DEE-ANN DURBIN
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Brazilian meat giant JBS came a step closer Friday to its long-held goal of trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company's minority shareholders voted to approve JBS's plan to list its shares both in Sao Paulo and New York, casting aside opposition from environmental groups, U.S. lawmakers and others who noted JBS' record of corruption, monopolistic behavior and environmental destruction.
JBS said the outcome showed shareholders were confident in the benefits a dual listing would bring.
"This step is expected to further unlock value for JBS, providing broader access to investors and more competitive interest rates, thereby expanding our ability to finance growth at a lower cost and accelerating our diversification strategy,” JBS Global Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Cavalcanti said in a statement.
JBS said it expected to begin trading on the NYSE on June 12. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted the company’s request to list its shares in New York late last month.
JBS is one of the world’s largest food companies, with more than 250 production facilities in 17 countries. Half of its annual revenue comes from the U.S., where it has more than 72,000 employees. It’s America’s top beef producer and it’s second-largest producer of poultry and pork.
JBS has pushed for several years to have its stock traded in New York and received significant pushback. Mighty Earth, an environmental group, said Friday that activists and political pressure had long kept the meat processor from making an initial public offering in the U.S.
“Giving JBS access to billions of dollars of new funding will serve only to supercharge deforestation and its climate-wrecking operations," Mighty Earth CEO Glenn Hurowitz said in a statement. “Listing on the NYSE is meant to be a signal to investors that a company is serious about transparency, but JBS has shown its only playbook is hiding the true scale of its destruction, climate emissions and human rights abuses.”
Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the NYSE, said it had no comment Friday.
Glass Lewis, an influential independent investor advisory firm, was also among those recommending that shareholders reject the plan.
In its report, Glass Lewis said the recent return of brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista to the JBS board should concern investors. The brothers, who are the sons of JBS’ founder, were briefly jailed in Brazil in 2017 on bribery and corruption charges.
“In our view, the involvement of the company and of Joesley and Wesley Batista in multiple high-profile scandals has tarnished the company’s reputation, undermining stakeholder trust and posing a significant risk to its competitive position,” Glass Lewis said.
