National Beef plans $300 million IPO on NYSE

National Beef, based in Kansas City, Missouri, said in a prospectus filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it accounted for about 14 percent of the federally inspected steer and heifer slaughter in the United States in the year ended Aug. 29, 2009.

National Beef processes, packages and delivers fresh and frozen beef and beef by-products. It said in a statement that the shares in the IPO were being sold by the company.

National Beef is the second beef processor in the IPO pipeline. Brazil's JBS, the world's largest meat producer by sales, is spinning off its U.S. unit in a $2 billion IPO expected in January, 2010.

In the nine months ended May 30, 2009, National Beef had sales of $4.05 billion, down 4.5 percent from the year earlier period, while net income rose 84.6 percent to $73.3 million.

National Beef plans to use the proceeds to pay down its debt, according to the filing.

The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NBP."

The National Beef IPO is being managed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. The filing did not disclose the terms of the IPO or its expected timing.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing Bernard Orr)