SÃO PAULO, Brazil — JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, said it won’t hold a planned initial public offering of its Greeley-based U.S. unit until 2011 at the earliest.
“We have no plans for the IPO for this year,” company executives said Monday, without elaborating, during an earnings conference call. JBS chief executive Joesley Batista and Wesley Batista, general manager of the company’s U.S. unit, spoke on the call with analysts and investors.
This is the second time the company based in São Paulo has postponed plans for a proposed initial share sale of its U.S. unit. JBS said Jan. 28 that it would delay the IPO after “market conditions deteriorated.” Joesley Batista said then the sale could occur in the first half of the year if conditions improved.
On March 8, Joesley Batista said market conditions were improving for the share sale.
JBS controls more than 10 percent of global beef processing, after about 30 acquisitions in the past 15 years. The share sale aims to expand JBS’s global distribution after its recent purchases.
The company bought Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Brazil’s Bertin SA and Australian lamb producer Tatiara Meat Co. after reassuming acquisitions last year as the global credit crunch reduced the value of assets.
The company on Monday said it returned to profit in the first quarter as acquisitions in the U.S. and Brazil boosted sales.
Net income was $56 million, compared with a net loss of $181 million in the year-earlier period, the company said. Sales climbed 35 percent to $7 billion.
JBS fell 3.4 percent to 7.31 reals in São Paulo trading.
The stock has dropped 22 percent this year, more than the 7.7 percent decline in Brazil’s Bovespa Index. Bloomberg News
