Private equity group Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst has exercised its option to acquire ConAgra Foods’ minority share in Swift Foods, a company formed when ConAgra divested its fresh beef and pork processing business about two years ago.
ConAgra received $194 million for Swift and will report no gain or loss on the deal. The packaged foods company doesn’t have any equity in fresh beef and pork processing anymore, and anticipates recovering $300 million in funding it supplied to Swift’s cattle feeding operations.
This financing, which ConAgra provided for two years, was secured by cattle and feedlots. ConAgra said it now controls the cattle feeding operation assets and will sell the cattle and feedlots in the coming months.
