The Batista brothers are eligible to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell

JBS has created a new parent company registered in the Netherlands and traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This means the Brazilian brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista, who along with their company were involved in a bribery scheme, will likely have only to wait until June 12 to be eligible to ring the iconic NYSE bell that opens and closes trading sessions.

JBS overcame opposition from various groups and politicians last month to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The opposition continued to weigh in after the successful shareholder vote. 

Its opponents accuse JBS of everything from “flagrant disregard for communities, animals, and ecosystems” to “purchasing cattle from farms that have encroached on Indigenous lands and illegally deforested sensitive areas in Brazil.”

Ringing the famous bell is just one of the privileges that JBS minority shareholders granted the Batista brothers in approving the company’s dual listing of its stock. JBS’s projected timeline shows that its shares will begin trading on the NYSE  and the São Paulo Stock Exchange (B3) starting very shortly

That company’s timeline projects the completion of JBS N.V.’s foreign issuer registration with CVM (Brazilian Securities Commission) by May 30.  The last day of trading JBS S.A. shares on Brazil’s Brazilian Depositary Receipts (BDR)  B3 exchange is June 6.   JBS N.V. shares will first trade on the BDR B3 exchange on June 9 and then on the NYSE on June 12.

JBS N.V. emerges from the reorganization as the world’s largest meat company with one of the most significant food safety responsibilities. The Bastista brothers could end up with as much as 85 percent of the JBS N.V. stock. Established as a slaughter business in the Brazilian countryside 72 years ago, JBS  is named after its founder and brother’s father, José Batista Sobrinho.

From Sao Paulo, Brazil, JBS  became one of the largest food companies in the world, with a diversified platform of proteins and geographic presence. With over 250 production facilities, JBS operates in 17 countries and serves over 300,000 customers in 180 countries.  The company currently employs 280,000 people worldwide.  It was a privately held company for more than half a century.  After it first went public, JBS in 2007 purchased the USA’s Swift & Company in a $1.5-billion, all-cash deal.  Swift & Co.’s assets operate as JBS USA, lsrgest of the parent company’s many subsidiaries. 

“With the dual listing, we seek a corporate structure that better reflects our global presence and diversified international operations, while facilitating the implementation of our growth and value-creation strategy. This step is expected to unlock value for JBS further, providing broader access to investors and more competitive interest rates, expanding our ability to finance growth at a lower cost, and accelerating our diversification strategy,” explained JBS Global CFO Guilherme Cavalcanti.

The Bastistas brothers’ J&F Investments and the development bank BNDESPar, JBS’s two largest shareholders by volume, abstained from voting, leaving the dual listing decision to the minority shareholders.

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