‘Dual’ listing for giant meat company delayed until later in 2024

JBS SA will have to wait until later this year for listings on the Brazilian and New York stock exchanges.

The Brazilian-based JBS SA is the parent company of JBS USA, which it acquired in 2007 when it purchased the assets of Swift & Co and became one of the dominant players in the North American meat and poultry industry. 

JBS SA is the largest meat processing enterprise in the world, producing factory-processed beef, chicken, salmon and pork and selling by-products from processing these meats. It is headquartered in São Paulo. It was founded in 1953 in Anápolis, Goiás. As of 2023, the company had about 500 industrial plants and commercial representations in 24 countries, and its products reach consumers in 180 countries.

The latest delay is the second since JBS SA sought “dual” listing status on the NYSE and its place on the São Paulo-based Brazil Stock Market (BOVESPA).

The delay is to give holders of American depository receipts sufficient time to vote on the “dual” listing transaction.

JBS’s financial plans are opposed by environmental activist organizations like Oxfam, Greenpeace, and the Rainforest Action Network for mostly non-financial reasons.  Those groups have, in turn, been pressuring elected officials who’ve questioned the “dual” listing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 2007, JBS purchased Swift & Company in a U.S. $1.5-billion, all-cash deal. The acquisition made the newly consolidated JBS Swift Group the largest beef processor in the world. Additional assets were added a year later when  JBS purchased Smithfield Foods’ beef operations for $565 million. Also, they announced in 2008 its intention to buy National Beef Packing Company for $560 million. In 2009, JBSW USA acquired 63 percent of Pilgrim’s Pride poultry.

Access to U.S. equity markets by JBS SA has been anticipated since its dramatic entry into the North American market.

JBS USA is headquartered in Greeley, CO.

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