Brazilian meat company Marfrig Global Foods has bought an additional 31% stake in National Beef Packing from Jefferies Financial Group for $860 million.
Last year, Marfrig acquired 51% of the US company from Jefferies and other shareholders in a deal worth $969 million, in a move to consolidate its position in the beef industry.
Based in Kansas City, Missouri, National Beef has approximately 8,400 employees and generated sales of $7.5 billion in 2018.
Closing of the deal is expected before the end of the year. Including dividends, Jefferies will receive a total of $970 million.
“With this sale, we bring to a close Jefferies’ incredibly successful investment in National Beef,” said Jeffries CEO, Rich Handler, and president, Brian Friedman, in a joint statement.
“We will have realised an aggregate of almost $3 billion in cash, or 3.3 times our original investment in National Beef.
“We wish to thank Tim Klein and the management team at National Beef for their outstanding leadership and partnership. We also thank Marcos Molina, Eduardo Miron and Marfrig for their great partnership this last 18 months. We have every confidence that Marfrig and National Beef are exceptionally well-positioned for long-term success.”
Earlier this year, BRF entered talks to merge with Marfrig, but the deal did not materialise.
In a move to bolster its operations in North America, Marfrig secured a $150 million deal to buy Iowa Premium in March.
Source: FoodBev
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