Pork processor Smithfield Foods has officially been sold. It is reportedly the largest purchase ever of a US company by a Chinese company.
Today 96% of Smithfield Foods shareholders voted to sell the pork processor to Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong. The deal is worth $7.1 billion.
Smithfield, headquartered in Virginia, owns the largest hog processing plant in the world, based in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Thousands of hog farmers and factory workers in North Carolina are employed by the company.
Shuanghui has been under review amid food safety problems. It’s the largest meat producer in China
Smithfield President and CEO Larry Pope said back in May, when the deal was first announced, that Smithfield will keep its name, hog farmers and management team.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has already approved the deal.