The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will not oppose JBS USA Holdings Inc’s (JBS) acquisition of Australian Consolidated Food Holdings Pty Limited (Primo) after it determined that Primo is not currently a strong competitive constraint on JBS.
The ACCC received submissions from a range of interested parties, including farmers, competing abattoirs, and meat and small goods suppliers and customers. Many industry participants expressed concern that the proposed acquisition would result in less competition in the market for the acquisition of fat cattle in northern NSW and Queensland.
“The ACCC undertook a detailed assessment and determined that Primo is currently not a strong competitive constraint on JBS. JBS’s abattoirs in Queensland and Primo’s abattoir at Scone are more than 500km apart,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
“Furthermore, the increase in market share as a result of the proposed acquisition would be relatively small and JBS would continue to be constrained in the market for the acquisition of fat cattle by a number of alternative abattoirs and supermarket chains, in the northern NSW and southern Queensland region.”
While the ACCC determined that, in this instance, the proposed acquisition would be unlikely to raise significant competition concerns, the ACCC is wary of the potential impact of further consolidation of abattoirs.
“The ACCC will continue to monitor this industry and any future acquisitions will face additional scrutiny,” Sims said.
The ACCC also considered whether the proposed acquisition would have any competitive impact on meat customers, small goods customers or the provision of fat cattle service kills, but did not consider that any significant competition concerns arose.
JBS signed the $1.45 billion conditional agreement to acquire Primo Smallgoods in November last year.
The move is set to leverage Primo’s growing export operations across Asia, including China, and is consistent with the global strategy of JBS – which is the largest animal protein processing company in the world – to grow its presence in value-added products.
In addition to Primo, JBS Australian announced in July that it had purchased a majority shareholding in the family owned, Sydney based company, Andrews Meats.
JBS USA Holdings Inc is a meat processor listed on the Brazil stock exchange with ten processing plants in Australia, including beef processing capacity in Dinmore and Toowoomba in southern Queensland. JBS Australia processes beef, veal, lamb and mutton. JBS Australia also processes pigs on behalf of a third party at its Devonport plant in Tasmania.
Primo is majority owned by Affinity Equity Partners (a private equity firm based in Singapore) and produces processed beef, pork and smallgoods. Primo’s key smallgoods brands are Primo and Hans. It has a beef processing plant at Scone, NSW, and a pork processing plant at Port Wakefield, South Australia. It has manufacturing facilities at Chullora, NSW, and Wacol in Queensland.