Under the deal, which was announced last August, Sanderson is being combined with Continental Grain subsidiary Wayne Farms. Sanderson will cease trading on Friday.

The new business, to be called Wayne-Sanderson Farms, will be headquartered at Oakwood, Ga., northeast of Atlanta, and will be led by Wayne Farms CEO Clint Rivers.

Any outstanding issues with the Justice Department were resolved prior to close, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The deal had raised concerns on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers asked for the Justice Department to take a hard look at it because of fear of pushing up prices.

The Justice Department, which had been investigating the deal for antitrust concerns, declined comment.

Chicken wings and breasts have climbed 38 and 24 per cent since February year-over-year, respectively, according to research from Wells Fargo.

The Biden administration, concerned about price hikes in general and especially in the meat sector, announced in January that it would spend US$1 billion and issue new rules as a way to address a lack of “meaningful competition” in meat processing.

— Reporting for Reuters by Diane Bartz. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The management change is the latest event to rattle the two-century-old commodities trader after a stretch of particularly weak earnings results beginning last year that left the company vulnerable to takeover attempts by rivals Glencore and ADM.

Bunge shares were up modestly at US$59.64 on Monday after last week touching their lowest level since April 2016.

The company in October bowed to the demands of activist investors D.E. Shaw and Continental Grain, adding four new board members and creating a strategic review committee that would explore all options for the company, including selling itself.

Bunge has been grappling with a global grains glut that has dragged down crop prices and thinned margins for trading grains. The U.S.-China trade war has slashed exports of U.S. crops to China, further depressing prices.

The company’s strategy in recent years has focused on expanding higher-margin businesses such as food ingredients, but results have been slow to offset the challenges in its core trading and processing businesses.

Michael Underhill, chief investment officer at Capital Innovations, said he was glad to see Schroder step down because the CEO was too comfortable with the status quo at Bunge. Capital Innovations owned about 15,000 shares of Bunge as of Sept. 30, according to an SEC filing.

“I don’t think he could be characterized as being an aggressive leader,” Underhill said. “Inconsistent execution has been a key element of the Bunge investment story in recent years and something that has kept us from being more positive.”

Bunge is open to reengaging with both Glencore and ADM with the departure of Schroder, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Schroder will continue in his current role until a successor is named, the company said in a statement.

White Plains, N.Y.-based Bunge also appointed board member Kathleen Hyle as chairman, effective immediately, replacing L. Patrick Lupo.

Hyle, previously chief financial officer for auto rental firm ANC and vice-president at Black + Decker, most recently was the head of the audit committee on Bunge’s board.

Hyle will be part of a search committee created to appoint a new CEO, along with Mark Zenuk, who was appointed to Bunge’s board in July, and Paul Fribourg and J. Erik Fyrwald, who joined the company’s newly expanded board in October.

— Reporting for Reuters by Shanti S Nair in Bangalore and Karl Plume and Tom Polansek in Chicago.

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The global grains trader named J. Erik Fyrwald as a director, as it navigates low crop prices and the trade war that has slashed U.S. crop exports to China.

D.E. Shaw and Continental Grain had pushed Bunge to add board members in hopes of jolting the company into improved performance.

Bunge said in October it would add four directors and create a strategic review committee to explore options for the company, including a sale. Bunge named three of the directors at that time.

Fyrwald, 59, is a fourth mutually agreed-upon director, according to Bunge.

The board expansion comes after Bunge fielded unsuccessful takeover bids by rival Archer Daniels Midland and commodities trader Glencore.

ChemChina bought Syngenta for US$43 billion last year in China’s biggest foreign takeover to date. Fyrwald has been Syngenta’s CEO since 2016 and previously worked for DuPont.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek in Chicago.

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Bunge’s shares were up 2.5 per cent at US$70.64 on Monday.

The firms, which together own less than five per cent, were not pushing for a sale of the company, according to the WSJ report.

U.S. agricultural investor Continental Grain was planning to push Bunge to consider a potential sale, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in March.

In January, a source told Reuters that top U.S. grain merchant Archer Daniels Midland had made a takeover approach to Bunge.

Bunge and D.E. Shaw did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

–– Reporting for Reuters by Debroop Roy in Bangalore.

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It was unclear how Continental Grain would pressure Bunge, one of the world’s top agricultural merchants. But the company, which invests in the farm and food industry, has increased a stake in Bunge to more than one per cent, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

On Monday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission confirmed Continental Grain owned Bunge shares, without specifying how many. The consumer protection agency granted Continental Grain approval to increase its position, a filing that signals the company will actively engage with Bunge management.

Continental Grain’s “focus is on the path to maximize value, including the potential sale” of Bunge, the source said.

Bunge, which has a market capitalization of about $10.6 billion, declined to comment (all figures US$). Shares rose 3.8 per cent to $77.99.

The company, founded in 1818 in the Netherlands, is the world’s top industrial producer of soymeal and soyoil and has a major presence in South America. But declining profits have made it vulnerable to a takeover.

Bunge and rival grain merchants such as ADM have struggled as a global oversupply of food commodities has made it tough to turn a profit on their core business: buying, processing and selling corn, soy and wheat.

In January, a source said ADM made a takeover approach to Bunge, led by CEO Soren Schroder. The companies have declined to comment on the matter, which came to light after Bunge rebuffed a tie-up proposal from commodity trader Glencore last year.

Schroder formerly worked for Continental Grain.

Five years ago, when Continental Grain held a stake in U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods, the investment firm sent Smithfield a letter urging a breakup and also filed a presentation with U.S. securities regulators.

China’s Shuanghui International Holdings, now known as WH Group, eventually bought Smithfield for $4.7 billion.

— Tom Polansek reports on agriculture and agribusiness for Reuters from Chicago.

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Wayne Farms is a subsidiary of Continental Grain, one of the largest privately-held corporations in the U.S.

Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and BMO Capital Markets are underwriting the IPO, Wayne told the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus on Monday.

The filing included a nominal fundraising target of about US$100 million.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

— Reporting for Reuters by Avik Das in Bangalore.

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