After a year of major deals in the meat sector, Continental Grain Co, one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. with annual revenues of $14 billion, is signaling it will be selling a stake in its Wayne Farms poultry business. The move could signal that the chicken market is close to topping out as big players cash in on soaring chicken prices, boosting balance sheets prior to the next cyclical downturn. Wayne Farms is the sixth largest U.S. vertically integrated poultry producer with 11 facilities producing in excess of 2.5 million pounds of product per year. Continental Grain would be the next in a string of major deals in the meat industry that began with the Chinese acquisition of Smithfield Foods and accelerated with the protracted bidding war for Hillshire Brands which was won by Tyson.
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