There aren’t a lot of specifics, but Smithfield Foods Inc. today (Jan. 6) officially and publicly filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell shares of its common stock in a future initial public offering.
The date of the sale, number of shares and price per share were not specified, but the filing indicates China’s WH Group will go through with its plan to spin off the American pork company it acquired in 2013. The first mention of that plan was in July of last year.
Smithfield has applied to list its shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SFD.
Technically, Smithfield will be issuing some stock for the offering and WH Group also will sell some of its shares. To prepare for this separation, the companies transferred Smithfield’s European operations last August to WH Group, so the resulting public company will only represent Smithfield’s operations in the U.S. and Mexico. The Europeans businesses are now called Morliny Foods.
“The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering,” a statement from Smithfield reminded.
We’ll report as soon as a launch date is publicized.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.