Brazil’s JBS taps BNP Paribas for Moy Park sale

SAO PAULO: JBS SA, the world’s No 2 food processor, has picked BNP Paribas SA to help sell Moy Park Ltd, which the company has put on the block, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

JBS, whose controlling family has been ensnared in a corruption scandal, announced plans to sell Ireland-based Moy Park on June 20.

According to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, JBS decided to tap the investment bank of Paris-based BNP Paribas to assess whether interest from several potential bidders could materialise into a transaction.

Some companies that have expressed interest in purchasing Moy Park include China’s WH Group and subsidiary Smithfield Foods Inc and middle-market buyout firm CapVest Partners LLP, according to local reports. Others include French commodities giant Louis Dreyfus Co and Groupe Bigard, as well as British foodmaker Two Sisters Food Group, a report by O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said last week.

JBS and Smithfield declined to comment. BNP Paribas, LDC, Bigard, Two Sisters and CapVest did not have an immediate comment.

Bonds and shares of JBS have dropped since mid-May, when brothers and controlling shareholders Wesley and Joesley Batista sought a plea deal related to a corruption probe. Wesley, the elder of the brothers and JBS’s chief executive officer, is personally negotiating any planned asset sales, people said this month.

Between 2008 and 2015, JBS participated in about 74 mergers and acquisitions totaling $30 billion, Thomson Reuters deals intelligence data showed. — Reuters