$2 Billion IPO Filing: JBS USA Holdings (JBS)

JBS USA Holdings, Inc. has just filed for an initial public offering of common stock an an amount of up to $2,000,000,000.00. This consists of an international offering in the United States and other countries outside Brazil and a concurrent offering in the form of Brazilian depositary receipts (BDRs) in Brazil.

Shares are being sold by the company itself and by JBS Hungary Holdings Kft.  The U.S. offering lists J.P.Morgan and BofA Merrill Lynch as the two underwriters.  The common stock has been given a preliminary expected ticker to trade on The New York Stock Exchange  of“JBS.”

JBS is a beef and pork processing operation which had roughly $15.4 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended December 28, 2008.  Its slaughter capacity is among the leading beef and pork processors in the United States.  It has been the number one processor of beef in Australia for the past 15 years. It sells beef and pork products to customers in more than 60 countries on six continents.

As a standalone company, the company said it would be the largest beef processor in the world, and it owns and operates the largest feedlot business in the United States.  Also noted in the prospectus: “We are a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of JBS S.A., the world’s largest beef producer, which has a daily slaughtering capacity of 73,940 head of cattle. In the fiscal quarter ended March 29, 2009, we represented approximately 78% of JBS S.A.’s gross revenues.”

Full IPO Filing

JON C. OGG