Marfrig Global Foods said five companies have qualified to take part in a second phase of bidding for its Keystone Foods subsidiary.
According to a notice to the market dated May 23 on the Marfrig Global Foods website, that second phase includes access to the virtual data room, management presentations, site visits in the United States and Asia, and the submission of binding offers during the month of June.
Marfrig did not identify any of the five companies, but stated that it would keep its shareholders and the market in general adequately informed on the evolution of this process.
The Brazil-based company initially announced its intent to divest of the U.S.-based subsidiary in April. The company made that announcement at the same time Marfrig revealed its intent to acquire a majority stake in National Beef Packing Company, the fourth largest beef processor in the United States.
By selling Keystone Foods, the 10th largest broiler company in the United States, Marfrig Global Foods can better focus on its beef operations while accelerating its deleveraging process and leverage improvements in its capital structure.
Marfrig Global Foods last week released its financial results, as well as the financial results of Keystone Foods. Keystone achieved a net revenue of US$678.7 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, up from the US$667.2 million it reported for the first quarter of fiscal year 2018. The company reported that the demand for Keystone Foods products was high during the quarter in the foodservice, retail and convenience channels in both the U.S. and Asia Pacific/Middle East/Africa (APMEA) region, and that “in some cases, the expectation of promotional success required Keystone to build product inventory to meet high future demand, and to engage manufacturing partners when demand for certain products exceeded Keystone’s available capacity.”
In 2017, Keystone Foods processed 23.8 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis.
