The world's largest meatpacker, JBS SA, wants to acquire the remaining common shares in its U.S.-based subsidiary Pilgrim's Pride Corp. in order to delist the company.
Brazil-based JBS said in a securities filing that its board had approved an offer letter to be sent to Pilgrim's Pride to acquire the remaining shares in circulation for $26.50 per share.
That would make the deal worth over $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
JBS already owns via subsidiaries a 80.21% stake in Pilgrim's Pride, which processes chicken and pork sold in North America and Europe. The Brazilian firm had agreed to buy a majority stake in Pilgrim's Pride in 2009.
Pilgrim's Pride, among the top five poultry companies in the U.S., operates a processing plant in Cold Spring, Minn.
The move comes the same week that Minnetonka-based Cargill formed a joint venture with Continental Grain to buy Sanderson Farms, the country's third-largest chicken producer, for $4.53 billion, a deal reached amid surging poultry prices and fierce competition. Under that deal, Sanderson Farms also would become a private company.
JBS' proposed acquisition of the remaining shares in circulation must be approved by a special committee of Pilgrim's Pride board members as well as a majority of voting shares in the company.
