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The largest meat processor in the world, JBS, said the shareholders approved a plan to list their actions in New York, fulfilling a desire of the Brazilian billionaire brothers who transformed their family slaughter into a global colossus.
Minority shareholders approved on Friday a plan to transfer the main negotiation of shares of the group of $ 16.5 billion to the United States, before a fierce opposition campaign by governance and environmental defenders, according to a notice to investors.
JBS says that the measure will help increase the value of their actions, which are negotiated with a discount to US rivals, while opening cheaper sources of financing for expansion.
It marks a significant milestone for Wesley and Joesley Batista, whose holding entity J & F Investor has about half of the food conglomerate.
The increase of the company in the first years of the 21st century reflected the appearance of Brazil as a power of agribusiness.
Founded in 1953 by their father, the brothers expanded JBS internationally through acquisitions. From its origins as a meat supplier, the company has expanded to poultry, pig, fish, alternatives based on plants and eggs. Its net sales were $ 77 billion in 2024.
JBS shares increased 0.5 percent in the afternoon negotiation in the São Paulo Stock Exchange on Friday. The action has jumped more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year.
J & F abstained the vote as well as the second largest shareholder of JBS, the Brazilian State Development Bank, BNDES, placing the decision in the hands of external investors that have approximately one third of the company’s capital.
JBS did not immediately provide a breakdown of the vote on Friday. On the eve of the shareholders meeting, the first partial results showed that a thin majority opposed the plans.
The power advisors had recommended a vote against the dual list due to their potential to dilute the power of the shareholders while further consolidating the control of the batists.
According to the new structure of the group, a company based in the Netherlands will issue class A and B actions, the latter with 10 times vote power but not negotiated in exchanges. Depending on which shareholders choose, the Batistas, whose capital participation is 48 percent, could end up with up to 85 percent of the voting rights.
“The result of the meeting shows that the shareholders trust the benefits that will arise from the dual list and the alignment of the corporate structure with the global and diversified profile of the company,” said executive president Gilberto Tomazoni.
JBS’s actions will begin to quote on the New York Stock Exchange on June 12.
Daniel Biolsi, an analyst at Hedgeye Risk Management, said the approval of the dual list was expected because shareholders want the shares to have a greater assessment. He added that JBS’s actions would probably still be negotiated with a discount compared to US rivals Tyson, Hormel and Smithfield, but expects to be limited.
The environmentalists had also campaigned against the plans, citing concerns about the greenhouse gas emissions of the livestock and their links with the ecological damage in the Amazon.
“Giving JBS access to billions of new funds will only serve to overcome deforestation and its climate reduction operations,” said Glenn Hurowitz, executive director of Mighty Earth, an environmental defense group.
JBS said it prohibits the purchase of farm animals with deforestation, forced labor or other questionable practices, with monitoring in their supply chains.
