Minerva SA, a Brazilian meat producer, rose the most in five months after a report that bigger competitor Marfrig Alimentos SA may pay as much as 1 billion reais ($567 million) to buy the company.
Minerva jumped 8 percent to 7.02 reais in Sao Paulo trading, the biggest gain since Sept. 29.
Marfrig Alimentos SA, based in Santo Andre, Brazil, is in talks to buy Minerva, Rio de Janeiro-based newsletter Relatorio Reservado reported, without saying how it got the information. Marfrig said in an e-mailed statement that there is no agreement or talks to buy Minerva. Minerva said it isn’t involved in takeover talks with any competitor.
“It’s one of the remaining big beef companies and the market believes it could be a takeover target,” said Caue Pinheiro, an analyst at SLW Corretora in Sao Paulo. “It’s on the mind of a lot of investors that Minerva could be a target.”
Minerva earlier this month reported fourth-quarter profit of 17.5 million reais, reversing a year-earlier loss of 180 million reais. Net sales climbed 23 percent to a record 2.6 billion reais in 2009, according to a March 1 regulatory filing. That compares with a 13 percent increase to 34.3 billion reais for Sao Paulo-based JBS SA, the world’s biggest beef producer.
Source: businessmirror.com
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