Brazil’s Marfrig to Buy Cargill Unit

Brazil’s Marfrig Alimentos SA, among the world’s biggest beef producers, said it has agreed to acquire Cargill Inc.’s Brazilian business for $900 million in cash and assumed debt, a move to bolster the company’s poultry and pork businesses while opening up better access to markets such as the U.K. and Japan.

Marfrig said in a statement that it will buy the unit, called Seara Alimentos Ltd., for $706.2 million in cash and $193.8 million in assumed debt. The Sao Paulo-based company said it may sell new shares in order to finance the acquisition, which it expects to complete by year’s end. Marfrig has secured a credit line from a Brazilian bank in order to complete the deal.

Marfrig is adding heft to its growing pork and poultry business in a bid for the scale the company says will make it a better competitor in international markets. Acquiring the $1.7 billion per year business will make Marfrig Brazil’s second largest poultry company, Marfrig said. Marfrig also gets Seara’s brand and its domestic trading and distribution operations in the U.K., Japan and Singapore – operations which hold rights to export-import quotas between Brazil and nine markets in Europe and Asia.