MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian leading meat processors exchange assets to comply with anti-trust body

Paty, a market leader in the Argentine and Uruguayan hamburger market

Brazilian meat processors BRF Brasil Foods and Marfrig announced a deal on Thursday to trade assets, including a block of properties that Brazilian anti-trust body CADE mandated to be sold as part of the Sadia and Perdigao approval in July.

Marfrig will pay more than BRL200 million (110 million dollars) to Brasil Foods as part of the deal, and will turn over swine farms and rural properties in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

Brasil Foods will also receive Argentina-based assets tied to the brand PATY — a market leader there in hamburgers — which will include processing plants for hamburgers, ham, sausages, hot dogs and vegetables, as well as a cattle slaughterhouse and a distribution centre.

Brasil Foods will receive trademarks, patents and all other intellectual property rights for the PATY brand and sub-brands, including Barny and Estancia del Sur, and commercial operations for PATY in Uruguay and Chile.

In exchange, Marfrig will receive from BRF Brasil Foods all the assets and rights related to eight distribution centres, production capacity for a swine processing plant in the city of Carambei, Parana state, the entire equity interest held by Sadia in Excelsior Alimentos SA (equivalent to 64.57%), and some brands and property rights that CADE had ordered for sale in its merger approval for BRF, which the company has yet to specify.

The deal will be subject to adjustment depending on the outcome of legal audits, accounting and financial approval, the companies said. Representatives from both companies presented an outline of the deal to CADE officials in Brasilia on Thursday. (Source: Argentine Beef Packers S.A.)