Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE: SFD) yestrday completed the acquisition of Packerland Holdings, Inc., the fifth largest beef processor in the United States, for $250 million, including the assumption of debt. The agreement in principle was announced September 7.

Smithfield Foods acquired 100 percent of the outstanding capital shares of Packerland in exchange for approximately 6.4 million shares of Smithfield common stock and the assumption of approximately $118 million in debt and other liabilities. Based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Packerland was privately held by management and an outside investor. The company has a daily processing capacity of 6,150 head and represents approximately five percent of the beef industry capacity.

Smithfield Foods made its first acquisition in the beef industry in June when it purchased Moyer Packing Company, which has sales of $600 million. Moyer has a daily processing capacity of 2,375 head and about a two percent share of industry capacity. With fiscal 2001 sales of $5.9 billion, Smithfield Foods is the world’s largest producer of hogs and the largest processor of pork, with a 20 percent domestic market share in pork processing. The combination of Packerland and Moyer will add a new beef processing division to the company, with more than $2 billion in annual sales, representing approximately 20 percent of total sales, and a seven percent share of the U.S. beef industry.

“Smithfield Foods now has the capability to offer retailers in many parts of the country pork and beef in a case-ready format,” said Joseph W. Luter, III, chairman and chief executive officer. “In addition, the complement of beef with pork should lessen the cyclical impact of processing margins on our overall results,” he said.

Richard Vesta, president and chief executive officer of Packerland, will head the new Smithfield Foods beef division.

Smithfield Foods has delivered a 28 percent average annual compounded rate of return to investors since 1975. In the last 15 years, the company’s share price has outperformed the S&P 500 Index by more than 350 percent. For more information, please visit http://www.smithfieldfoods.com .

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