Report: Hopu-led consortium invests $235m in China Yurun

The Chinese firm, together with Temasek and the sovereign wealth fund's newly-formed investment arm Seatown Holdings, has reportedly bought a 4.3% stake in the Chinese meatpacker.

Temasek Holdings portolio firm Hopu Investment Management has led a consortium to buy a stake in meatpacker China Yurun Food Group, reported Bloomberg.

The consortium, comprising of Hopu, sovereign wealth fund Temasek and newly formed Temasek-owned investment company Seatown Holdings, purchased a 4.3 percent stake in the Hong Kong-listed company for $165 million, $50 million and $20 million respectively, the report noted.

Yurun has issued a total of 166 million shares priced at HK$23.88 (€2.34; $3.10) per share. The price represented a 6.39 percent discount to the average closing price of HK$25.51 per share quoted on the Hong Kong stock exchange from 15 April to 21 April,  China Yurun said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, the company did not disclose who the buyers of the shares were.

Nanjing-headquartered China Yurun is a packer and processor of meat products. As of December 2009, the company's net asset value was in excess of $1 billion.

Hopu could not be reached by press time. Temasek and Yurun declined to comment.

April has been a busy month for Fang Fenglei’s private equity firm. It is simultaneously in talks with Indonesian state-owned coal mining company Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam to invest in a $1.3 billion rail project in Indonesia. Earlier in the month, Hopu reportedly led another deal for a $110 million investment in Chinese company Winsway Coking Coal.

In July last year the firm made another food-related investment when it made a US$800 million investment in dairy producer China Mengniu Dairy alongside Chinese state-owned enterprise COFCO.

Temasek is one of the anchor investors in Hopu's fund. In 2008, the two firms pumped $300 million in iron ore miner Lung Ming (now Iron Mining International) and in May 2009, the firms reportedly co-invested $7.3 billion to buy a six percent stake in China Construction Bank from Bank of America.

Seatown is Temasek owned global investment company set up in February this year.