ConAgra Foods Inc., Omaha, Neb., announced September 26 that it has sold the rest of its stake in Swift Foods to majority holder Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., a private equity firm. ConAgra received $194 million in the transaction.While the Swift brand goes back years, the corporate entity was created in 2002, when ConAgra sold a controlling stake in its fresh beef and pork operations for $1.4 billion to a group led by Dallas-based Hicks. ConAgra said it expects soon to recover $300 million of financing it provided to Swift’s cattle-feeding operations.ConAgra now has control of the cattle feeding assets, and said it will sell the cattle and feedlots in the next few months. Proceeds are expected to be used to repay ConAgra for the financing provided to those operations.
