The Chinese parent company of pork giant Smithfield Foods is collaborating with banks to prepare the 87 year old company to go public again in the United States.
According to insiders, the largest pork producer in the United States may go public as early as next year. These people say that discussions are currently underway and there may be changes in the listing time.
Smithfield was acquired by China's largest meat producer, now known as WH Group, in 2013. This $4.7 billion transaction marked one of the largest acquisitions of American companies by a Chinese company at the time and led to the delisting of Smithfield, which had previously traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The merged company became the world's largest pig farm and pork producer, and went public in Hong Kong in 2014, raising over 2.3 billion US dollars.