PITTSBURG, TEXAS — The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas has approved Pilgrim's Pride Corporation’s request to begin soliciting stockholder acceptance of the amended joint plan of reorganization of the company and six of its subsidiaries that are debtors and debtors in possession in the chapter 11 cases pending in court.

As they are not considered to be an impaired class and all will be repaid upon the company's emergence from bankruptcy, the company's creditors will not be voting on the plan of reorganization.

All stockholders of record on Oct. 22, 2009 are entitled to vote to accept the reorganization plan. Copies of the reorganization plan and the amended disclosure statement will be mailed shortly. Dec. 1 is the deadline for ballots to be received by the voting agent. A court hearing to confirm the plan of reorganization is scheduled for Dec. 8.

Pilgrim's Pride expects the reorganization plan to be confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court in time for the debtors to emerge from bankruptcy before the end of December.

In September, the debtors filed a joint plan of reorganization and related disclosure statement with the court. Under terms of the joint 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 U.S.A. for $800 million in cash.

In other news, Pilgrim's Pride Corp has earned a $56.71 million profit on sales of $1.63 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 26, Reuters relays. The information is from a financial report filed on Oct. 21 and required by bankruptcy court. However, it is not comparable with quarterly earnings reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission because the data may be incomplete.