JBS CEO leaves amid failed Sara Lee bid

JBS SA, the world's biggest beef producer, named Wesley Batista its chief executive officer, replacing his brother Joesley, who will remain as chairman.

Wesley, who was head of the company's North American unit for the past four years, started at the new position today, Sao Paulo-based JBS said today in a regulatory filing.

JBS controls more than 10 percent of global beef processing after about 30 acquisitions in the past 15 years. The company failed to raise financing for a takeover offer for Sara Lee Corp., a person with knowledge of the matter said Jan. 27, declining to be identified because the matter is private.

“The management change won't diminish their appetite for Sara Lee,” Christopher Recouso, a director at Knight Capital Group Inc., the largest trader of. U.S. shares by volume, said today in an interview from Greenwich, Connecticut. “The brothers don't have a vast difference in strategic opinion and I wouldn't be surprised if JBS bids again.”

Sara Lee said Jan. 28 it decided to split itself into two separate beverage and meat businesses after failing to agree to takeover offers, without naming the potential suitors.

JBS rose 11 centavos, or 1.8 percent, at 6.41 reais at 3:27 p.m. in Sao Paulo trading. It has about lost 33 percent in the past year, while the benchmark Bovespa index is unchanged.

“They are brothers and work very much in the same direction,” Max Bueno, an analyst at Spinelli Corretora in Sao Paulo who rates the stock “hold,” said today in a telephone interview. “I don't see a change of current strategy.”

JBS's acquisition-driven expansion boosted quarterly sales 14-fold since Joesley, 38, took office in early 2007. The purchases included Greeley, Colorado-based Pilgrim's Pride Corp. in 2009, Swift & Co. in 2007 and two Smithfield Foods Inc. units in 2008. The company owns 150 plants in four continents where it processes beef, pork, poultry and lamb. The company also processes leather for the automotive industry and a dairy unit.

JBS was working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley to try to get more than $3 billion in equity financing for an offer after securing more than $9 billion in loans and bonds, according to the person.