Pilgrim's Pride Corp PPC.O on Tuesday offered to buy Hillshire Brands Co HSH.N in an all-cash deal valued at $6.4 billion, as the world's second-largest chicken processor seeks to expand its protein footprint with Hillshire's sausages and lunch meats.
Shares in Hillshire soared 22 percent on word of the bid, which landed two weeks after the maker of Hillshire lunch meats and Jimmy Dean Sausages offered to buy Pinnacle Foods Inc PF.N, known for its Birds Eye frozen vegetables and Wish-Bone salad dressings, in a $4.3 billion deal.
Pilgrim's competing overture, which requires Hillshire to drop its Pinnacle bid, also signaled an aggressive return to dealmaking by Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS SA JBSS3.SA, which owns about 75 percent of Pilgrim's and recently cut its debt.
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