A ham in hand is worth more than two sows on the pen. Starboard Value, the activist fund that once thought that it could whip up a higher bid than Shuanghui’s $34/share offer for pork producer Smithfield Foods, has conceded that it will not be able to. So the Shuanghui deal will be done on Tuesday after a shareholder vote (Starboard will vote its 6 per cent stake in favour too). In a year marked by dissident investors upending deals, the Smithfield situation shows that management is not always overmatched by hedge fund wizards.
手中一條火腿勝過欄里兩頭活豬。美國維權對沖基金Starboard Value曾想策動其他買家以高于雙匯(Shuanghui)每股34美元的競價，收購豬肉加工商史密斯菲爾德食品(Smithfield Foods)，但現在承認辦不到。所以雙匯這筆收購交易將在周二的股東投票后落錘（持有6%股權的Starboard將投贊成票）（譯者注：史密斯菲爾德食品公司的股東已在周二投票通過了這一收購）。在異見股東屢屢推翻并購交易的今年，史密斯菲爾德的情況表明，管理層并不總被對沖基金的怪才打敗。