Brazilian meat packer JBS revealed it is planning an initial public offering in the US for its JBS Foods International unit, which is headquartered in the Netherlands.
JBS Foods International will include JBS’s global businesses as well as its value-added unit Seara. The company said it expects to complete the IPO in the first half of 2017.
JBS said it will retain control of the new unit, as well as continuing to manage the company’s Brazilian beef operations on a stand-alone basis. Wesley Mendonça Batista, currently JBS’s CEO, will be the chairman of JBS Foods International, the group revealed.
The company said the move was a “further step” towards “advancing its planned reorganisation”. JBS’s efforts to restructure have met opposition and earlier this year it looked like its attempt to list JBS International Foods would be blocked because BNDES Participações – which holds a 20% stake in JBS and is the investment arm of Brazil’s state development bank – had exercised a right of veto over the company’s plans.
JBS originally detailed its plan to separate its international and domestic units in May. At the time, the company said the move would “strengthen its leading position” in the global food industry and “increase competitiveness”.
