Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD) bid unsuccessfully to acquire
Canada's Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (MFI.T) this spring prior to
agreeing to a takeover by China's largest meat processor, according
to a person familiar with the matter, highlighting the meat
industry's intensifying push to consolidate amid sluggish growth in
North America.
Smithfield on Tuesday said in a filing with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission that it submitted an offer March 25 in
connection with a "potential packaged meats acquisition," which was
rejected "by the target on April 10." That target was Toronto-based
packaged-foods company Maple Leaf, the person familiar with the
matter said.
Virginia-based Smithfield, the world's biggest pork processor
and hog farmer, said in Tuesday's filing that it had been
contemplating since January a potentially significant acquisition
of a large business in the packaged-meats sector. That was two
months before it received an unsolicited takeover bid from
Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.
Smithfield bid for Maple Leaf within days of rejecting
Shuanghui's first offer of $30 a share and receiving a sweetened
$33-a-share offer, the proxy filing shows. Smithfield later agreed
to a $34-a-share offer from Shuanghui in a $4.7 billion deal
unveiled May 29.
Maple Leaf is a major producer of hogs, packaged meats and
bakery products. In 2012, the company generated sales of C$4.86
billion. The company's brands include Maple Leaf and Schneiders,
and it markets its products primarily in Canada, the U.S., Mexico
and Japan.
Smithfield also received takeover offers this spring from
Brazil's JBS SA, which has major beef and pork operations in the
U.S. and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL as it weighed the
approach from Shuanghui.
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