Pilgrim's Pride today announced that we will be filing our proposed plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas. This is an important milestone in our restructuring and I wanted to share key highlights of the proposed plan and disclosure statement with you. Attached is a copy of the press release we issued this morning announcing the plan of reorganization.
The most significant news is that Pilgrim's Pride and JBS have agreed to a transaction representing an enterprise value of approximately $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the plan of reorganization, Pilgrim's Pride has entered into an agreement to sell 64% of the new common stock of the reorganized Pilgrim's Pride to JBS S.A., through its JBS USA Holdings, Inc. subsidiary for $800 million in cash. Proceeds from the sale of stock to JBS will be used to pay back our creditors as part of the company's reorganization plan. All existing Pilgrim's Pride common stock will be cancelled and existing stockholders will receive 36% of new common stock of the reorganized Pilgrim's Pride. This transaction has the full support of our board of directors and the Pilgrim family.
For those of you who are not familiar with JBS, which is based on Sao Paulo, Brazil, they are one of the largest beef and pork producers in the world. Their annual sales are over $20 billion, and they operate plants all over the world, including 16 facilities in the United States that are part of JBS U.S.A., their subsidiary based in Greeley, Colo.
After our plan of reorganization is approved by the Bankruptcy Court later this year, JBS will become the majority owner of Pilgrim's Pride. What does this mean for you? We expect there to be no significant impact to our contract growers or the majority of our employees. Our growers will continue to supply our plants, our plants will continue to operate normally, and we'll continue to serve our customers. For most of our employees and facilities, it will mean no significant changes. We anticipate little impact on our plants and operations. Most of senior management will remain in place. We expect to operate as a separate business unit from beef and pork under the JBS umbrella.
If you have questions over the next several months as we move toward the final steps of our reorganization, contact the live operations team at your local complex for assistance.
Over the past 10 months, we have fundamentally restructured Pilgrim's Pride as a market-driven company clearly focused on delivering the best service, selection and value to our customers as efficiently as possible. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of our growers and employees, Pilgrim's Pride is positioned to emerge from bankruptcy as a stronger, more efficient company.
We are truly excited about the strategic growth opportunities available with JBS as our majority shareholder. We are confident that our plan of reorganization will earn the support of all stakeholders and provide the foundation for sustained, profitable growth in the years ahead.
Sincerely,
Don Jackson
President and Chief Executive Officer