Commodities

WH Group Plans IPO for Smithfield US and Mexico Businesses

By Dong Cao
An employee handles sides of pork on a conveyor at a Smithfield Foods Inc. pork processing facility in Milan, Missouri, U.S., on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. WH Group Ltd. acquired Virginia-based Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, in 2013 for $6.95 billion. As Smithfield can't export sausage, ham and bacon from its U.S. factories, because China prohibits imports of processed meat, WH Group opened an 800 million-yuan ($116 million) factory in Zhengzhou that will produce 30,000 metric tons of those meats when it reaches full capacity next year. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest pork producer WH Group Ltd. is spinning off the US and Mexico businesses of Smithfield Foods Inc. and listing them in New York, it said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing.

The announcement confirmed a Bloomberg News report Friday, which said WH Group has picked banks to arrange a US share sale to raise at least $1 billion.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed WH Group rose as much as 6.9% Monday following a 5.2% jump Friday. The gain pared to just 0.2% as of 10:44 a.m. local time. 

Smithfield, which will remain a subsidiary of WH Group, closed a plant in North Carolina and plans to shut another in Iowa to help streamline its operations. WH Group acquired the company in 2013, and the combined operation went public in 2014 after raising more than $2 billion.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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