2023 was a year many pork companies would rather forget, with some calling it possibly the worst year on record as costs soared for farmers with accelerating inflation at that time. But as that year fades into memory, profits are returning for many, including leading U.S. producer Smithfield Foods Inc.
（作者陽歌，本文僅代表作者個人觀點）
The company’s owner, China’s WH Group (0288.HK), is seizing on the turnaround by serving up a Smithfield IPO, whose details were disclosed in a filing with the U.S. securities regulator this week. WH Group first indicated it planned to separately list Smithfield last July, and issued its own brief announcement this week on the application.
2023年是很多豬肉公司寧願忘記的一年，有些公司或稱之爲有史以來最糟糕的年份，因當時通貨膨脹加劇，養殖戶的成本飆升。但隨著那一年成爲過去，很多公司正恢復盈利，其中包括美國領先的豬肉生產商史密斯菲爾德食品公司。
Investors have been quite excited about this spinoff, bidding up WH Group’s shares by as much as 34% over the last six months. And despite a recent pullback, the stock is still up 18% since last July, which isn’t bad for this kind of very old-economy stock. Still, the company currently trades at a relatively low price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 8, well below the roughly 25 for both Chinese rival Muyuan Foods (002714.SZ) and U.S.-based Tyson Foods (TSN.US).
該公司的母企萬洲國際(0288.HK)正抓住這一逆轉，分拆史密斯菲爾德上市，本週提交美國證券監管機構的一份檔案披露相關細節。萬洲國際於去年7月首次表示計劃讓史密斯菲爾德上市，並於本週就史密斯菲爾德的上市申請發佈了簡短公告。