Hebrew National may soon answer to a different authority. Conagra Brands Inc. is in talks to sell the famous hot dog brand to Brazil s JBS SA, people familiar with the matter said. A deal, which the people said could also include the Egg Beaters and Odom s Tennessee Pride brands, could be valued at around $700 million. Any agreement is likely weeks away and Conagra could end up keeping the business or selling it to someone else, the people cautioned. Conagra in April 2019 said Hebrew National s sales over the previous year were $170 million, and Egg Beaters were $78 million. But the kosher hot dog s popularity and cultural cache transcend the brand s size, thanks in part to its long-running slogan, We answer to a higher authority.
Provided by Dow Jones By Jacob Bunge Soaring crop prices are changing fortunes for the biggest U.S. agricultural companies, delivering windfalls for grain trading giants while saddling meat producers with sharply higher costs. Executives at Tyson Foods Inc. and Pilgrim s Pride Corp. said rising grain costs this year would pressure their chicken businesses, and could lead to increased prices for consumers. Costlier feed, typically the priciest part of raising a bird, comes as meatpackers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on Covid-19 safety measures. The change in pricing in grains has been nothing less than enormous, and that is going to weigh on the business, said Stewart Glendinning, Tyson s chief financial officer, on a Thursday conference call. The grain market rally led Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat company by sales, to project lower results from its core chicken business this year, after in November forecasting an improvement.
By Kirk Maltais Wheat for March delivery fell 1.1% to $6.58 1/4 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade Wednesday, with grain traders opting to short wheat as a hedge for their long. | February 5, 2021
[1] J&F, owned by two Brazilian brothers, controls JBS, the largest meatpacking company in the world.
The brothers admitted to bribing Brazilian politicians in order to gain financing and other benefits for the company. The bribery scheme involved multiple subsidiaries of J&F, including Pilgrim’s Pride. The DOJ fined the company $256 million, but half of the full penalty amount was credited to fines paid to the Brazilian authorities.
J&F now has extensive holdings in the US, and as equity analyst Marco Saravalle told
The Wall Street Journal,
[2] “The important thing about the company is that they have good operational assets and the executives are motivated to produce results for shareholders.”
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House and Senate committees Republicans and Democrats have begun talking to each other about Covid relief. | Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images
LET’S PREFACE THIS BY SAYING no one has a damn bit of a clue when or how the legislative year will wrap up. If you’re saying you do, you don’t. If you’re paying a consultant who is telling you they do, they’re making it up. If you are a consultant who is saying you do come on.