He told Reuters that JBS will "for sure" be
looking at potential acquisitions in the chicken, pork and branded packaged
food sectors during 2015.
"I cannot say that, second half of this year, we are
not going to be preparing ourselves, to (maybe) look for something for late
this year or next year," he said.
JBS recently completed the acquisition of Primo Group, the
largest producer of ham, bacon and sausage in Australia, in a move to
capitalize on booming sales growth in Asia.
W.H. Group of China, which owns Smithfield, has also said it’s
looking for companies to buy. Smithfield once owned Schneider Corp., but sold
it to Maple Leaf Foods.
Some market analysts have said that Michael McCain changes
to Maple Leaf to focus it on meat processing in state-of-the-industry plants
makes it a takeover target.
