Smithfield Foods falls as parent WH Group to trim stake

Shares of Smithfield Foods SFD.O down 5.4% premarket to $24.14 after secondary offering launched

Virginia-based meatpacker says 16 mln shares to be offloaded by SFDS UK Holdings, subsidiary of its Hong Kong-listed parent WH Group 0288.HK

With the sale, WH Group's holdings in SFD would go from ~92.7% to ~88.7%, per the SEC filing

WH's chairman, Wan Long, has indicated interest to buy up to 1.8 mln shares of the offering

SFD has ~393.1 mln shares outstanding for $10 bln market value

Morgan Stanley, BofA and Barclays are joint lead bookrunners for the offering

SFD went public in Jan after IPO of roughly 26 mln shares priced at $20

Last month, co raised its annual profit forecast as hog business rebounded and it said it resumed U.S. exports to China

6 of 7 analysts rate SFD "strong buy" or "buy", 1 rates "hold" and median PT is $30, LSEG data shows