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WH Group

#1673

Rank

$9.91B

Marketcap

HK Hong Kong

Country

WH Group
Leadership team

Mr. Long Wan (Exec. Chairman)

Mr. Lijun Guo (CEO & Exec. Director)

Mr. Hongwei Wan (Exec. Deputy Chairman)

Products/ Services
Agriculture, Automotive, Food and Beverage, Food Processing
Number of Employees
Above 50,000
Headquarters
Kowloon City, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Established
1958
Net Income
1B - 20B
Revenue
Above - 1B
Traded as
0288.HK
Overview
Location
Summary
WH Group Limited, an investment holding company, engages in the production, wholesale, and retail sale of meat products in China, the United States, Mexico, and Europe. The company operates through Packaged Meats, Pork, and Others segments. It is also involved in the slaughtering, wholesale, and retail sale of fresh and frozen pork; and hog farming activities. In addition, the company engages in the manufacture and sale of packaging materials; provision of logistics services; operation of a chain of retail food stores; production of flavoring ingredients and natural casings; and sale of biological pharmaceutical materials. Further, it is involved in the livestock breeding and slaughtering; and finance and property development activities. The company was formerly known as Shuanghui International Holdings Limited and changed its name to WH Group Limited in January 2014. The company was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
History

Shuanghui was founded by the Luohe municipal government in 1958 with a single processing plant. Wan Long joined the plant in 1968, and became the plant's general manager by 1984. Under Wan, the company has expanded aggressively. In his first year, he turned around a struggling company, bringing it from a net loss to a net profit of 5 million yuan .In 1992, sausage sales fueled the expansion of the company which in turn resulted in investors from six countries founding Shuanghui International.The company introduced its first branded meat product to the market in February 1992. Later that year, Shuanghui formed a joint venture with 16 institutional investors from six countries. In 1994, the venture was consolidated as Shuanghui Group. Shuanghui subsidiary Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Company Limited was established and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1998. In 2000, Shuanghui started a post-secondary educational-work research division.By 2006, Shuanghui was the largest food processor in China by corporate valuation, and 131st largest company overall. The company was valued at $1.3 billion, and controlled more than 50% of China's high-temperature processed meat market at that time. That year, Luohe government sold its share of Shuanghui to a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and private equity firm CDH Investments. Goldman Sachs later sold most of its share, reportedly for a large profit, but owned 5.2% of the company as of May 2013. Wan Long was appointed chairman of the company on October 16, 2007.In 2011, the firm set up a sales operation in Japan.

Acquisition of Smithfield Foods

In May 2013, Shuanghui announced its intention to buy Smithfield Foods for $34 per share, or about US$4.72 billion total. Including assumed debt, the total value of the deal was about $7.1 billion. The agreed purchase price represented a 31% premium over Smithfield's market price at the time when the deal was announced. The two sides negotiated for four years prior to their agreement.Before it was finalized, the deal had to be approved by Smithfield shareholders and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. It was ultimately approved by Smithfield shareholders on September 24, 2013, and the merger was to be completed two days later.Smithfield CEO Larry Pope stated the deal would " the same old Smithfield, only with more opportunities and new markets and new frontiers." No Chinese pork would be imported to the United States, he stated, but rather Shuanghui desired to export American pork. There is a growing demand for foreign food products in China due to recent food scandals. Smithfield's existing management team would remain intact and no major changes to its workforce would occur. Analyst Derek Scissors said companies such as Shuanghui are "not looking to cause any trouble in the American market ...They want to gain from what the U.S. is able to do." China has been a net importer of pork since 2008.The deal was the largest ever takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese company, roughly doubling the number of US jobs tied to direct investment by China. Smithfield ceased to be publicly traded at the deal's completion.In July 2013, Shuanghui announced its plan to list Smithfield on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after completing the takeover. The IPO was expected to see the firm valued at around $4 billion. However, the IPO plan was ultimately scrapped in 2014.In January 2014, Shanghui International changed its name to WH Group, though one of its subsidiaries, Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Company, retained the Shanghui brand. The new name is derived from the initials of "Wanzhou Holdings," where the Chinese characters "wan" and "zhou" connote eternity and continents, respectively.In June 2015, Smithfield disposed of their 37% interest in Spanish meat processor Campofrío Food Group, to the Mexican Alfa Group for $354 million. The reason for the transaction given by CEO Larry Pope, was to improve Smithfield's balance sheet and allow cash reserves for strategic acquisitions aligning with long-term goals.In 2016, WH Group's profits increased by more than 17 percent. This increase in profitability was primarily driven by the growth of Smithfield Foods.In 2016, Smithfield Foods acquired California-based Clougherty Packing from Hormel Foods for $145 million. Numerous brands were included in the acquisition such as Farmer John and Saag's Specialty Meats. Clougherty had a large selection of pork products and a large sales network in the southwestern United States. Smithfield also acquired hog farms in Arizona, California, and Wyoming as part of the deal.In 2017, Smithfield Foods acquired the remaining 66.5% of the equity in Pini Polonia. After the acquisition, it became wholly owned by Smithfield Foods. Pini Polonia has a slaughterhouse in Poland. The firm also has facilities in Italy and Hungary. The deal included the acquisition of Pini Polska, Hamburger Pini, and Royal Chicken. The price paid was not disclosed.In late March 2020, WH Group announced that the spread of COVID-19 had a very limited impact on its operations and sales in the US and China. The company said 95% of its operations were back to normal.

Mission
Our mission is to create quality food products, enrich our customers’ lives, and bring prosperity to our shareholders, employees, and communities through sustainable growth.
Vision
Our vision is to become the world’s premier food company, the trusted leader in quality, innovation, and customer service.
Key Team

Mr. Charles Shane Smith (Exec. Director)

Mr. Xiangjie Ma (Exec. Director & Pres of Shuanghui Devel.)

Ms. Kam Yin Yan (VP & CFO)

Mr. Dengfeng Wang (VP of Operations Management)

Mr. Ho Chau (Chief Legal Officer & Company Sec.)

Mr. Songtao Liu (Exec. VP & CFO of Shuanghui Devel.)

Mr. Glenn T. Nunziata (Exec. VP & CFO of Smithfield Foods)

Recognition and Awards
WH Group and our subsidiaries have been awarded with numerous awards, including the World Bank’s World Hunger Prize, the China Enterprise Commercial Brand Value Award, China’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands, as well as various industry awards for product innovation and quality.
References
WH Group
Leadership team

Mr. Long Wan (Exec. Chairman)

Mr. Lijun Guo (CEO & Exec. Director)

Mr. Hongwei Wan (Exec. Deputy Chairman)

Products/ Services
Agriculture, Automotive, Food and Beverage, Food Processing
Number of Employees
Above 50,000
Headquarters
Kowloon City, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Established
1958
Net Income
1B - 20B
Revenue
Above - 1B
Traded as
0288.HK