Chinese food companies have been snapping up foreign producers of processed and raw foods, spurred on overseas by the relative lack of arable land and clean water at home and the demands of China’s vast and increasingly affluent population.
In September, Shuanghui International completed its record $4.7 billion purchase of Smithfield Foods and is now aiming to raise up to $6 billion in a Hong Kong IPO, which would value the company at around $20 billion.
It was the biggest-ever Chinese takeover of a US public company, combining the world’s largest pig producer with China’s major meat processing firm Henan Shuanghai Investment Development.
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