PE backer of Chinese pork producer WH Group cuts stake
Thursday, August 25, 2016
(FT by Jennifer Hughes) – Chinese private equity group CDH Investments is to raise $1.2bn by selling down one-third of its holding in WH Group, the Sino-US pork producer whose struggles to list in 2014 were an embarrassment for Hong Kong’s investment banking community.
Private equity backers of the company were unable to cash out as planned in the float, which eventually raised one-third of the initial $6bn touted by bankers. Owners at that point also included Goldman Sachs’ private equity arm as well as Temasek, the Singaporean state investment group.
The float attracted headlines after WH Group’s first attempt failed in spite of enlisting a record 29 banks — and after halving the planned size of the deal. The company eventually went public three months later.
Reasons for the deal’s failure, in addition to its unwieldy collection of advisers, included doubts over the success of its recent formation from the $7bn takeover in 2013 of US producer Smithfield Foods by China’s Shuanghui International — still the largest takeover of a US company by a Chinese one.
