Moy Park working on London Stock Exchange floatation

Moy Park, one of Europe’s top poultry producers and a major sponsor of the football World Cup, is working on plans for a £1bn London stock market flotation.

The food giant is the biggest company in Northern Ireland and supplies chicken to major retailers and food brands including Tesco, Waitrose, and Jamie Oliver.

It is owned by Brazilian food group Marfrig, which is expected to sell down its stake when it goes public. Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, has been appointed to oversee the plans.

Moy Park would follow a long list of consumer goods and retail groups to float in London this year. Other companies include Poundland, Pets at Home, and B&M.

Although some of them have endured a mixed performance, with the majority trading below their float price, a number of privately-owned companies are still pressing ahead with float ambitions.

Moy Park was one of the main sponsors of the football World Cup in Brazil and its brand was advertised on billboards on the side of the pitches.

The company, founded in 1943 in Moygashel, a village in Country Tyrone in Northern Ireland, employs almost 20,000 people across Northern Ireland, the UK, and Europe.

Sergio Rial, chief executive of Marfrig, said earlier this year that the company was looking to sell down stakes in its overseas businesses in order to reduce debts. According to accounts for 2013, Marfrig had net debts of 7.12bn Brazilian real (£1.9bn).

Moy Park generates annual sales of more than £1.2bn. In 2013 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) reached £80.7m, while pre-tax profits were £33.8m.

via Poultry giant Moy Park cooking up London flotation – Telegraph.