The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) recently acquired 13,514,563 shares of Ukrainian agrifood company MHP.
With the transaction, SALIC holds a 12.6% stake in the company, MHP announced in a recent disclosure notification. SALIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
According to the notification, MHP owns and operates each of the key stages of chicken production processes in its Ukrainian operations, from feed grains and fodder production to egg hatching, alongside controlling the processing, marketing, distribution and sales (including through MHP's franchise outlets) of its products. It also has a leading grain cultivation business, growing corn, soybeans, sunflowers, wheat and rapeseed.
MHP’s Balkan operations include its Perutnina Ptuj subsidiary, a vertically integrated poultry company that has production sites in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Perutnina Ptuj also owns distribution companies in Austria, Macedonia and Romania.
MHP trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker MHPC.
According to the WATTPoultry.com Top Poultry Companies Database, MHP is the largest broiler producer in Europe and the seventh largest in the world, having slaughtered 697.1 million broilers during the past year. It is also the world’s 73rd largest feed producer with an annual production of 2.2 million metric tons.
SALIC also a significant BRF shareholder
MHP is not the only major global poultry and feed producer in which SALIC has invested. As of May, SALIC held 11.03% of BRF’s shares.
BRF, headquartered in Brazil, recently signed a state of food emergency agreement, in which SALIC can buy up to 200,000 pounds of products to be purchased during state of food emergency years.
BRF ranks as the world’s third largest broiler producer and South America’s second largest, having slaughtered 1.67 billion broilers during the past year. As a feed producer, BRF ranks 13th globally, with an annual production of nearly 9.6 million metric tons.
BRF is also a major producer of pork.
