US chicken giant Tyson Foods has been linked with a possible acquisition of Marfrig’s subsidiary Keystone Foods.

A report from news agency Bloomberg also suggests agrifood heavyweight Cargill and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International have expressed an interest in purchasing Keystone, which supplies chicken nuggets to fast food behemoth McDonald’s.

Brazil’s Marfrig Global Foods announced it is to sell Keystone last month as it revealed plans to buy a 51% stake in US-based National Beef Packing Company. It is expected to use some of the proceeds from a Keystone sale to pay for that transaction.

It is expected that Keystone will be sold for more than US3bn.

Bloomberg, quoting “people with direct knowledge of the matter”, said an agreement on the transaction may be reached in the next few weeks.

Marfrig bought Keystone for $1.26bn in 2010. Outside the US has operations in South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. 

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None of the companies linked in the story to a possible acquisition of Keystone would comment when approached by Bloomberg.

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