0103103 Smithfield Planning “No Action” to Renew IBP Bid

Chicago - Pork processor Smithfield Foods Inc. said it is planning no immediate action to renew a bid for IBP Inc., the beef processor spurned when poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. withdrew its buyout bid.

“Right now we are not doing anything. We haven't requested anybody to look at anything,” Richard Poulson, vice-president and senior adviser to Smithfield's chairman, said. “We're just going to read the news and follow this.”

Poulson said Smithfield had expected Tyson to make a less radical move by lowering its bid for IBP. Smithfield had been beaten in a bidding war for IBP by Tyson's $3.2 billion cash and stock offer.

“We were taken by surprise,” he said. “We did not think this would happen.”

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