WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) — The New York share listing of Brazilian meat company JBS SA would expose investors to risk, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should closely scrutinize the company’s criminal and environmental track record, a bipartisan group of senators has written in a letter to the agency.
JBS, the world’s largest meat packer, in July revived a more than decade long effort to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in hopes of accessing cheaper capital and more investors.
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Its earlier attempt was delayed in part by a 2017 Brazilian bribery scandal. In 2020, the SEC fined JBS $27 million to resolve other bribery charges related to its 2009 acquisition of Pilgrim’s Pride, another top U.S. meat company.
Those events, plus allegations by environmental activists that the company’s cattle sourcing practices contribute to Amazon deforestation, present “deep concerns” about the potential listing, said the 15 senators, who include Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker and Republicans Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley.
“Approval of JBS’s proposed listing would subject U.S. investors to risk from a company with a history of blatant, systemic corruption and further entrench its monopoly power and embolden its monopoly practices,” they wrote in the letter.
JBS has said the listing will “enhance its corporate governance and transparency.”
It is one of the United States’ four largest meat companies, which together slaughter about 85 percent of U.S. grain-fattened cattle.
Environmental groups have urged the SEC to deny JBS’s listing on the grounds that the company’s cattle purchasing practices encourage deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
