☰

Bolsa, mercados y cotizaciones

Tyson wins bidding war for Hillshire over Pilgrim's Pride: source


    (Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc has prevailed over Pilgrim's Pride Corp in a bidding war for Jimmy Dean sausage maker Hillshire Brands Co, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    Tyson is expected to pay $63 per share in cash for Hillshire, valuing the company at more than $7.7 billion, the New York Times reported late on Sunday, citing a person briefed on the matter. (http://r.reuters.com/tuw89v)

    The deal value could not be immediately verified by Reuters.

    Pilgrim's Pride, which is majority owned by Brazilian meat processing company JBS S.A., had offered $55 per share for Hillshire which valued the company at $7.7 billion including debt.

    Tyson had earlier offered $50 per share which valued Hillshire at $6.8 billion, including $500 million in debt.

    The offers from Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride came after Hillshire said last month it had planned to buy Pinnacle Foods Inc, the maker of Birds Eye frozen vegetables, in a deal valued at $4.3 billion, excluding debt.

    The two offers required Hillshire to terminate its deal with Pinnacle.

    Bloomberg News earlier reported that Tyson had beat out Pilgrim's Pride.

    Hillshire, Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson could not be immediately reached for comment.

    (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York and Supriya Kurane in Bangalore; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Gopakumar Warrier)