Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 1/26/11

JBS shares dipped 2 percent this morning in Brazil as investors feared the company would be forced to offer more debt or shares to buy Sara Lee Corp., Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, shares of Sara Lee slid 2.7 percent following a report by the New York Post indicating the Downers Grove, Ill.-based company had spurned a separate offer from private equity firms Apollo Management, Bain Capital and TPG Capital.

Sara Lee has been mulling a sale for a couple of months.

JBS made a verbal buyout offer to Sara Lee on Tuesday, according to Reuters, with indications that a written offer could follow as soon as today. According to Bloomberg News, JBS had indicated the bid would be some $21 a share, or $13.4 billion. Sara Lee’s market value is nearly $12.5 billion.

That’s “a lot of money," Reuters quoted Rafael Dornaus, a stock trader with brokerage Hencorp Commcor in Sao Paulo, as saying. "Even as JBS has partners in this bid, the question is whether more debt and share sales are on the way to fund this deal."

The JBS team has the backing of private-equity firm Blackstone Group. Other reports suggest that after a purchase the former would own Sara Lee’s meats business and the latter would assume its beverages unit.

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