MW Bacon maker Smithfeld Foods IPO tips scales at $11B with eye on growth

By Steve Gelsi

China-owned bacon maker sets IPO terms at $24 to $27 with 397.47 million shares outstanding

Smithfield Foods Inc. is offering Wall Street a seat at the table for potential growth in its packaged meats business as the bacon and lunch-meat maker set an estimated market capitalization of nearly $11 billion in its upcoming initial public offering.

Smithfield Foods said Tuesday it plans to offer 34.8 million shares at an estimated range of $24 to $27 a share when its stock starts trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "SFD."

At the top of the range, the IPO will raise about $940 million with lead underwriters Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs.

With 397.47 million shares outstanding after it goes public, Smithfield Foods would have a market capitalization of about $10.73 billion if it prices its IPO at $27 a share.

"We see significant potential for our packaged meats segment to generate continued growth through our distribution expansion opportunities across brands to expand unit count within our existing product portfolio," the company said.

The IPO comes as the stock price of non-meat competitor Beyond Meat Inc. $(BYND)$ has fallen in recent years, as Americans embrace more traditional food.

Smithfield Foods marks the first big IPO of 2025 with name recognition among consumers as the overall IPO market is expected to pick up steam.

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It's also the return to the stock market for Smithfield Foods, maker of Nathan's hot dogs, Eckrich deli meat and Smithfield supermarket products, with an eye on winning more market share.

The company was publicly traded prior to being acquired by WH Group (HK:288) in 2013 for $4.72 billion in what was, at the time, the largest acquisition of an American company by a Chinese entity.

WH Group will own about 91.2% of Smithfield's common stock after the IPO.

Nowadays, Smithfield ranks as a leading provider of packaged meats in the U.S. with the No. 2 branded market position by volume in 25 packaged meats categories, with an addressable market of $45 billion.

The company has a roughly 20% market share by volume as of December.

It's also the largest processor of fresh pork in the U.S. with a 23% market share.

Exports comprised about 13% of its total sales for the nine months ending Sept. 29.

With 34,000 U.S. employees and 2,500 in Mexico, Smithfield Foods rang up $14.2 billion in sales in the 12 months ended Sept. 29.

In the nine months ending Sept. 29, Smithfield Foods reported net income from continuing operations of $581 million on revenue of $10.19 billion. In the year-ago period, it booked a loss of $2 million on revenue of $10.64 billion.

The company carved out its European operations in August, transferring the business to WH Group.

-Steve Gelsi

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January 21, 2025 08:11 ET (13:11 GMT)

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