Brazil's Marfrig focuses on beef after Keystone sale -CFO

By Tatiana Bautzer

SAO PAULO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The sale of Keystone Foods LLCto Tyson Foods Inc. for $2.4 billion concludes a majorstrategic change for Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig Global FoodsSA, which will focus exclusively on beef, its chieffinancial officer said on Sunday.

The Keystone deal, expected to be announced on Monday, willexclude a beef patty plant in Ohio with annual revenue of $300million, CFO Eduardo Miron said in a phone interview withReuters.

Tyson is acquiring all remaining operations of Keystone,which is a key chicken products supplier to McDonald's Corp.

The Ohio plant, with annual capacity of 91,000 tons of beefpatties, will add to the portfolio of National Beef PackingCompany LLC, acquired by Marfrig earlier this year.

Proceeds from the Keystone sale will be used to reduce debtsignificantly by year end, Miron said. Marfrig expects the ratiobetween net debt and earnings before interest, tax, depreciationand amortization, a common gauge of operational profitabilityknown as EBITDA, to fall from 4.2 to 2.5 in December.

Miron defended the deal value after it was criticized byanalysts on Friday and Marfrig shares fell.

Miron said the company more than doubled Keystone's valuefrom the $1.2 billion paid in 2010 when Marfrig acquired it. Ontop of the Tyson deal, Marfrig had already sold Keystone'sdistribution network for $400 million.

After the Keystone sale and National Beef acquisition,Marfrig does not plan more mergers or acquisitions to increaseits portfolio, Miron said. The company may grow organically, butis not interested in acquiring beef assets that Brazilian rivalBRF SA will sell in Argentina, he added.(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Dan Grebler)