Primo listing primed for US

Consumer business buyers, equity investors and dealmakers hoping to capitalise on a sale of smallgoods manufacturer Primo could be left disappointed, with the business now slated for a listing in the US with other assets controlled by its owner, JBS.

It is understood the world’s largest meat processor, JBS, is working on a New York-based listing of global assets including its Australian operations.

Analysts say the business would be more suited to being listed in the American market after earlier plans were afoot to list Primo here.

JBS swooped on Paul Lederer’s Primo Smallgoods in 2014, outlaying $1.45bn for the Australian operation that was partly owned by Affinity Private Equity.

Also within its Australian stable are about five feedlots and six or seven abattoirs worth up to $800m alone.

In 2017, JBS wound up in a corruption scandal involving the former global JBS chief executive Wesley Batista and his brother, former chairman Joesley Batista, who admitted bribing close to 2000 Brazilian officials.

JBS announced last year a plan to sell about $US1.8bn worth of assets.