CDH Investments
says it plans to sell one billion shares of WH Group Ltd. of China, the owners
of Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest hog producer and pork packer in the
Western world.
It’s asking
$6.25 a share, much less than the closing market last week of $6.79 per share.
CDH has not
revealed the buyer for the sale which will be $10.6 billion Hong Kong dollars,
which is about $1.84 billion Cdn.
After the sale,
CDH will still hold 12.94 percent of the company’s shares. Before the sale the
private equity firm’s stake was 19.77 percent.
CDH says it may sell a further 697.2 million
shares, or 4.76 percent of WH, at the same price, lowering its stake to 8.18
percent.
Smithfield once owned Schneider Corp. of Kitchener, but sold it to Maple Leaf Foods. The Schneider family refused to sell to Maple Leaf.
