Reuters CHICAGO September 3
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP said it is working with investors interested in paying “substantially” more for Smithfield Foods Inc (SFD.N) than the price China’s Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd had agreed.
Starboard, a New York-based fund that holds a 5.7 percent stake in Smithfield, said in a letter to the company’s shareholders on Tuesday that it had received “nonbinding written indications of interest” from other parties willing to pay more than the $34 per share cash deal proposed by Shuanghui.
While the counter-proposal was not completed, the hedge fund said it planned to vote against the Smithfield-Shuanghui merger later this month in order to buy more time to get such a bid finalized.
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