021116 Smithfield Buys Hog Co. for $60.7M

Smithfield, VA - Smithfield Foods Inc. said Wednesday it has acquired an Oklahoma-based hog production company for $60.7 million in cash.

Smithfield, the nation's largest hog producer, said it bought Vall Inc. of Texhoma, Okla., from Vall's Spanish parent company, Vall Companies Group. The U.S.-based subsidiary has operations in Oklahoma and Texas and owns 20,000 sows that produce 350,000 market hogs a year. Almost all of the company's production is sold under contract to another Oklahoma company, Seaboard Corp.

Because of a current excess supply of hogs, Smithfield had said previously it has no plans to expand its own hog farms and will increase capacity only through acquisitions.

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