often spreads quickly.

In March, more than 16,000 rotting pigs were found floating in one of Shanghai’s main water sources, triggering a public outcry. Overcrowding at pig farms was likely behind the die-off and their disposal in the Huangpu river.

The public security ministry said police had confiscated more than 15 tonnes of tainted pork in Anhui province, although as much as 60 tonnes had been sold in Anhui and Fujian provinces since mid-2012.

Chinese police broke a crime ring earlier this month that passed off more than $1 million in rat and small mammal meat as mutton.

— Denny Thomas is a Reuters correspondent covering mergers and acquisitions in Asia, based in Hong Kong. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.