By Prudence Ho and Yvonne Lee
HONG KONG--China's Shuanghui International Holdings plans to
raise around US$5 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering in
the second quarter of 2014, two people with direct knowledge of the
deal said on Wednesday.
The company which completed a $4.7 billion purchase of U.S. pork
producer Smithfield Foods Inc. in late September has hired Morgan
Stanley, BOC International and Citic Securities International to
lead the deal, the people said.
It will be among Hong Kong's biggest IPOs in recent years. The
other mega Hong Kong IPO scheduled in the coming weeks is the US$4
billion-$5 billion proposed listing of Hong Kong electricity
operations from Power Assets Holdings Ltd. (0006.HK) controlled by
Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing.
The Smithfield takeover united China's largest pork processor
with the world's largest hog farmer and pork processor. It created
a company with combined annual revenue of nearly $20 billion.
Virginia-based Smithfield embraced the deal because China--the
world's biggest pork market--was the company's best avenue for
growth after years of sluggish U.S. sales.
Shuanghui sells products under the English name Shineway.
Shuanghui is the majority shareholder of China's largest meat
processor Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co.
(000895.SZ).
Write to Prudence Ho at prudence.ho@wsj.com and Yvonne Lee at
yvonne.lee@wsj.com
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