By Rogerio Jelmayer And Jeffrey T. Lewis
SÃO PAULO--Brazil's JBS SA, the world's biggest meat packager,
acquired the European poultry unit of its local rival Marfrig
Global Foods SA in a deal worth $1.5 billion, showing a continued
hunger for acquisitions.
JBS said late Sunday that it agreed to acquire U.K.-based Moy
Park from Marfrig, which is Brazil's third-largest food-processing
company. The purchase price includes the assumption of Moy Park
debt worth 300 million pounds ($476 million) by JBS.
The price JBS paid for Moy Park was high, but JBS has been
successful at cutting costs and boosting profitability at other
companies it has acquired, analysts said. The effect on JBS's debt
and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
should be "quite small," according to equity analysts of Bradesco
Corretora, the brokerage of giant Banco Bradesco.
JBS, which began as a butcher shop in 1953, has completed more
than a dozen acquisitions in Brazil and internationally since 2005.
The company is the world's largest producer of proteins, with
operations in 24 countries on five continents.
JBS is controlled by Brazil's Batista family, which owns a 41.1%
stake in the business that was founded by José Batista Sobrinho,
whose initials form the company's name.
Some of Brazil's largest state-controlled banks are also big
shareholders, including the national development bank, or BNDES,
with a 23.19% stake, and Caixa Econômica Federal, with 10.07% of
the shares.
JBS's strategy has had positive effects on earnings, posting its
highest-ever quarterly net profit in the first quarter, of 1.4
billion reais, up from 70 million reais in the year-ago period.
The Moy Park deal still depends on regulatory approvals,
including from European Union antitrust authorities, JBS said.
Meanwhile, from Marfrig's perspective the sale will permit the
company to slash its net debt, by about 43% according to Bradesco
Corretora. Marfrig sees the deal allowing it to shed nearly five
billion reais of debt; it had 13.4 billion reais in debt at the end
of the first quarter.
"They needed to improve their debt situation and this sale has
changed their debt profile. Now they can focus on generating cash,"
said Guilherme Moura Brasil, an analyst at Banco Fator in São
Paulo.
Marfrig acquired Moy Park in 2008 for about $680 million. The
company got a good price for the sale, and with the capital
restructuring the money will allow, Marfrig can now concentrate on
improving its position in the markets where it remains, according
to Mr. Brasil.
"This is transformative," Marfrig's investor-relations chief,
Marcelo Di Lorenzo, said during the post-announcement conference
call with analysts.
Write to Rogerio Jelmayer at rogerio.jelmayer@wsj.com and
Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com
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