REUTERS — Smithfield Foods is targeting a valuation of up to US$10.73 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, moving closer to its much-anticipated stock market return in the country 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 U.S. and Mexico businesses.
Smithfield and WH Group are each offering 17.4 million shares, priced between $23 and $27 each, to raise up to $939.6 million in the IPO.
Read Also
Manitoba Parkland research station grapples with dry year
Drought conditions in northwestern Manitoba have forced researchers at the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation to terminate some projects and reseed others.
The proposed valuation target is roughly double Smithfield’s net asset value of about $5.38 billion as of Sept. 30.
WH Group said last year the IPO was expected to value the Virginia-based company at $5.38 billion or more.
Smithfield was founded in 1936 in its namesake town by the Luter family as a small meat-packing company.
A series of acquisitions starting in the 1980s turned Smithfield into the largest U.S. pork producer.
The company produces packaged meats and pork products.
Smithfield, which carved out its European business last year, traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 1999 until 2013, when it was acquired by WH Group for $4.7 billion — then the biggest Chinese takeover of a U.S. firm.
WH Group will maintain control of Smithfield after the offering.
