Smithfield Foods Inc., which has agreed to a $4.7 billion bid from Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd., was urged by activist investor Starboard Value LP to consider splitting itself up instead. Bloomberg News reports that a breakup may value the world’s largest hog and pork producer at about $44 to $55 a share, the investor, which said it holds a 5.7 percent stake in the company, wrote in a letter to Smithfield’s board. Hong Kong-based Shuanghui agreed in May to pay $34 a share for the Smithfield, Virginia-based company.
“We question whether the board gave sufficient consideration to a sale of the divisions in separate transactions, or whether it focused primarily on an all-cash transaction for the company as a whole,” Starboard Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey C. Smith said in the letter.