Big investor urges Smithfield breakup over buyout

Starboard Value has revealed a major stake in Smithfield Foods and urged the world’s largest pork producer to explore a breakup rather than a planned US$4.7 billion takeover by Chinese meat company Shuanghui International.

The activist investor, now Smithfield’s biggest shareholder with a 5.7 per cent stake, said Smithfield could be worth 29 per cent to 64 per cent more than the US$34 per share offered by Shuanghui if it split up and shopped its hog production, pork and international units separately.

via Business feed http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1263459/big-investor-urges-smithfield-breakup-over-buyout