Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 11/27/13

Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd., the Hong Kong-based company that completed its acquisition of Smithfield Foods Inc., in September, has entered into an $8 billion “non-binding strategic cooperation framework agreement” with the Bank of China.

The agreement gives Shuanghui, a global investment consortium with ownership or a major stake in two of the world’s largest pork producers, and its subsidiaries “the flexibility to utilize the proposed services and new funding arrangements to invest in operations, fixed assets, international trade initiatives, potential mergers and acquisitions, and other corporate purposes.”

Shuanghui International’s $7.1 billion acquisition of Smithfield was financed by $7 billion in loans from the Bank of China and Morgan Stanley. The company also has private equity investors, including Goldman Sachs and the senior management of Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co. Ltd., China’s largest hog producer and pork processor, in which Shuanghui International has a major stake.

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